By JANELL HUNTER

Times Leader Staff Writer

BELMONT — The anticipated cost of demolishing the former Belmont school increased dramatically last week when the village received news of what the mayor terms an “environmental disaster.”

Village leaders received an estimate of $184,358 for asbestos abatement in the building a few days ago. That is in addition to the $55,000 estimate the village previously received for razing the structure.

Council voted in July to demolish the old building due to disrepair; a first step was to have a required asbestos inspection completed and to determine asbestos abatement costs before demolition. The village recently received a proposal from environmental engineering firm Gandee & Associates Inc. for the “design, bidding, administration, monitoring and air sampling associated with the abatement of asbestos-containing materials” from the building. The estimate is based on five consecutive weeks of abatement and does not include any demolition services. According to the proposal, the abatement project is estimated to cost the village nearly four times as much as the actual demolition work.

“We will have to get cooperation from the county and state for this asbestos abatement. We can’t afford $184,358, but it needs to be done,” Mayor Stan Sobel said. “(Fiscal officer) Ricky Burkhead is looking at our insurance to see if they might be able to help with the asbestos abatement. I am having a finance committee meeting on Wednesday at 6 p.m. to talk over any options that might exist to solve this huge estimate to abate the asbestos.”

According Sobel, asbestos was found throughout the building in preliminary samples taken by Gandee & Associates.

The dangerous substance was found in tiles, window caulking and throughout the plaster in the older part of the building. Sobel said no asbestos was found in the plaster in the newer section of the building, where the village currently houses its water department.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that asbestos is a group of minerals that are resistant to heat and corrosion that were therefore used in insulation, floor tiles and various other building products. OSHA states that breathing asbestos fibers can cause a buildup of scar-like tissue in the lungs called asbestosis that often progresses to disability and death. Asbestos also causes cancer of the lung and other diseases such as mesothelioma, according to OSHA.

Sobel said Saturday that council likely will vote to close the school building or to severely restrict access to the areas where asbestos-containing materials are no longer encapsulated. He explained that risk of dangerous exposure only comes after such materials have begun to crumble, not when plaster and insulation remain intact. He expects that vote to occur during a regular council meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the gymnasium adjacent to the school on Third Street.

“The plaster was safe when it was encapsulated, painted and not flaking or breaking off … ,” Sobel said, referring to the years when the building served as a public school. “However, as the building came into disrepair … the plaster began to flake and fall from the walls.

“Now we have an environmental disaster as the top floor is covered with asbestos-containing plaster. … The thing we need to do is clean it all up before a wall or window or roof part collapses and exposes the general environment around the school with the contaminated dust.”

Sobel added that the village also will seek alternative estimates from other environmental companies to abate the asbestos. He has notified council that a timetable for moving the water department out of the building should be determined. He said the auction that eventually will be held for people who want to purchase and keep items from the building as memorabilia “is now on hold until after abatement occurs.”

“We cannot jeopardize the health of the bidders nor those who others associated with removal of items for an auction to the possibility of their exposure to the debris or dust on the top floor of Belmont Elementary,” Sobel noted. “It is the top floor where plaster is falling from the ceiling and walls.”

Sobel said he will discuss with council all possible options for gathering other bids for the abatement, finding ways to pay for the abatement, options for closing off the building until abatement can be accomplished, opening up a substitute office for the water and sewer department and working with state agencies and the insurance company to provide financial assistance.

“We are now in crisis management mode, but I believe we will move through this dilemma as we have through the many that we have encountered,” Sobel added. “We have to address the issue and can’t just leave the building alone to crumble on its own, for health and safety reasons. We’re going to have to seal the building and keep kids out — we need to be proactive and can’t just kick the can further down the road.”

The 102-year-old former school building closed as a public elementary school in 1998 when the new consolidated Union Local Elementary opened. It previously had served as a high school, and later served as a private Christian school.

The decision to raze it came after three community meetings and much deliberation. The Belmont Elementary Forward Committee met three times and discussed with community members and officials three options for the building: to market it for possible sale, to upgrade and renovate the building to current code, or to demolish it. Officials said the building would need more than $1 million of work to restore it to a usable state.

Bricks had been falling off of the top of the building due to water damage. Damage to the interior, especially on the upper floor, is extensive. Wooden floors are warped and plaster is falling and flaking from the walls and ceilings. Those conditions prompted community members, by a show of hands during a public meeting, to support demolition. Council subsequently voted in favor of demolition.