JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba responded Monday to a recent State Fire Marshal’s report highlighting nearly two dozen violations of the state fire code at Thalia Mara Hall.
“A lot of those issues were very minor issues that won’t take long to deal with,” he said. “The biohazard thing is not something that’s a weeks-long pursuit. It is a cleanup, and it is to ensure that we don’t have the unhoused getting up in that area anymore.”
Last week, the State Fire Marshal’s Office conducted a pop-up inspection of the Municipal Auditorium, where they cited 22 violations of the International Fire Code, including out-of-date fire extinguishers, open junction boxes, blocked exit signs, and combustibles being stored around a flammable storage locker.
[READ: State Fire Marshal report outlines 22 fire code violations at Thalia Mara Hall]
The report was released on September 10, and, among other things, highlighted the large amount of human feces located outside of doors and windows on the second floor – much of which was still there when WLBT visited the hall on Monday afternoon.
Fire Marshal Mike Chaney gave the city 10 days to provide a plan of remediation for the site or risk having the 2,000-seat auditorium shut down.
The mayor didn’t say how soon concerns could be addressed, but said work would begin once it’s safe to return inside the building.
“There are reasons that we don’t want anyone in Thalia Mara until the remediation goes forward, but once it’s safe to return, the Jackson Fire Department’s fire marshal will work to assist Thalia Mara crews to address the issues. Contractors are on standby to address the biohazard issue that was on the balcony,” he said.
The city’s air quality inspection report was released in late August. It revealed the presence of three types of molds in the facility: Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the three can cause a stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, and burning eyes. It also can impact individuals with asthma or chronic lung infections.
Last week, the city was still looking at quotes to remediate the mold. The remediation work itself could take four to eight weeks.
Lumumba wasn’t aware of whether the fire code violations were present before Chaney’s report, and didn’t know if previous inspections by the city’s fire marshal uncovered similar problems.
“They have many facilities to go to, not only city facilities, but privately owned facilities, so they’re working day in and day out to look at fire code issues,” he said, referring to the Jackson Fire Department. “The good news is that we have them to our benefit to work along Thalia Mara crews to make certain that not only what the state fire marshal identified [are addressed], but other issues that they may not have realized.”
Thalia Mara was shut down in August after mold growth was discovered there. The hall has been off-limits to the public since then.
The mayor said before the report was made public Jackson already was working to address the homeless issue, such as installing fencing to prevent the homeless from accessing the area.
“When I say fencing, not only fencing to not only eliminate people’s access to those areas but also maintain the esthetic appeal,” he said. “I don’t want Thalia Mara Hall to look like some caged facility. We want it to look like the beautiful facility that it is.”
Lumumba, meanwhile, questioned the timing of the fire marshal’s inspection, saying it wasn’t a coincidence that it happened at the same time the facility was dealing with other issues.
“There [is] a lot that is behind those things. There are things I can’t speak on based on, you know, HR restrictions,” he said. “But we’re going to push forward with Thalia Mara. We’re going to fix those minor issues that the state fire marshal’s pop-up investigation or inspection identified.”
Chaney tells WLBT he ordered the inspection after receiving a complaint regarding “life safety issues” there. It’s not known who reached out to Chaney’s office.
The mayor also responded to questions regarding whether the city had the funds needed to make repairs at the hall months before it was shut down.
“We can’t go to an engineer before we have the money and say, ‘Listen, give us a spec. Start this work, but we don’t really know how we’re going to pay you,’” he said. “What created the interruption is that while we were going through each one of these steps, we had the decline… the further decline of the air conditioning unit.”
One of the air conditioner units quit functioning over a long weekend, likely contributing to mold growth in the facility. City officials later revealed they knew the air conditioner was operating at a diminished capacity for the last decade. Lumumba said the city didn’t have the money to make the repairs.
However, an investigation by WLBT last week showed Jackson had access to nearly $2 million in state funds specifically to address needs at Thalia Mara, including $461,000 left over from a 2022 allocation and all of a $1.5 million allocation left over from 2023.
The $461,000 is currently sitting in a city bank account, earmarked for Thalia Mara repairs. The city didn’t submit the paperwork to draw down on the 2023 allocation until July of this year, nearly five months after the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration told the city it needed to apply for the money.
Jackson submitted the final, corrected documentation on July 24, and the funds were transferred the next day, just days before the hall was shut down.
Lumumba said had the air conditioner not shut down, the city wouldn’t be talking about conditions there today.
“We wouldn’t be talking about it, and you would be none the wiser if it had just held out a little longer,” he said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t agree… And so now, we’re talking about how we have been moving toward that process.”
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 ’
