Decision postponed again on how to cope with mold
BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — After meeting in closed session — yet again — on the mold problem at the old borough hall on Poplar Avenue, the Borough Council has put off once more making a decision on whether to move or stay.

The members of the governing body have a choice of renovating the building so as to seal off the water leaking into it, which is causing the mold, or constructing a new building at the new borough hall site on Broadway to accommodate the police and other municipal offices still at Poplar Avenue, including the municipal court.

Councilman Joseph DeLisa said at the council’s Sept. 1 meeting that the test results are back and show that the black substance found on the air vents in the ceiling of the section of the first floor of 95 Poplar Ave., that is being renovated for the police department, was indeed mold.

DeLisa said the borough was hiring Guardian Air and Duct Cleaning of Freehold to remove the mold so that the renovations can be finished and police can move into the space. The cleanup will take just a couple of days and will cost $1,450, he reported.

Three rooms of the police department, currently located on the lower level of the old borough hall, have been sealed off because of the contamination by mold.

Detective James Gomez, the delegate of PBA Local 141, which has been concerned about the health of its members, noted that the mold problem was brought to the attention of the council a year ago and nothing has been done since then. He said there are 20 full-time police officers and four dispatchers who work in the basement headquarters.

“I respectfully ask that, until something is done, you hold council meetings in the old council chambers” at 95 Poplar Ave., he told the council members.

DeLisa, who’s in charge of buildings and grounds, said after the council emerged from its executive session, that the council was going to sit down at its next meeting to discuss the future of the police and court.

“I hope to get a decision next month,” he told inquirers at the meeting.

The council previously voted 4-2 in favor of constructing a new building at the at the new borough hall site on Broadway, but has taken no further action on the matter.

Asked by a reporter what the grounds were for holding its discussions of the mold problem behind closed doors rather than in open session, Borough Attorney Gregory Baxter said mold was a health issue and health and safety issues were two exceptions specifically excluded from the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act.

Police Chief John Demaree, who’s expressed concern for the possible effect of mold on his employees, said during a break in the meeting that if the council was discussing an individual’s illness, he could understand the council talking about it in private.

But, he said, “if it’s a discussion of the general conditions in that building, that should be public.”