Mold treatment closes Monroe County government buildings

People who had business on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Monroe County justice system—court hearings or probation appointments—are supposed to contact the relevant office on Thursday morning to reschedule.

That’s because at 12:17 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 19) Monroe County’s emergency alert system sent a text alert to subscribers saying the Monroe County Justice Building, Fiscus, Curry, and Johnson Hardware building would be closed for the rest of the day, and through the day on Thursday.

The reason given for the closure of the county government buildings, which are all located in the same vicinity on 7th Street west of College Avenue, was to allow for clean up of mold that was previously known to be in the buildings.

A followup alert stated: “The reason for the closure is disruption to Offices and Court space as maintenance [staff] remediates previously identified mold activity.”

Given the apparent planned nature of the cleanup activity, it was not obvious why employees were notified in the middle of the day that they should leave and not return until normal operations resume on Thursday.

But Angie Purdie, who is the administrator for the county commissioners, told The B Square there is no immediate threat to public health and safety. The remediation had been planned to be done around employees, but that approach proved unworkable without disrupting the work of the justice building employees, Purdie said. And that’s why employees were sent home, Purdie said.

The work was prompted when testing of the building on the second and third floors of the justice building last Friday (Aug. 15) revealed a particularly toxic strain of mold in one of the prosecutor’s offices. The employee in that office, and the employees in some adjoining offices, were sent home that same day, Purdie said.

Over the weekend, the offices were “fogged” by a contractor, Purdie said. The plan had been to continue this week on Monday and Tuesday with mold remediation work, which included removal and replacement of ceiling tiles. When the workplace disruption turn out to be too much, Purdie said employees were sent home.

When The B Square checked the area of 7th Street shortly after the alert was sent, county government staff appeared to have mostly exited the buildings. The last of the election division staff who work in the Johnson Hardware building at the corner of 7th and Madison stress were leaving the building.

Purdie said the decision to send election division staff home from the Johnson Hardware building had been made by elected county clerk Nicole Browne.

Reached by The B Square, Browne said that her election division staff had complained about mold in that building. If other county workers were being sent home for mold remediation in their work environment, Browne wanted her election division staff to have their work places remediated as well, she said.