Utica City Hall Asbestos Issue Still Not Resolved

On March 6, a brief op-ed ran in the pages of the Utica, New York Observer Dispatch pointing out that, for the second time in four months, Utica City Hall was evacuated as a precaution against possible asbestos contamination.

This most recent episode, during which asbestos was presumably released, was the result of a City Hall energy upgrade. A subcontractor working for Johnson Controls, a company that designs and implements energy-saving projects, reportedly disrupted some asbestos about 3:30 p.m. while working in the building.

The troubling aspect, to Utica residents and the op-ed writer, is less the probable release - it has happened before - than the fact that nothing is being revealed and less is being done to provide for continuity of government if it should happen again. The city has so far failed to name the subcontractor or explain what it did to cause the problem.

According to the writer, Mayor David Roefaro needs to launch an investigation to discover what actually happened, and then release the information so that city employees and City Hall visitors can feel safe. After that, Mayor Roefaro needs to draft an emergency plan, subject to full Board of Commissioner's approval, to run city government in the event of future incidents.

This most recent incident put City Hall, located at 1 Kennedy Plaza, out of commission from Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 25, through Friday, Feb. 27. The asbestos, found in a stairwell, was remediated. Unfortunately, since no backup plan exists for maintaining city government functions when the building is closed, City Hall workers were sent home. Had the problem gone on for a week or more, the city's ability to function would have been "greatly compromised". As it stood, city services like property tax assistance, building permits and inspections, and notary public services were unavailable for the entire period.

The City Hall workers were paid for the days the building remained closed, and employees of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority (MVWA) - who normally work out of rented office space at City Hall - were temporarily relocated to a maintenance facility on Kemble Street. According to MVWA Executive Director Patrick Becher, that maintenance facility also has asbestos problems, lending a touch of irony to the relocation.

According to Becher, ongoing City Hall remodeling has so far turned up three other sites, besides the stairwell, where asbestos has been identified in the last 45 days. These include heating pipes and other locations where insulation was used. An evaluation of the samples found in the stairwell was conducted by an environmental safety firm hired by the MVWA to the tune of $24,000 on a single-incident contract. The remediation and inspection firm, also unnamed, indicated that the asbestos had not become airborne.

MVWA Customer Service Manager Steve Gassner, who worked out of the Kemble Street facility on Thursday, said the transition went smoothly because it was part of the MVWA's emergency operations plan. The city does not have a similar plan. New York State Department of Labor spokesperson Jean Genovese further noted that Utica's City Hall, which was built in 1965, was approved vis-à-vis the emergency remediation and, since it had taken all the mandatory emergency precautions, was not likely to be cited.

According to Roefaro, the cleanup costs will be assigned to the unnamed subcontractor. Roefaro also noted that a number of similar asbestos abatement procedures had taken place at 1 Kennedy Plaza in recent years and more are planned, though none have as yet been scheduled.

The writer is correct in observing that Reofaro's methods seem somewhat haphazard, and that saying "oops" and moving on without proper review is likely to lead to more, and potentially more harmful, incidents.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral that was used in insulation, floor and roofing tiles, tile glues and some ceiling panels up to the 1970s, can be harmful when inhaled and causes a number of diseases, most notably mesothelioma, an almost incurable form of cancer that often doesn't manifest for three or more decades, by which time the prognosis is very poor. Most people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma die within a year.

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