By Katie Northcott, News Director
At a Coffee County Capital Outlay Committee meeting on Thursday, May 7, Coffee County Maintenance Supervisor Rick Soucy said that ServPro would begin mold remediation at the Manchester Public Library on Monday, May 11.
Soucy anticipated that the remediation would take three to four days and would be followed by a few minor repairs. Committee Chairman Terry Hershman said the county hoped to reopen the library as soon as possible.
The library has been closed for repairs and mold concerns since March 5. At the March 5 meeting of the Coffee County Capital Outlay Committee meeting, Library Director Polly Vaughn said the library board decided to spend $2,700 of funds allocated to the library to investigate whether the mold could be the cause of employee health problems.
Vaughn said that library employees had started to notice migraines, and one employee even complained of respiratory distress. She said the most affected employee is planning to file for workman’s compensation. Vaughn presented the mold specialists’ findings to the committee members.
Soucy said at the May 7 meeting that the mold concerns had been overblown. Soucy read the following excerpt from the report about the mold:
“The lab shows relatively low levels of spores in the indoor air samples, less than the exterior comparison sample, and well below levels commonly found indoors. … Although there was a relatively low spore count in the interior air samples, a zero-tolerance mold was identified in the main lobby sample.”
Soucy said that the library is “definitely not infested with mold.” He said a single zero-tolerance mold spore had caused the library’s spore count to be elevated.
“Yes, it’s a problem, and we’ve identified it, and we’re going to get it fixed, but I just want everybody to know that this library is not completely overrun with mold,” Soucy said.
At the March 5 meeting, the committee voted to close the library due to liability concerns. Soucy said at the meeting that he wished that the Library Board had sought approval from the committee before conducting an initial investigation into the mold. He said the county might have been able to find a way to address the mold problem without closing the library.
In early April, the county hired a company to repair leaks in the library’s roof that contributed to the mold problem. At the time, Hershman said that the mold remediation as well as the repairs being made to the roof and inside of the library are just a “Band-Aid” on the problem. He said the library will eventually need a new roof as the current roof is suited to a residential building, not a commercial building.
