Wednesday, January 7, 2004
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004 |
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Update: Mold stopped dead in its tracks at Starr’s Mill By J. FRANK LYNCH Mike Satterfield, head of facilities services for the Fayette County school system, said Taylor DeBartola’s in-depth report in “The Prowler” on a mold outbreak at Starr’s Mill High at the start of the school year was mostly accurate. But Satterfield said a couple of points need clarifying: • The fungus was long ago nipped in the bud and hasn’t been a problem since. • Leaky air conditioning units were not the source of moisture that fed the mold in classrooms. “I have not heard anything since September on this issue,” said Satterfield when asked to give an update to Taylor’s article, which first appeared in the award-winning “Prowler” nearly four months ago. “Back in September, the school custodians addressed all the mold issues, and (Principal) Sam Sweat had his staff checked the building over and over and cleaned it up back in September,” said Satterfield this month. “They’ve had no problems since.” Sweat confirmed the issue has been resolved and deferred questions about the mold outbreak to facilities services. Satterfield said Taylor’s conclusion that failure to run the school’s air conditioning system after carpets were cleaned in several classrooms didn’t tell the whole story. “Back in 1995 we instituted an energy management program to conserve energy in the summer, and like a lot of businesses we get charged for more usage in peak hours,” said Satterfield, pointing out that the school system’s annual electric bill runs around $2.2 million. But that cost would be significantly higher, he said, if the H/VAC systems in local schools wasn’t set to run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. only in the summer months, shutting down a full hour before the “peak rates” kick in. “We encourage custodians to work that schedule,” said Satterfield. “When it comes to cleaning carpets, we recommend they clean on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays only so we’re running air during the day to help dry out those carpets, and even if we shut it down at night there’s still Thursday and Friday to circulate air.” The problem at Starr’s Mill, said Satterfield, was that the school’s cleaning crew shampooed the carpets on a Thursday or Friday, then went home for the weekend leaving the hallway in question sealed up without circulation. “Anytime you have moisture, you’re going to get mold,” said Satterfield Further, he said, Taylor was correct when he wrote in his article that a maintenance employee replaced moldy ceiling tiles in a hallway. “They are our preventative maintenance crew,” said Satterfield. “But he didn’t mention that I also had my H/VAC crew in there replacing all the leaky valves in the ceiling that were dripping on the tiles. They were fixed that day.” Satterfield said the design of the Starr’s Mill High air ventilation system makes it near impossible for leaking HVAC units to cause damage inside classrooms. “All the units are actually in the hallways, and the water is being fed to them down the hallways,” he said. “There’s no way the HVAC system can cause mold in the classrooms.”
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