: Asbestos, No Asbestos

WAPELLO, Iowa — For the second time in less than a year, an Asbestos test has shocked the Wapello School Board.

Last fall, the board received the bad news that a single sample taken as part of an Asbestos test of the high school auditorium had tested positive for the hazardous material.

That sent a shock through school officials because an Asbestos abatement project more than 20 years ago had supposedly removed all the Asbestos from the auditorium.

At a board work session Thursday, the board received a new jolt when they learned a follow-up test showed no Asbestos was present in the ceiling.

After learning about the positive test last fall, the board postponed any decisions on an auditorium renovation project while an Asbestos abatement consultant drew up a plan for removing the material.

The delay eventually led to the School Board replacing the original project architect with architect David Metzger of Metzger-Johnson Architects of Burlington. Metzger and his staff decided to double-check the Asbestos condition and conducted the new tests that failed to turn up any of the material.

“I was shocked,” Asbestos consultant Bryon Bross told the board Thursday.

Bross said six samples he took all turned up negative. He said he had expected to find Asbestos, so had limited his tests to six samples. He said a seventh test will be needed to consider the retesting as conclusive.

“I don’t expect to find another positive sample,” he assured the board, adding he could not explain why the original testing had turned up the positive sample in the first place.

Bross said the same lab tested all the samples, although the testing facilities were at different offices.

School Superintendent John Weidner said the reaction to the latest test was similar to the reaction when the results came back from the first test. “

The way you were shocked when it was negative is the way the other guy was shocked when it tested positive,” he told Bross.

The board agreed that a seventh test should be taken. Bross said he should be able to complete it next week.

With the good news on the Asbestos as an encouragement, the board then reviewed the original renovation project scope with Metzger. The group, including several members of a citizens advisory committee, toured the auditorium and discussed several of the project features. Following the tour, Metzger agreed to meet later with the committee and continue to discuss project activities.

“We want to get to a point where conceptually we know where we’re going and then begin to ask a lot of questions,” he told the board. He said one issue that needs to be resolved is whether the auditorium balcony will be reopened or left as classrooms.

He said if the decision is to reopen the area, the state fire marshal’s office will need to be consulted because additional features might be required.

A sprinkler system will likely be required as part of the auditorium renovation, Metzger said.

“We’ll probably try to simplify, but get as much as we can for the dollar,” he added. A tentative schedule distributed during the meeting indicated officials hope to have working drawings and specifications completed by Nov. 15. Once those are approved by the state, they would be distributed to contractors, with a contract being awarded around Feb. 28, 2008. Construction would begin around March 15, 2008, and hopefully be completed by Aug. 15, 2008.

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