Council: Mold festering in new schools

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Fall River Herald News - Fall River,MA

http://www.heraldnews.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=17058815 & BRD=1710 & PAG=461 & dept_id=99784 & rfi=6

FALL RIVER - The City Council Tuesday night took aim at the School

Department and Mayor M. Lambert Jr.'s administration when it

unanimously passed two resolutions detailing a number of problems at

some city schools.

In his two resolutions, Councilor Ray Hague revealed there is mold

and mildew in at least three city schools and provided information

that those same schools still do not have permanent occupancy

permits.

The three schools discussed during the meeting were the Spencer

Borden School, the S. Green School and the Silvia School.

The mold- and mildew-related resolution calls for the city's health

department and the state Department of Environmental Protection to

commence air quality testing on the schools before the school year

begins in a few weeks.

The resolution also requests that the city " embark on an air quality

control program for all municipal and public buildings. "

Both Hague and Councilor Leo O. Pelletier reported they visited the

Spencer Borden School Tuesday and found walls covered in mold, a

leaking roof and broken air conditioning units that are causing the

mold problem to grow.

" This is a serious public health and safety issue, " Hague said. " We

have city employees (at the school) who bought spray bleach with

their own money to try to clean up the problems.

" But it's the mold and mildew we can't see that may be in the ducts

and vents that will harm us. "

Hague also accused the administration of already attempting to cover

up the problems.

" They heard that we were down there, so they had eight guys on the

roof (Tuesday), " Hague said. " They're going to give it the old

bubblegum quick fix. "

Pelletier said Spencer Borden custodians showed him mold, missing

tiles and the leaking roof Tuesday.

Pelletier claimed the School Department and city administration are

both well aware of the problems, but are doing little to alleviate

them.

" There's a problem and everybody knew about it, but nobody's done

nothing, " Pelletier said. " We're building new schools and they've

already got big problems. You can't tell me none of the School

Committee members knew about this.

" Doesn't anything work right here in Fall River? "

Councilors Kozak and Pereira echoed many of Hague and

Pelletier's comments.

Kozak lamented that the council is spending too much time addressing

School Committee problems, and went as far as to say the " School

Department is in chaos. "

Kozak suggested potentially holding money back until the council

gets regular progress reports from the School Department when it

begins to construct new schools in the future.

Pereira called the mold and mildew problems and the continuous

leaking roof issue " absolutely ludicrous. "

Hague's second resolution calls for an unprecedented meeting between

the council, the Department of Public Works, the special projects

manager, the director of code enforcement, the School Department and

representatives from the contracting and architectural firms

involved in the recent construction of school building. Hague said

the meeting will be held to " get to the bottom " of why new

elementary schools like Spencer Borden still do not have permanent

occupancy permits.

Hague said he attempted to speak with some department heads

regarding the occupancy permit issue, but was told he could not meet

with them without a member of the Lambert administration present.

" I just don't understand this, " Hague said. " These are health and

safety issues involving our children. We all hope there's not a big

problem here, but these are problems that need to be looked at.

" We can get to how things were handled incorrectly when we have this

meeting. "

For air quality testing to begin or for the proposed meeting to

occur, the resolutions will have to be signed by Lambert or allowed

to lapse after 10 days. Lambert, though, does have the power to veto

any resolution as long as he does so within 10 days, City Clerk

Carol Valcourt said.

Because the council meeting did not conclude until after 9 p.m.,

Lambert and other School Department officials could not be reached

for comment.

E-mail Gregg M. Miliote at gmiliote@....