Claremore Daily Progress

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November 3, 2009

Courthouse mold being addressed

By Krystal J. Carman

November 3, 2009 — A citation from the Oklahoma Department of Labor concerning mold issues in the Rogers County Courthouse has the county commission working hard to clean up.

District 2 Commissioner Mike Helm read and inspection report from the department from an Oct. 19 inspection.

“We’ve been cited for mold infestation,” Helm said Monday. “It says ‘Mold is visible in every public office and the hallways and windows. The building is a health danger to all who enter.’”

The problem with an ongoing mold contamination was discovered earlier this year and is due to the multiple

times the courthouse has flooded over the past year. Helm said there has been a continuing effort to get rid of the mold.

“We have Arthur (Matthews) working on replacing windows and we have been addressing this issue,” he said.

Worldwide Restoration was put in charge of cleaning up flood waters in the spring in the basement of the courthouse. That heavy rain flooded the Rogers County Emergency Management and OSU Extension offices as well as other offices and a maintenance room. Clean up after that flooding rain was extensive, and ultimately led to mold problems.

Upstairs on the first and second floors, mold continues to grow inside the walls, Helm said.

“Inside the treasurer’s office, Judge (Dwayne) Steidley’s office, the court clerk and the assessor’s offices the mold is growing behind the walls,” he said.

Helm stated he would like to speak with District Attorney Gene Haynes to find out if the situation can be declared an emergency because of the citation so clean up work could begin soon. Otherwise, the commission will have to go out for bids on the project.

Worldwide Restoration has given a price of $14,186.50 just to perform the remediation in all four offices, and that does not include replacing the walls once the clean up is finished.

Helm will have a meeting with each of the four offices to explain the remediation procedure which will include moving all desks and filing cabinets in each office, putting up a containment barrier, removing dry wall and insulation and spraying a microbial agent on the studs.

In the court clerk’s office, Helm said the mold contamination did not spread into the file room where a very large portion of court records are contained.

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