TRUMBULL COUNTY Officials want to clean mold rather than move from building

WARREN -- The Trumbull County Health Department officials have decided they would prefer to fix up their moldy building, rather than move to new digs.
At a meeting today, health commissioner James Enyeart said he plans to recommend county commissioners have poisonous mold cleaned from the basement of the Chestnut Street building, to bring the building up to code.
The basement, which housed the command center for the county Emergency Management Agency and several EMA offices, has been sealed since the mold was discovered in May. Computers and office equipment were removed and cleaned several weeks later, at a cost of more than $10,000.
Cost of replacing walls
The cost of replacing moldy drywall and wall studs has been estimated at about $40,000, said Frank Migliozzi, the department's director of environmental health. That figure does not include fixing the water problem that permits the potentially deadly mold to thrive, he said.
County commissioners have already approved cleaning ductwork, to allow heat in the building to be turned back on, Migliozzi said.
About 30 health department employees work in the building. Enyeart said the staff wanted to stay.
In May, county commissioners proposed moving the health department to the Wean Building on North Park Avenue. Enyeart said there would also have been costs associated with that plan, including making a section of the building for the health department's clinic accessible to disabled people.
The three EMA employees who had offices in the basement have been working out of the county 911 center in Howland.