Council Leaders Question Failure To Find Asbestos At School -- MesoLink.org -- 01-27-06

Two council officials have expressed concern that asbestos was not found at a school before repairs were carried out. The two council officials have requested that a town attorney look into the matter after asbestos was found on the Flood Middle School roof during an ongoing repair project. Nearly $70,000 in additional funding has been approved for the additional work in removing the asbestos but the two officials have been opposed to awarding this to the Silktown Roofing Company.

The chairman of the committee that has been overseeing the work stated that the job has to be paid for because the asbestos has been found and removed, but the two opposing council officials have stated that this should have been picked up far earlier during testing.

The chairman of the Building Needs Committee stated: "Even with these additional funds we still came in within budget. I'm told asbestos wasn't found during the testing because it was under a second layer of roofing and spread sporadically over a very wide area."

However, one of the two council officials who have raised concerns stated: "I don't understand how something as important as toxic asbestos would not be detected. I think before the company is paid, we should find out what went wrong."