Herald News (Fall River, MA) City Council: Mold festering in new schools

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(http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1710) 08/16/2006 Council:

Mold festering in new schools By:Gregg M. Miliote , Herald News Staff

Reporter

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.

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710) 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@....

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) ©The Herald News 2006