Trying to get the bugs out

There is no wood in the building other than furniture.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- What's boring at a Trumbull County Commissioners meeting?
The bugs, for one.
Last week, maintenance department workers discovered that specks of sawdust on the carpet around the large, four-person desk commissioners sit at while conducting their regular meetings.
The specks were traced to what appears to be an infestation of wood boring beetles in the formal oak bench, which was custom-built on a dais in commissioners' fifth-floor hearing room.
"It is a very small infestation," said maintenance director Al DeVengencie.
Exterminators called in early this week trapped a few of the tiny beetles using Scotch tape, he said.
Holes left by the beetles are evident all along the inside of the bench and in two or three spots on the front of the desk, facing the hearing room. Inattentive observers assumed the spots were just dirt.
Examining problem
Berk Exterminating Co. is researching how to deal with the pests, DeVengencie said. A contract has not been signed.
Contacted by phone, the exterminator said it was against his company's policy to discuss particular pest problems.
"For a lot of people, it is a personal matter," he said.
The oak bench was constructed in place in late 1999 or 2000 when the county administration building was undergoing renovation, said architect Bob Steines of Ricciuti, Balog and Partners. It stands chest-high to audience members and features heavy bronze plaques with the names of the three commissioners and the county clerk.
Steines said the bugs probably came in with the wood.
"There is no wood in the building other than the furniture and things like that," he said.
The president of the construction company on the job is skeptical.
"I'm not an expert on bugs, but I don't see how a bug can live in the wood for five years," said Jim Breese, president of Gibson Jack Construction Co.
siff@vindy.com