Cleaner: School has mold because those at top ignored report

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Cleaner: School has mold because those at top ignored report

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By SETH HARKNESS, Staff Writer

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061031mold.html

BIDDEFORD - The owner of a company that tried to clean up mold at

Biddeford Primary School last summer says the outbreak never would

have occurred if school officials had followed his recommendations.

Mark , owner of Biosafe in Westbrook, has been a consultant

to the Biddeford School Department for 10 years. In May, he wrote a

report for Biddeford Primary School in which he advised school

officials to use special cleaning practices to prevent the growth of

mold in the carpets. He also recommended removing certain sections

of carpeting as soon as feasible.

In July, a cleaning company hired by the school department shampooed

carpets at Biddeford Primary, then closed the building over a hot

weekend, which led to the initial outbreak of mold.

said the mold would not have appeared if school officials

had followed his advice to use high-temperature steam cleaners,

which kill mold, and drying methods to quickly remove all water from

the carpets. " They basically did what we told them not to do, " he

said on Monday.

Superintendent Jane Poli declined to comment. She referred

questions to the schools' attorney, Jacques of the firm ,

Elliot, and Garmey in Saco. Jacques did not return calls on

Monday.

The mold that appeared in several classrooms at Biddeford Primary

this summer became a persistent and expensive problem for the school

department and . School officials hired Biosafe to clean up

the school in August but cut ties when a test showed continued high

levels of mold in late August, a week before the start of school.

Biddeford Primary students began classes a week behind schedule in

temporary spaces at other schools, where they remain. Another

Westbrook company hired by the school department, Northeast Test

Consultants, has been working to remove the mold for nearly two

months. The school is expected to reopen next week.

School officials have said they are looking into legal action to

recover the cost of the mold outbreak, which Poli estimated at

$200,000 last week, from any companies that could be held

responsible. said the school department owes him $48,000 for

his work and has made no effort to pay.

contends the department ignored his recommendations even

after the mold appeared. When the superintendent contacted him about

the mold in July, said, he came up with a plan to thoroughly

clean the building and rid it of unhealthy levels of mold. He said

the cleanup failed because school officials asked him to alter the

plan to save money.

In the initial plan, said, he proposed " full containment "

methods, which require cleaning walls and then covering them with

plastic sheeting for protection while the rest of the room is under

abatement. He said he also advised removing everything from the

rooms that were being cleaned.

said school officials opted instead to clean around the

classroom items and to put plastic on windows but not entire walls.

He said he was still willing to accept the job because he thought it

could be done, though it might not be as effective as what he

proposed.

said he approached the job in two phases. For the first half

of the job, he followed the school officials' methods. The second

half included areas where mold growth was more pronounced. For those

places, he said, he insisted on sticking to his initial

recommendations.

When test results came back in late August, they showed that mold

levels in some areas had risen since July. said he felt

vindicated because five of six failed rooms were from the first

phase. The sixth contaminated area, the library, was not included in

either phase.

said it is not unusual for tests to show that further

cleaning is necessary. He said that he could have finished the job

for $20,000, and that the school department is now doing a cleaning

that is out of proportion with the problem.

Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:

sharkness@...