The borough and Alaska Court System are awaiting results of air quality testing at Wrangell’s Public Safety Building before courthouse services can be resumed.
ACS shuttered the office space it rents there just before Thanksgiving, citing safety concerns for its staff. Long-term water damage and rot to exterior walls of the court offices had been revealed back in September when maintenance workers opened up the drywall, following reports of a carpenter ant infestation. A judicial officer had to be relocated to another part of the office while the room was put under containment.
Housing most of the city’s emergency response services, the building has had a history of such problems. Even before the ants, it was determined extensive refurbishment to the building’s north wall would be needed, mirroring work which had been done on the southern side in 2008. Replacement of the roof and rotten siding had made the top of the city’s capital projects list this summer at the estimated cost of $549,633.
The ant infestation underscored the immediacy of the problem, and after a full exterior building envelope inspection consultant Jensen Yorba Lott issued a report with recommendations on September 22. It pointed out a number of problems with the building’s seals and materials, which had together allowed for a number of leaks to undermine the facility’s integrity.
During that inspection, Dahlberg Design was brought in as a subcontractor to assess indoor air quality at the building. The Juneau-based consultancy monitored carbon dioxide and particulate levels through much of the building, and moisture readings taken of interior materials. It concluded that conditions in the building were unsuitable for mold growth and that the facility’s air quality was several orders of magnitude below federal regulatory thresholds.
Despite the findings, ACS decided it wanted to have a third party examine its courtroom offices’ air quality, contracting Wasilla-area inspection company Advance Look. Dahlberg did not take samples for mold spores during its inspection, something Advance Look would do in addition to visual and moisture intrusion inspections. As a precaution the court shut down its Wrangell offices pending those results.
An inspector with the company assessed the Wrangell building during the first week of December, Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad explained. The city decided to contract Advance Look to examine the remainder of the building as well, providing data the courtroom results could be compared by. Al-Haddad said the results of that second run of testing is expected sometime later this week.
In its report, Dahlberg Design explained it had not undertaken spore sampling because the presence of mold was of itself no cause for concern. Naturally occurring spores are sure to be found inside of any building, it wrote, due to the transfer of air in and out of doors. Determining the presence of moisture would be more important, as spores will not grow if conditions are too dry.
“Given the low level of moisture determined in the wallboard, along with the moderate amounts of organic growth, the environmental engineer’s recommendation provides that indoor air quality is within the recommended ranges for a safe indoor environment,” Al-Haddad said.
Since the closure of court offices, legal services have been picked up by neighboring courts in Petersburg and Ketchikan. A spokesman for the court system could not speak to personnel matters as a result of the temporary closure, but confirmed ACS will make a decision about whether to resume operations pending the latest test results.
The city is also interested in the results. Though ubiquitous, mold spores can affect people differently depending on their body’s sensitivities.
“Our biggest concern right now is just the health of all the employees in the building,” Al-Haddad said. “Hopefully these results will just be additional information to what Dahlberg provided.”
Efforts to repair the roof and siding of Wrangell’s Public Safety Building remains in its planning stages. Al-Haddad explained the scope of the project will depend on the city’s success in securing Community Development Block Grant funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If the project is selected for the grant, funds could only be used for part of the building relating to the Fire Department. The cost to repair those sections has been estimated at $294,000, with Wrangell needing to come up with at least $137,000 as a match. The remaining $255,000 needed to repair the building would have to be covered by the city.
An application packet was sent out earlier this month, and Al-Haddad expected a response by early March at the latest.
“If CDBG grant funding is secured, we will move forward with soliciting competitive bids for construction of the entire building’s exterior envelope rehabilitation,” she said. “If CDBG funding is not secured, or if CDBG funding is secured at a monetary level lower than the City and Borough of Wrangell’s request, the CBW would move forward with a phased project, pursuing rehabilitation of life and safety-related issues and the most critical exterior siding systems replacement needs that available funding allows.”
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