In addition to electrical, ventilation and heating and cooling problems, inspectors found pigeons roosting in the attic of the Dodge County Courthouse.
At a called meeting on Wednesday, February 6, 2019 the Dodge County Commissioners officially closed the courthouse until further notice.
County commissioners voted to allow Dodge County Manager Spence Barron to spend up to $25,000.00 to relocate the county offices and for testing.
Due to the interruption of government services and temporary unavailability of the courtroom, Oconee Superior Court Chief Judge Sarah F. Wall and judges C. Michael Johnson and Howard C. Kaufold, Jr. signed a Judicial Emergency Order that suspends deadlines and continues court terms immediately following the meeting on February 6. Within the order it states, “The nature of this emergency is due to hazardous air quality conditions in the Dodge County Courthouse”. (A copy of the order is printed in this edition of The Dodge County News’ legal section.
Professional Environmental Management (PME) Certified Industrial Hygienist Erin Garmon and PEM Industrial Hygienist Dan Hutto conducted a site visit on Thursday, February 7, 2019.
After reviewing information from the building inspection and photographic documentation, PEM reported to county manager Barron that there were visual areas of contamination in the interior building spaces, primarily the attic (bird (pigeon) droppings) and mold in the basement.
Because of the conditions founds, PEM recommended to evacuate occupants and restrict access until further assessment and testing could be conducted.
PEM also provided a plan to gather additional information with samples collected from designated areas inside the building and the building’s exterior and obtain the results in an expeditious and efficient manner.
The proposed fee from PEM will be $27,500.00. The majority of it, $22,356.00, being the cost of laboratory testing and shipment of the samples. The remainder includes their costs for preparing the final report with recommendations, the cost of the field investigation and travel. Barron also advised that he has met with two abatement/restoration companies over the past week and both companies stated they would need the results of the environmental testing before they could determine a final cost to repair the courthouse.
We could build a new efficient court house for less than the $1,000,000 repair estimate. If you need a quote let me know.