JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – An agenda item to hire a firm for remediation services at Thalia Mara Hall was only to pay for services already provided, not for new cleaning services to get the hall ready to be reopened.
On Tuesday, the council voted on an “order accepting a proposal from CTEH, LLC for professional remediation services to be performed at Thalia Mara Hall in an amount not to exceed $37,000 and ratifying CTEH’s previously performed services.”
Deputy Director of Human and Cultural Services Mike Williams said the item was to approve payment to CTEH for services that were already done.
“This item is to accept a contract and to ratify payment to CTEH, who was the company that we originally … brought on to do our remediation testing the week that we discovered mold at Thala Mara,” he said. “This is to pay for the first and second round of testing that they did, as well as to cover further contracted testing services.”
Thalia Mara Hall closed in August after mold growth was reported there. CTEH was brought on to conduct air quality surveys at the facility. So far, two tests have been conducted.
The first test was conducted on August 9. A second test was done after that on the recommendation of the city’s contracted engineer, Emad Al-Turk.
“I wouldn’t say the original test was incomplete, but it wasn’t as robust as we wanted it to be. To make sure that we had the entire building cleaned and so we can ensure a proper bill of health when we reopen… we issued a second round of testing,” he said.
“We got that second round of testing back maybe a couple of weeks ago, and then we had to bring other bidders… They had to do their walk-throughs, respond to the expanded scope, submit their reports, which again, just happened Friday,” Williams continued. “So, it’s taking time, but it’s all time that they’ve needed.”
As for the actual cleanup, Williams says bids were reviewed over the weekend and a notice to proceed is expected to be issued this week.
At least one council member was confused by the wording of the agenda item, with Ward One Councilman Ashby Foote saying, “When I heard the word remediation, I think that means it’s going to fix the situation.”
“You’ve talked about testing and testing is one thing. Obviously, it needs to be done, but is it all going to be straightened out after we finish with this contract here, or is there something else?”
Williams said the item was solely for the testing that had been done, and that another contract would be awarded for remediation.
“This company’s part of the scope of work was to do the testing that we required to give the information to the bidders for the remediation services. So… they would know what they were remediating,” he said.
Council Vice-President Brian Grizzell asked how soon Thalia Mara would be reopened.
“It may be unfair to you, but I’m going to ask because the people keep asking: ‘When are we going to be able to get back to business?”
Williams said proposed timelines from bidders range from four to eight weeks.
“Given that we’re moving into the holiday season, I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to impact it, but the timeline looks to be around four to eight weeks, depending on who we go with [for] the final proposal,” he said. “Again, given that we have not made or made public the determination yet, I don’t want to say which proposals have different timelines.”
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.
‘ Este Articulo puede contener información publicada por terceros, algunos detalles de este articulo fueron extraídos de la siguiente fuente: www.wlbt.com ’
