By Jim Bissett, The Dominion Post
FAIRMONT, W.Va. – That’s the thing about mold. It comes back.
Marion County Schools Superintendent Donna Heston delivered that biology lesson, most basic, to Board of Education members earlier this week.
That is, where there’s high humidity, there just might be mold.
And where there’s standing water to go with that humidity – there will definitely be mold.
Which is what the district has been dealing with over the summer, and now into fall, at East Fairmont High School.
A spate of heavy rains over the summer, coupled with a chronically leaking roof, were the culprits that spawned the pesky growths in the weight room, the athletic trainer’s room and another health classroom at the school on Airport Road.
The mold has been knocked back for now, she told BOE members at their regular meeting Monday, but that doesn’t mean it’s going anywhere.
Standing water is still present in the affected areas, which, she said, also need the deployment of some old-fashioned elbow grease.
“The area is dirty,” she said. “Needs cleaned. It has needed cleaned.”
A professional crew has been contracted for that job, she said.
She’s also called for both the placement of additional dehumidifier units – plus a regular cleaning schedule for school custodians in the meantime.
That will mitigate the mold, she said.
For now, she said, with emphasis on “for now.”