Pikeville battles mold - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

9 August 2007 — The Pikeville Town Board will shell out almost $10,000 to remove mold from the old BB&T building, though they don’t know yet what they want to do with the structure.

In a 3-2 vote on Monday night, the board agreed to award a contract for mold removal to Serv-Pro for $9,802.69. The contract requires the company to completely clean the building, removing cabinets and wallpaper, as well as cleaning out a clogged ventilation duct that may have contributed to the mold problem.

Mayor Herb Sieger suggested that the board go ahead and accept the bid from Serv-Pro, because prices are increasing. In fact, since the board received the bid a few months ago, the price has increased to $12,000 for the same services. However, the company agreed to hold to the previous bid if the town accepted this month.

The town accepted the building as a donation last year, though it wasn’t decided what the use would be for the structure. Some felt that it could serve well as a new town hall, while others thought the town could clean it up and sell it. Currently, the town is storing old records in the upstairs portion of the building.

Commissioner Johnny Weaver opposed agreeing to have the mold removed right now.

“I haven’t been convinced that we need the building,” he said. “I don’t see the use in spending the money if we’re not putting it to use for the town.”

Mayor Sieger then said that he feels the eventual use of the building should be for the town hall. The current town hall building requires more than $10,000 worth of work, and he said he felt like it would be a bargain to clean the mold out of the old BB&T and move the town hall there.

“This gives us the opportunity to leave something to the people who will be here after we’re long gone,” he said.

Commissioner Edith McClenny asked how often the town would have to clean the mold out of the building if the town held on to the structure. Mayor Sieger replied that, with proper ventilation, the building shouldn’t have the same mold problem again.

“We’ll just have to maintain it from now on,” he said.

But Commissioner Weaver said he still was not convinced the town should give the go-ahead to remove the mold.

“I’ve not been involved with, nor have I heard approved, a long-term plan for the building,” he said.

Commissioner Weaver said he didn’t agree with doing the project in steps. He said he would like to see an overall plan of how much it would cost the town to convert the building to a town hall before he agreed to spend $10,000 on mold removal.

“I don’t agree with doing this piecemeal,” he said. “We’ll spend this now and then we’ll say that since we’ve put the money in it, we might as well finish it. I don’t want to start this without a long-term plan.”

Glen Smith, who attended the meeting, asked about the parking situation downtown. Parking at both the current town hall and the old BB&T is street parking only, and some worry that the parking at the old bank is too dangerous, he said.

Commissioner Al Greene said that when he was police chief in Pikeville, there were more accidents in the old post office parking lot than on the section of street in front of the BB&T.

Commissioner McClenny added that when school gets out in the afternoons, it’s almost impossible to get through that part of town.

Mayor Sieger said that traffic could be an obstacle, but that the town has a history of thwarting solutions to that problem as well.

“If you’ll remember, when we tried to remove parking on that part of the street, that didn’t fly either,” he said. “You’ve got to make up your mind one way or the other.”

The site should be cleaned either way, said Commissioner Lyman Galloway, because the town can’t even sell the property like it is.

Commissioner Weaver moved that the town spend no money until they make a decision of what to do with the building. The motion was defeated, with only Commissioners Weaver and McClenny voting for it.

Commissioner Bruce Thomas then moved to spend the $10,000, which was included in this year’s budget, to remove the mold. The motion passed, with Commissioners Greene, Thomas, and Galloway voting for it.

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