Black mold closes down Saratoga Springs neighborhood community center

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> At this week’s City Council meeting, Mayor Joanne Yepsen announced the necessary closing of the William Ford Neighborhood Center at 31 Fenlon St., deemed unsafe because of encroaching black mold. The center, owned by the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority, was closed Wednesday.

“A building inspector toured the structure and found the mold issues,” she told the council. “The center has unfortunately become unsafe for people to use, and so we have to close it until the problem is resolved.”

After water damage to a building, fungal growth, including black mold, often develops when indoor air quality becomes poor. The Ford center has been plagued in the past with water drainage and sewage issues, Yepsen said. Now water has seeped into the walls and the foundation.

The website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a 2004 study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The institute found sufficient evidence to link indoor mold exposure with upper-respiratory-tract symptoms, coughing and wheezing in otherwise healthy people; with asthma symptoms in asthmatics; and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition. The IOM also found limited or suggestive evidence linking indoor mold exposure and respiratory illness in otherwise healthy children.

“My main issue is that I want this center to be safe and available for the residents,” Yepsen said. “We need a better facility for them to have programs. We need Saturday morning programs for the kids. We need night classes for the adults. There’s so much we could do in there, and yet the building is really unsafe and unusable.”

Jefferson Terrace, the oldest of the city’s low-income housing units, was built in 1952. The Ford center was constructed in 1998, intended for residents in Jefferson and the nearby Vanderbuilt Terrace to use. The Housing Authority owns and manages all these properties.

Yepsen said an engineer from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will need to examine the center. Then officials will determine whether the building can be repaired, or must be demolished and rebuilt. She is working with the department’s state branches to create a recovery plan for the structure.