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By Joshua Maloni
GM/Managing Editor
Unexpected and persistent sickness symptoms prompted workers in the Village of Lewiston clerk’s office to initiate mold testing on Sept. 15. Results came back positive on Sept. 22.
Last Friday, a special meeting of the Board of Trustees was held at the Lewiston Fire Co. No. 1 firehall training room, with a motion approved to use emergency funding to award a contract to 716 Clean Up and Restoration.
Prior to the meeting, Mayor Anne Welch said, “We are having our offices cleaned, because we have detectable mold in the building. We're just having the whole building cleaned.”
She noted, “They're common molds; they're not toxic molds.”
The building – which also includes a basement gymnasium and a second-floor suite of offices and fitness studios – closed to the public at 8 a.m. Monday. It is still being tested as of this publication. Results are due sometime around Oct. 13.
“We told the tenants no one can be in the building when they do all their fogging and stuff,” Welch said. “Nobody is in the building – no recreation; nothing.”
Once the Red Brick is cleaned and deemed mold-free, it will reopen the following Monday. Right now, the target date is Oct. 17.
Welch said 716 Clean Up and Restoration will use a “very light type of fog that doesn't hurt anything – like all the papers and stuff, it'll be fine. Because we asked, ‘Are we going to have to move all this stuff out? Or what are you going to do? They were just like, ‘No, it's fine.’ ”
The cost is estimated to be between $60,000 and $80,000, which would come from the municipality’s fund balance. Following a down payment, a public hearing will be scheduled to discuss financing the rest of the fee.
Board Meeting Venue Change
The Oct. 3 Board of Trustees work session is moving to the firehall at 145 N. Sixth St. It will begin at 6 p.m.
Cleaning services line the front of the Red Brick, while signs on the front doors signal the village hall is closed for remediation services.