Black mold puts Abernathy City Hall off limits

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Thursday, May 2, 2002

Last modified at 12:33 a.m. on Thursday, May 2, 2002

© 2002 - The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Black mole problem in Abernathy City Hall: City Manager

prepares to leave City Hall after posting signs reading: " CLOSED Moved to

413 S. Ave D " and " City Hall is Open at 413 S. Ave D " .

A-J photo/Jim Watkins

Black mold puts Abernathy City Hall off limits

BY CHARLES L. EHRENFELD

AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

ABERNATHY - It was moving day Wednesday for employees at Abernathy's City

Hall and town library.

But one of the building's more recent inhabitants - stachybotrys chartarum -

was remaining behind, at least temporarily, after having forced out city

employees.

Stachybotrys chartarum, also known as black mold, was discovered in the

building.

" We discovered we possibly had mold in February, " said , city

manager. " We had been talking about remodeling the building, putting on a

new roof because we had a leak, and remodeling some on the inside.

" But we were never sure of the extent of the mold. We had to make

arrangements for an inspection first. Then we had to get air samples taken,

which took three weeks to get the results back. "

said the tests indicated the presence of several types of mold,

including black mold, which can be a health hazard in high concentrations.

According to C. Straus, a professor in the Department of Microbiology

and Immunology at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, certain molds,

including stachy botrys, produce mycotoxins, which act like poisons in the

human body. Stachy botrys produces tricho the cene mycotoxins, a biological

warfare agent.

Abernathy's 3,500-square-foot Community Center, which is located inside the

same building that houses City Hall staff and the library at 811 Ave. D, was

found to be " heavily contaminated " with stachybotrys spores, said.

The library and City Hall offices had only " minimal " contamination, he

added.

said some of the six City Hall employees had " some watery eyes and a

few minor symptoms like that, " but none had symptoms that required

consultation with a physician.

Cleanup efforts to remove the mold have been put on hold until Abernathy's

City Council decides whether to put a new roof on the current building or

build a new one. That discussion is expected to be on the agenda for the

City Council's next meeting on May 13, said.

In the interim, the city has leased a building at 413 S. Ave. D. That

building previously housed the offices of the National Grain Sorg hum Pro

ducers, which moved its offices to Lubbock.

City Hall personnel and the library have been temporarily relocated there.

The city will lease the building on a month-to-month basis for $750 per

month until mold in the City Hall building is eliminated or a new building

is erected, said.

" It's unfortunate that it happened, but it has to be taken care of, " he

said. " We have six different companies putting together proposals for the

remediation of the mold, but we have no way of knowing what the replacement

costs will be until we know what has to be taken out.

" It's going to be expensive, that's all I can say. "

In May 2001, eight Lubbock County employees had to be relocated after mold

was discovered in their offices at the Lubbock County Sheriff's Of fice.

Later that month, 31 em ployees from the Lubbock County field office of the

Child Support Enforcement Division of the Texas State Attorney General's

Office were temporarily relocated after mold found growing under

water-damaged carpet was determined to be black mold.

cehrenfeld@... 766-8796