Discussion of how to replace plumbing throughout the entire Greene County Courthouse without disturbing asbestos garnered the majority of the discussion at another meeting of the group of Courthouse office holders and others Thursday.
Ed Padron with Professional Consulting and Development of Knoxville spoke to the group concerning options, and the pros and cons of whether to renovate the existing facility.
Intentions to move forward with the plans for the bathrooms became an apparent more favorable option after Padron seemed to ease some concerns from a meeting two weeks ago about asbestos throughout the building.
Padron said “When you first hear about asbestos, you think it’s a bad word. It’s really, it’s everywhere, in every building. But it’s something that we live with in construction every day. So it’s upsetting. It’s an unknown. It’s not something that day to day we see in our lives, but it’s there. So when it gets put front and center, then there’s some concerns. And I hopefully I helped settle down those concerns. It’s a very mature part of construction by now. So we’ll just deal with it as we move forward.
Bobby – “And what will Tuesday tell you?”
Padron continued “On Tuesday, we are going to collect some air samples to see if and how much if it’s there asbestos is in the area in this building. From the looks of it, this building is in great shape, it’s tired, but the finishes are in good shape, especially those that contain asbestos. So I don’t expect anything sensational here. If it’s there, it’s there and we’ll see at what level. But these are well established levels by Osha and EPA that will be comparing their results.”
But in the end, the group decided to go back to original plans from several months ago calling for renovation of the bathrooms.
Pardon is scheduled to visit the courthouse next Tuesday during regular business hours to collect air samples during a typical business day.
Renovating the plumbing inside the 100+ year old building rather than constructing one outside the building would obviously create challenges for office holders and the public as it pertains to availability and convenience. But it appeared to be a plan office holders were more in favor of working together on.
Architect Dave Wright projects the redo of 12 of the 14 bathrooms in the courthouse would take about a year to a year and a half to complete. Two other bathrooms in the upper floor will not be renovated.
The results of the Tuesday samples should be known by the time the group meets again in two weeks.
