Mold festering in Highland Town Hall

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Mold festering in Highland Town Hall

By ELIOT KLEINBERG

The Palm Beach Post, FL*

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, February 29, 2008

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/south/epaper/2008/02/29/022

9hbmold.html?cxtype=rss & cxsvc=7 & cxcat=75

HIGHLAND BEACH — Town Hall is 35 years old and not expected to hold

up well if a hurricane comes ashore on this barrier island town

north of Boca Raton.

And now officials worry the building is riddled with mold so bad

employees have blamed ailments on it.

Managers are wondering aloud if the structure is worth saving.

A mold inspector checked the entire town hall complex in mid-

February and is expected to report by mid-March, Town Manager Dale

Sugerman said this week.

The original Town Hall was built in 1973 and the combined commission

chambers/library in 1982.

The town spent $1.3 million from 1996 to 1998 to fill in a breezeway

between those two structures.

A new building in the middle housed a 1,400-square-foot police

headquarters; the back of the new building housed the 572-square-

foot post office.

The adjacent police/fire complex was converted to just a fire

station.

Over three decades, internal water pipes in the original 1973

building have broken, and at least twice, water leaked onto the

floor, Sugerman said. Also, moisture rolls in from the ocean, just

across State Road A1A.

" This building is faced with a variety of problems associated with

wetness, " Sugerman said.

He said he fears heating and cooling ducts are also full of mold,

which has been seen on vent grills.

" A number of employees do get sick working in this building; colds

are common, " the manager said. " A number of us believe there's

something wrong with the building. "

The town had known of the problem but it came to a head when the

town recently made plans to redo its computer network wiring and

starting thinking about drilling through drywall, Sugerman said.

Officials also believe the 1973 structure, built to hurricane codes

far less stringent than current ones, would suffer profound damage

in a direct strike.

" At some point, there may be an economic decision, " Sugerman

said. " Does it make sense to put money into continually patching and

scraping and painting a building that's 35 years and might have mold

problems? "