Asbestos hanging over BV's head

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MANLIUS — At Monday’s meeting, it could be said the Bureau Valley School Board learned the phrase “what goes around, comes around.”

The board received some unpleasant news concerning asbestos costs for the Manlius elementary building, Bureau Valley North in Walnut and Bureau Valley South in Buda.

According to Don DeWaele, building and grounds committee chairman, it is estimated the costs for asbestos abatement at Manlius is $92,000; Buda is $61,000 and Walnut is $65,000. The total is approximately $218,000.

At an October 2006 building committee meeting, a six-month periodic surveillance report, conducted by Ideal Environmental Engineering Inc., revealed there were “damaged” and “significantly damaged” asbestos in tunnels and crawl spaces at Manlius, Buda and Walnut.

At that time, Superintendent Terry Gutshall recommended the committee obtain a tunnel evaluation through Ideal to see what it would cost for abatement.

The build-up of asbestos is attributed to the age of the buildings and because the tunnel problem has never been addressed before, Gutshall said.

On Monday, DeWaele said the situation needed to be dealt with.

“We do have some problems. We have asbestos that is falling off of pipes. Manlius is in the worst condition; it’s actually lying on the ground,” he said.

DeWaele said they have three options — 1. Do nothing; 2. Seal off access to the tunnels completely; or 3. Remove the asbestos.

The board agreed Option 1 was out of the question, but Options 2 and 3 don’t leave them with much choice. Sealing the tunnels could cause problems in the future, since every tunnel affected has water pipes running through it, DeWaele said.

“If we get a broken pipe in there, we cannot go in and fix that pipe until we have abated all the asbestos first,” he said.

The board has until August to make a decision. According to Gutshall, the district currently has around $40,000 to $45,000 in their life safety fund.

“We couldn’t even do one building right now. We’d have to bond that,” Gutshall said. “The parking lots are going to be taken care of. This December is the last payment. That was a $274,000 project, but that’s a touchy subject, so we won’t go there.”

Two and one-half years ago, the board agreed to repave the parking lots at all their buildings, except for Walnut, for $274,000. A lot of the work was done at the Wyanet and Sheffield buildings, both of which are now closed.

“I think this is the very concern I talked about a year ago. We don’t have that money in life safety, and we can only levy about $48,000,” board member Keith Bolin said.

One year ago, the board decided to use life safety money on repairs to the east tower in the Buda building. They requested $92,628 of life safety money be used to pay for the work. According to Gutshall, the state approved $86,520 of that to be used for life safety. However, Gutshall said only $74,454 was used on the project.

If $74,454 had not been used for renovations at the Buda building, it could have been combined with the estimated $40,000 currently in the life safety fund. The board then could have used the next year’s annual life safety levy for $48,000, the full amount available to them. With those figures they would have had to only bond for approximately $55,546 to cover the $218,000 cost of the asbestos work.

Instead, the board is left with access to around $88,000. They will have to issue bonds for approximately $130,000 (minimum) to cover the rest of the costs. If the board chooses to issue bonds, it will raise the district’s taxes by approximately 13 cents for one year.

“I don’t think we have a choice here. I think we’re going to have to issue life safety bonds for the second time in Bureau Valley history,” Bolin said.

At Monday’s meeting, Bolin said they would schedule a finance committee meeting before making a recommendation to the board. On Wednesday, Gutshall said they have tentatively scheduled a building committee meeting for 7 a.m. March 2 with a representative from Ideal to discuss the project costs.

Are BV students safe?

Don DeWaele, building and grounds committee chairman, said that though asbestos at Manlius and the other buildings was damaged, students are not in contact with it at any time, since only trained maintenance personnel have contact with the tunnels and crawl spaces.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are asbestos-containing materials in most of the nation’s primary, secondary and charter schools. Though asbestos is most commonly used in schools as insulation and in building materials, it has also been used in floor and ceiling tile, cement asbestos pipe, corrugated paper pipe wrap, acoustical and decorative insulation, pipe and boiler insulation, and spray-applied fireproofing.

If one breathes in asbestos fibers released into the air from a product containing asbestos, it can cause serious health concerns. Three specific diseases: Asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma have been linked to asbestos exposure. These diseases do not develop immediately after inhalation of asbestos fibers; it may be 20 years or more before symptoms appear.

Source: The U.S. EPA.