Adams County Courthouse mold problems are ‘an inconvenient truth’; environmental testing company says county officials should look at alternative work sites

QUINCY — Doctors, attorneys and experts who deal with environmental building issues agreed Wednesday night that alternate work spaces need to be found for employees in the Adams County Courthouse until mold problems in the 84,000-square-foot building can be resolved.

Larry Schwartz of SafeStart Environmental was the host of a Zoom meeting Wednesday night, with more than 125 people attending online. A special meeting of the Transportation, Building and Technology Committee was scheduled for Wednesday night, but Adams County State Attorney Gary Farha issued a news release Tuesday saying communication from Schwartz “suggested that his intended plan of discussion may or may not fit within the agenda previously published” and wouldn’t comply with Open Meetings Act requirements. The meeting was canceled and not rescheduled.

Schwartz then offered the Zoom meeting for interested parties. He contradicted some statements made by Adams County officials throughout this process.

Schwartz said a Safestart report issued to the county in April said the entire building had unacceptable air quality levels. At a committee meeting earlier this month, Committee Chair Dave Bellis called the report a “draft.” Schwartz said that statement was “misleading.”

Schwartz said Wednesday night “work should cease in the building.” However, if employees must remain there, they should be wearing personal protective equipment and wash their clothes and take a shower when they get home. He acknowledged an outright closure of the building is not ideal, but alternative locations for courts and other functions should be considered.

When Adams County hired Safestart, officials attempted to funnel all of Schwartz’s communications by having him only contact Board Chairman Kent Snider or Bellis with test results. Schwartz said he held the meeting because he felt there were distortions being shared by county officials and he wanted to go directly to the people with concerns.

County employees were allowed to ask questions at the end of the Zoom meeting. County officials had asked for all questions to be submitted and screened for the Transportation, Building and Technology Committee special meeting.

The county hired Safestart in February for $56,000 at the request of employees and people who wanted the testing done.

Three doctors on the call with expertise in Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome — which Quincy attorney Ryan Schnack says he has been diagnosed with — were critical of the situation.

“It takes a lot of courage on Larry’s part to have this town hall meeting,” said Dr. Eric Dorninger, a naturopathic physician from Louisville, Colo., said. “This is an inconvenient truth. No one wants this to be the story of the Quincy courthouse. I’ve looked at thousands of buildings, and this is on the upper echelon of contamination and concerning buildings.

“We’re not out to get Quincy. We’re out to get Quincy’s population healthy. It’s not about blame or shame. It’s about integrity and accountability.”

Also participating in the call were Dr. Andrew Heyman, medical director of integrative medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Scott McMahon of Whole World Healthcare. He has been practicing pediatrics in Roswell, N.M., for 26 years.

Schwartz said he didn’t make a prior recommendation to close the building, because he didn’t have enough information at the time. He also said no one at his company ever declared the building as being safe.

One of Safestart’s attorneys, Mark Roth, said it was his opinion that the county should be responsible for medical testing for all employees to see if the building did indeed cause their symptoms. He said others who work in the courthouse but were not employees would probably have to go to court to get the county to compensate them.

County maintenance crews have used Adams County Jail inmates to begin removing old boxes and other contaminated materials from the building and hauling them away during hours when employees are in the courthouse. Employees on the Zoom meeting had concerns about that stirring more bad air, and one of the doctors equated that to blowing on a dandelion.

The entire HVAC system is to be cleaned as well.