NEW PALTZ >> Black mold has been discovered in the Town Hall, and consultants are being sought to determine the extent of the problem and whether it can be eliminated, according to the town supervisor.
Susan Zimet said the mold was discovered in a basement storage room during a records management day earlier this month.
“Our planning and zoning secretary was down there going through a bunch of records and all of a sudden she couldn’t breathe, her throat got constricted, her eyes got incredibly red, and she finally said, ‘Let me get out of here,'” Zimet said. “After she felt better, she went down there again and then she noticed all this black mold all over the wall.”
Zimet said town Highway Superintendent Chris Marx also became ill after going into the mold-ridden room.
“So the black mold is right under my office and right under the bookkeeper’s office, but we have also discovered black mold in her office,” she said.
In some cases, mold exposure can cause serious respiratory problems, including chest tightness, difficulty breathing and lung hypersensitivity, according to webmd.com. Symptoms also can include coughing, wheezing, runny nose, irritated eyes and a sore throat.
“We’ve been trying to get experts to come in and do air quality sampling of what’s going on in this building,” Zimet said. “We did have one person come who said as soon as he got out of the car, without even coming into the building, that he knew our building had problems. We have also had the emergency service say as soon as you walk into this building, you can tell by the smell there’s a problem.”
Zimet said the town does not yet have cost estimates for removing the mold but expects the problem will accelerate efforts to find a new building for the municipal offices, which are in two attached buildings on state Route 32 that have been renovated into a single structure.
“I don’t, quite frankly, believe that these buildings can be remediated,” Zimet said. “The cost to remediate these buildings, I believe, will be too much. We have too many problems with these buildings as is.”
Other problems at the Town Hall include inconvenient handicapped access and a space shortage for staff.
“We really have quasi-handicapped accessibility,” Zimet said. “… You basically have to unlock the back door, come through the Building Department office and go down a ramp to get into the building, which basically leaves the Building Department’s office open with files that become accessible to the public with nobody in there.
“From a facilities perspective, this building does not work,” she said. “There’s not a flow for the ability for everybody to work together in a more efficient manner, and we certainly do not have enough room for the staffing that we need for bookkeeping and for the Building Department.”
