Community center mold remediation will be completed in time for summer programs

Mold remediation work at the Jamesport Community Center will be completed well before July 1, allowing the town to start several popular summer programs there on time, according to town engineer Ken Testa.
However, the job will cost about $5,000 more than anticipated, because a hidden bathroom that nobody knew about was discovered in the basement as the work began.
The town awarded a $26,950 contract to Middle Island-based Duraclean on an emergency basis May 31, after no bids were received on the project the week before. Duraclean was one of four companies that submitted informal estimates for the job last Month, and its proposal was the least expensive of the four.
Mold remediation was needed at the Jamesport Community Center and Town Hall because of flooding caused by the late March storms, and the Town Board’s decision to award the Town Hall job on an emergency basis, with no formal bidding process, became controversial after it was learned that the company that was awarded the contract was owned by a relative of Supervisor Sean Walter’s secretary.
A popular summer camp program that is attended by about 100 children is scheduled to begin in the first week of July at the Jamesport Community Center, and a number of other program are held there, including exercise and dance classes, youth programs and meetings of the Riverhead Garden Club, the Homemakers Club and a bridge club, according to town recreation supervisor Ray Coyne.
Dave Cullen, an aide to the supervisor, said the work will be done by June 22, despite the discovery of the underground bathroom.
The bathroom, with two toilets, was used more than 25 years ago when the building was a school, and its only entrance was from outside the building, according to Mr. Testa.
“It’s absolutely covered with mold,” Mr. Cullen said. Mold-covered sheet rock from the basement will need to be removed, he said.
The reason the job is expected to be done fast is because Duraclean has been working day and night shifts, Mr. Cullen said.
Most of the mold in the Jamesport facility is in the basement, Mr. Testa said. The town closed the building in mid-April because the basement was flooded.
Mr. Cullen said parents sending their kids to the facility need not worry about mold once the job is done.
“The place will be a better place than ever for the summer program, so parents should be comfortable sending their kids there,” Mr. Cullen said.
Mr. Testa said that while the basement bathroom will have to be cleaned of mold, the town can still decide later on if it wants to reactivate the old bathrooms.
Because the town didn’t know about the bathroom when it designed the specifications for the job, none of the companies it had sought cost estimates from considered that in their proposals, Mr. Cullen said.