Mold outraces pace of bureaucracy Space bought for nurse service uninhabitable

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Mold outraces pace of bureaucracy Space bought for nurse service

uninhabitable

Sunday, January 29, 2006

BY WILL SISS

http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=2200

NAUGATUCK -- Shining a high-powered flashlight through the back door

of a building at 600 Rubber Ave. last week, Mayoral Aide

Gunnoud held her breath.

The beam caught a back interior drywall covered in what looked like

black shoe prints. The frayed industrial carpet seemed to be flecked

with green popcorn.

The door's closing after about 20 seconds sent a quick wave of

noxious odor.

" I've been warned not to go in, " Gunnoud said. " The mold in there is

just disgusting. "

Nearly three years after the borough used federal money to buy the

Rubber Avenue building for its Visiting Nurses Association, the

$215,000 investment is mold-infested and uninhabitable. Borough

officials and the grant's distributors, the state Department of

Economic and Community Development, blame bureaucracy for the delay.

The VNA was supposed to move into the building after a renovation.

But the renovations never took place. Now the borough plans to

demolish it and rebuild on the site.

So far, the borough has spent more than half of a $500,000 grant on

the purchase of the building, grant writer fees and architectural

plans relating to the renovation of the building. By the end of the

year, the borough will have paid out about $100,000 in rent at the

VNA's current home at 16-18 Park Place since the project began.

Borough employees have not fixed the Rubber Avenue building, on a

third of an acre, since it was purchased. A leak in the flat roof,

cold winters and hot summers have created the major mold problem.

Gunnoud, who started as San Angelo's assistant in January 2005, said

the borough did not want to spend local taxpayer dollars on any

repairs. She said the borough was always expecting the grant money

would soon be available.

Last year, a committee headed by Burgess Neth decided it

would be cheaper to tear down the building than fix the roof and

clean the mold. The borough also borrowed $150,000 as part of a five-

year capital project, approved by voters last May, and Gunnoud -- a

member of Neth's committee -- said estimates for mold remediation

and rebuilding are around $258,000.

" I took the bull by the horns because it was dead in the water, "

said Neth, a Republican, regarding the committee. " When (Mayor

S. ) San Angelo came in, things changed. (The building at 600

Rubber Ave.) probably became a dead issue. "

Residents will have a chance to share their views about the change

in the borough's intention for the grant, which would pay for a

demolition crew, architect and contractors, at a public hearing at 6

p.m. on Monday at the Town Hall.

The building's journey from a former gas station and Saint 's

Hospital walk-in clinic to leaky, dangerous health hazard began in

2002, when then Mayor Joan Taf, a Democrat with 10 years of burgess

experience, helped choose the site, which had not been occupied

since 2000.

" They do so much for the town, and I thought they deserved a better

place, because they ... had no storage or parking, " Taf said

Wednesday of the VNA, which provides home care to disabled borough

residents with low to moderate income. " I saw the Saint 's

Wellness Center for sale, and thought, that would be nice, right on

the main road. "

Burgesses voted unanimously to apply for a $500,000 Small Cities

Grant, and in November 2002, the DEDC awarded it to buy and redesign

the 3,100-square foot building for the VNA. Since 1987, the VNA has

been headquartered in a cramped, converted house, for which the

borough earmarked $31,500 in rent in its 2005-06 budget.

Taf said the Rubber Avenue building, built in 1950, had " some mold

on a back wall " when the borough bought it.

With closing costs, the site acquisition ate up $217,498 of the

grant, according to borough documents.

After going out to bid, the borough paid Hamden architectural firm

Silver Petrocelli $20,985 to create a schematic design and perform

environmental reviews. The borough also paid Larry Wagner, the

borough's grant writer, a fee of $22,717 for " oversight

coordination. " By July 2003, Taf was voted out of office and San

Angelo, a Republican, was elected.

" I thought it was too small and not designed well, " San Angelo said

Friday. " I'm not sure the town should have bought the building. "

DEDC personnel also had changed. Pille, a community

development agent, had taken over the case and started questioning

the VNA's eligibility.

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After months of delay, spent discussing how the VNA would verify its

clients' income and whether it fit the government's definition of

serving a " limited clientele " of disabled people, the borough was

able to set the hearing date.

Pille said the borough will get the money when it provides minutes

of Monday's hearing and an environmental review of the area.

Gunnoud said the VNA committee is convinced tearing down the

building is cheaper than remediating the mold, fixing the roof and

stripping the building to its shell.

She said Naugatuck-based G & L Excavation Inc. has offered to demolish

the building for $4,900, and Milford-based A-1 Disposal would remove

the debris for a fee of $1,800.

Taf said the borough should have done more to protect the building

at 600 Rubber Ave instead of let it get so run down it has to be

torn down.

" It doesn't make sense that no one has done anything with the

building, " Taf said. " If you neglect your house, things go wrong. "

Taf said she planned to voice her support for keeping the current

building.

" With technology we have, I don't understand it, " Taf said. " I

thought it was a nice building. "

VNA Director Anne did not want to comment Friday on the

history of the VNA move, but said she and her co-workers look

forward to it.

" It's been such a long process, " said. " I'm hoping it can be

demolished. I don't think it will be bigger that what we have, but

it will be better designed. Something bright, clean and new. "