Demolition work at the old Asa Wood school brought an onslaught of questions from local residents if remediation work to clean it was complete.

Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program’s Mandy Harcourt said the only parts of the building that haven’t been cleaned are the concrete masonry units in the west wing.

“I’ve had several calls since the work began,” Harcourt said. “Everything else was abated through the Brownfields program.”

Libby Public Schools received a $388,000 remediation grant in 2021 from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfield Program. This grant money paid for the clean-up and oversight of the area, but the discovery of new materials raised construction costs over budget, school superintendent Ron Goodman said in a Nov. 22, 2022, story in The Western News.

The additional $139,000 in clean up was to be paid for by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). 

Vermiculite, a mineral historically used for insulation which can contain asbestos, was also found in concrete blocks located in the school.

Harcourt said there is no time table for when the rest of the work might be done.

Attempts to reach the owner of the property for comment, Darren Smith of Compass Health, were not successful.

Asa Wood Elementary School was originally built in 1953 and functioned as a junior high. A large junior high served Libby, as there was a lot of growth happening at that time. The school was changed into an elementary school in the 1970s after several remodels.

The school district stopped using Asa Wood as an elementary school in 2012. It previously served the Libby Central School for more than 11 years as a kitchen and a home to the Libby Food Bank and other community projects.

The school closed in 2011 after a vote by the board because the district was facing a massive budget shortfall of $700,000. The 42,200 square-foot school building was built in 1953, with additions in 1956, 1960, 1967 and 2015. The last work was the addition of a commercial kitchen in 2015.

According to previous stories, former Superintendent K.W. Maki, wasn’t in favor of selling the property, which included nine acres.

In 2012, the school board asked the Environmental Protection Agency to remove vermiculite asbestos from the walls.

Then, in September 2021, Libby Public Schools entered into an agreement to sell the defunct school to a California-based Compass Health. The deal was for $730,000.

In January 2023, Goodman handed the building keys to Smith.

Compass Health executives have previously presented plans to build a 35- to 45-unit assisted living facility on the property or developing the lot into commercial and mix-use buildings and homes with sections for senior and low-income housing.

Smith previously said, “Our motivation is not financial but rather to have an opportunity to enjoy a project outside of our home state of California.”

Smith said plans included an assisted living and senior living facilities as well as workforce housing.

“It will be an extensive remodel,” Smith said at the time. “First we’ll work with the current framework, then see what happens. We’d like to see plans by this summer and hopefully work beginning at the end of the year.”