Published: November 17, 2009 09:06 am      

River Bend wrestles with covering asbestos incident costs

FULTON, Ill. — During Monday night’s River Bend School Board meeting, Superintendent Jane Bauer offered a report on the abatement of the asbestos in the shop classroom of the high school.

Bauer said she will be attending a meeting in Springfield, Ill., to further discuss the incident. Bauer said she is unsure as to whether the school district will be given any kind of fine for the incident.

She said there are two different types of violations. The first occurs when someone blatantly violates the code. The other applies to an accidental situation where a mistake was made. Bauer said she does not know which violation, if any, the district will be accused of committing. She said a similar incident occurred in Sterling, Ill., and the state did not get involved. Bauer said she just does not know what might happen.

“I just know, that we have done every single thing right. And we are being accused of allowing abatement to take place by someone who’s not licensed. And that is not the truth, but that is how the state is portraying it at this time,” said Bauer.

Bauer and the board also discussed the money that would go into the abatement process. Bauer said when the incident first occurred, they had contacted their insurance provider to see what coverage the district has for this type of situation.

Bauer said they were told the insurance would not cover any health concerns, but might cover the abatement.

Bauer said they recently learned the abatement would not be covered. She said this is unfortunate due to the costs of the project.

“This project is going to be a big project,” said Bauer. She said they have already had to pay IITI $8,876 for the one day that they closed up and confined the area. Bauer said the district also will have to pay a good deal of individuals, such as the architect, abatement professionals and attorneys.

Bids for the project were opened Monday. The board approved the low bid by Abatement Specialists, in Cedar Rapids.

The bid was $46,536 for the main portion of the project and $2,800 for an alternative bid for another area.