SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake city councilmembers agreed to enlist the services of a local company to fix the mold issue that was discovered in the city’s vacant fire department building. The council recently agreed to turn the building over to the police department for the purposes of storage and training.

In the recent general election voters agreed to annex the city into Grant County Fire District No. 7. In response, GCFD No. 7 Chief Kirk Sheppard previously asked the council to consider allowing the district to take possession of the smaller equipment the city was housing in its vacant fire department building and use the space to store some of the district’s vehicles.

The council also heard from Soap Lake Police Department Chief Glenn Quantz, who asked the council to consider allowing the police department the use of the building for storage and as a training facility. The council sided with Sheppard, but at the Feb. 3 council meeting Sheppard informed the council the facility was not viable for the district after the discovery of mold in the building’s insulation.

The council agreed to turn the building over to the police department and the city has been receiving bids from outside companies to address the mold problem for the past several weeks. At Wednesday night’s council meeting councilmember Judith Tramayne made a motion to authorize Mayor Raymond Gravelle to sign a contract with Lifespan Systems Inc., a mold inspection, testing, evaluation, remediation and removal company based out of Soap Lake, for $25,753.

Councilmember Kat Sanderson voiced concern about the contract, questioning if the mold that was found in the building was indeed black mold.

“I think we should have it (the mold) tested to see if it is black mold or not before we spend $25,000 on removing black mold,” Sanderson said. “Because there is a big difference between mold and black mold and removal and remediation of that kind of mold is an expense. And I think this is a lot of money to fix that building and I would like to have all the information.”

Councilmember John Glassco, who does environmental remediation in his day job, assured his fellow councilmembers the mold in the building is black mold. He pointed out the presence of the mold is due to the wet fire equipment that was brought into the facility and dried out in the space, which in turn saturated the inside of the building and the insulation.

Glassco initially spoke in favor of a proposal which featured the installation of a ceiling in the building at the 12-foot level. The insulated ceiling would have made it so the entire building did not have to be heated, Glassco said.

“Instead of insulating the upper envelope we would be insulating the lower envelope and he (the owner of Lifespan Systems) would be putting in a dehumidification system so that the mold would not reoccur,” Glassco explained.

Glassco later withdrew his support for the ceiling proposal after Quantz explained the police department would be primarily using the building for the storage of training equipment and the heat would only be turned up in the facility during training hours. When the SLPD isn’t training the heat would be turned off, Quantz said, which led to his belief that his department can get by without having the lowered ceiling.

Gravelle said the added expense of the ceiling proposal is a little pricey, given the fact that the building is primarily going to be used for storage.

“It’s basically storage, with the occasional use for training. Seems like a lot of money just for storage. If the purpose changes (and) it’s going to be used for something else, then maybe some of this expense would be justified,” Gravelle remarked. “I just don’t see it.”

Tramayne, Glassco and councilmembers Steve Wellein, Robert Brown, Kandis Lair and JoAnn Rushton voted in favor of authorizing Gravelle to sign a contract with Lifespan Systems. Sanderson voted against the motion, stating she still needed more information on the mold and if the job itself could be done at a cheaper price.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.