[StBernard] St. Bernard Courthouse is infested with mold

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Courthouse is infested with mold
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
December 13, 2009, 6:19AM

Enshrouded in a grove of oak trees off St. Bernard Highway, the St. Bernard
Parish Courthouse has been a fixture in St. Bernard Parish politics dating
back to the Great Depression and the early days of Leander Perez. 

Along with the rest of the parish, the courthouse was flooded during
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and sat in 3 feet of water for weeks.
Courthouse staff have been back at work in the building since late September
2005, at times operating in makeshift work spaces in the lobby and amid
reams of soggy title records and lawsuits submerged by the floodwaters. But
soon the entire operation will have to move to an alternate site, after
contractors discovered elevated levels of mold throughout the walls and air
ducts in the 70-year-old building.

The mold study came as part of the planning for a major FEMA-financed
overhaul of the courthouse, which suffers from a chronic leaky roof and has
not had hot water for years. An October environmental assessment from an
outside contractor, Driskill Envrionmental Consultants, said the mold grew
to such an extent because the parish had no professional mold remediation
done after Katrina's flooding, only wiping down the walls and floors.

Courthouse staff said they knew repairs would be happening, but it only
became apparent in recent months that the entire building would need to be
vacated.

Some of the mold discovered in the report, stachybotrys mold, produces
dangerous toxins that some doctors believe can be traced to lung infections.
But state epidemiologist Raoult Ratard, who visually inspected the mold at
the courthouse in recent weeks, said the more pernicious mold was mostly
present in closets away from where employees are working. 

Still, he believes a full cleaning is necessary. 

"Obviously that building has a lot of problems, so when you do the
remediation and you do the cleanup, you protect yourself," Ratard said. 

Unlike hazardous chemicals or lead contamination, there are no standards for
how much mold can be present in a building because people react so
differently. Ratard said he did not expect employees to have any major
health problems, particularly since they had been working there for more
than four years without complaints. "There is no number that will tell you,
'The building needs to be remediated,'" Ratard said. "The standard really is
going through and seeing the quality of life of the people when they are in
the building." 

The largest mold problems in the report were documented in the parish
assessor's office, where parish officials have installed scrubber fans to
temporarily improve the air quality. Other concentrations have been found
throughout the building, including the main courtroom and several judges'
offices.

Parish Assessor Marlene Vinsanau and District Attorney Jack Rowley referred
questions to Parish President Craig Taffaro. For now, the nearly 100
courthouse employees are waiting for the parish government, which oversees
the courthouse budget, to find an alternate site. Taffaro said the parish
should have a new site finalized this week, and that the relocation could
last for as long as a year.

Transitioning the entire parish justice system will be a logistical feat
involving five 34th Judicial District judges and their staffs, the parish
assessor's office, the district attorney's office and the entire clerk's
office and its electronic records system. Details about the move have been
hazy so far.

"I know the talk is to move us out, but exactly when, or where, or what,  I
don't know," Clerk of Court Lena Torres said.

Judge Kirk Vaughn said initial expectations were that the entire staff would
be moved by the beginning of 2010, based on recent discussions with Taffaro,
but he hasn't heard anything new in recent weeks.

"If you're talking about five courtrooms and offices and the clerk's office
and the assessor's office, I can't imagine that being done by early
January," Vaughn said. "We need jury boxes. We're set up to where we have
large court dates for every division, and every week we have a large number
of criminal cases coming up."

Taffaro acknowledged the complexity of the move, but said the most efficient
way to fix the mold problems and complete the renovations will be to vacate
the courthouse.

"The easiest way for us to remediate the building and not interrupt
functions is to try to move the functions to an alternate site during that
period," he said. "If we vacate the building instead of partitioning
sections off one at a time, we'll likely cut the repair time by at least a
third, or maybe even larger than that."

The courthouse repairs and renovations are beginning almost a year after the
parish government complex was rebuilt. Taffaro and parish chief
administrative officer Col. David Dysart said FEMA's historical review
process has pushed back renovations at the courthouse.

FEMA has not yet obligated money for the move, but an agency spokesman said
$367,000 has so far been set aside for courthouse repairs, including an
overhaul of the electrical, plumbing and ventilation systems, as well as
fixes for courtroom windows, benches and walls.

The move would mark the first time for court to be held outside the building
since 1939, when laborers with the Works Progress Administration put the
finishing touches on the art deco structure. The courthouse was largely the
brainchild of Solis Seifert, whose architecture firm that also designed the
Louisiana State Capitol and Charity Hospital. 

Parish Historian William Hyland recalled Seifert telling him that the
courthouse design was inspired by the grand temple of Mesopotamia, an
ancient building in what is present-day Iraq. 

Until the 1960s it was the sole hub for parish politics in St. Bernard,
housing the parish's Police Jury, School Board and all government offices.
Judge Leander Perez Sr., the legendary arch-segregationist political boss of
St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, held court there, first as a judge and
later as district attorney.

The main courtroom is a majestic, wood-paneled room with stained-glass
windows depicting the Battle of New Orleans, which happened just down the
highway, and the settlement of St. Bernard by the Canary Islanders in the
Spanish colonial period.