Robbinsville – More work will soon be put toward the ongoing battle against mold at Robbinsville Town Hall.
Mayor Steve Hooper gave an update on the issue at the town’s monthly meeting Jan. 6, which at one point sickened an employee and has been going on for the past several months. Hooper said the next step of the cleanup process would involve stripping and deep-cleaning the area of the town hall affected by the mold.
“They’ll be able to clean out the basement starting next week and arrange the records for (Finance Director Sonya Webster) to go through,” Hooper said. “They’ll be able to back either the dump truck or the garbage truck up that way, and that way, they can move things out that door right into either the dump truck or the garbage truck.”
Hooper emphasized that any town records or other documents tainted with the mold would be transcribed to specifications set by the state before the damaged records were properly disposed of in a safe manner.
“That hole has been patched, that went out where the chimney was and also, there’s going to have to be a shelf built up for the dehumidifiers to get them up to where they can drain to the outside,” Hooper added.
At its December meeting, the council approved the purchase of an awning to replace one lost to the mold at a cost of $900.
Shutoff policy
Additionally, the board tabled a measure to change the town’s water shutoff policy from two months of unpaid utility bills down to one month, with Webster saying the town was seeing many businesses delinquent on water payments, and was having some trouble getting businesses to pay up.
She said it was particularly an issue with businesses that had closed up shop.
“We’re allowing customers to be two months past due,and then we will shut off, while we’re doing the same thing for our businesses,” Webster said. “What has happened is sometimes when a business closes, we have to eat that. What I would recommend is that a business only has 30 days.”
However, Alderman Debbie Beasley expressed concerns about the potential change being unfair to business owners, who she said were being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in many cases.
“Maybe we should up the amount they pay up front, the deposit,” Beasley said. “You know, if you just give them a 30-day thing, if they are running into hard times, too, just like an individual. Two months, it’s easer for them to kind of come up with that than a 30-day situation.”
Hooper also voiced concerns on the issue, saying the town was seeing some substantially large water bills from local businesses.
“We’ve got some businesses that are running between $800 and $1,000-a-month water bills,” Hooper said.