BLOOMINGTON — The Monroe County Board of Commissioners has spent years trying to replace the Zietlow Justice Center. The discovery of potentially dangerous mold could add another reason for their frustration.
The justice center, which contains the Monroe County Courthouse and legal offices, shut down on Tuesday to manage the mold situation. It remained closed on Wednesday but is on track to reopen Thursday morning.
"One office in the prosecutor's office had a bad mold, which, to my understanding, is black mold," said Monroe County Commissioner Administrator Angela Purdie. "That was identified on Friday of last week."
An environmental response team hired by the board of commissioners used a fogger on the mold during the weekend. It removed ceiling tiles to further examine the moisture throughout the building on Monday.
The board of commissioners decided to close the building to employees on Tuesday after hearing from the judge and county prosecutor on Monday.
"Maintaining the safety of our buildings is always the priority of our board of commissioners," Purdie said.
The Monroe County Jail and Sheriff's Office are not affected because they use different air filtration systems than the main Justice Center, according to Purdie.
Purdie said the design of the Justice Center has led to a series of maintenance issues over the years.
"It's not well-designed, access to piping is terrible," Purdie said. "With the high temperatures and high humidity, we were not able to maintain an appropriate humidity in that building. That has likely been the precursor for all of the problems we are now seeing."
The board of commissioners hopes to eventually leave the troubled building. They have plans to construct a new Monroe County Justice Center on a plot of land along State Road 46 just west of Interstate 69.
"Given the problems we have been having with this particular facility, they are definitely wanting to move everybody out of that facility," Purdie said. "Because of this event, I'm working on a policy for the county. We need people to tell us when there's something that's damp."
The mold and moisture samples are being taken to a lab in Indianapolis for testing. The board of commissioners recommends that immunocompromised employees stay home until the testing is complete
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