City of Hastings considering moving employees due to mold

A news conference regarding the mold issue has been called for Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

HASTINGS, Neb. — Hastings city officials are considering temporarily moving employees out of city hall because of health concerns.

A mold study conducted on a room in city hall two weeks ago found aerosol mold levels above the acceptable limit for general occupancy, according to a contractor. Environmental Director Marty Stange says staff has made efforts to mitigate mold, but it’s still present.

“It’s just a confirmation that for a long time we’ve known that there’s mold throughout the building, and it’s in the ductwork, the ductwork hasn’t been cleaned for a long time.”

Some citizen speakers criticized city leaders for letting the situation deteriorate. Some council members agreed, with Marc Rowan going as far to ask Stange why the city doesn’t do anything ever. He also questioned the timing of the report being released, suggesting it was intentionally withheld until after a pair of townhall meetings. City Administrator Shawn Metcalf denied the claim.

“There’s no conspiracy theory, there’s nothing like that, I can tell you. Our safety director, we were looking for an office for him and we saw the abundance of mold that was there. They did a mold study and here we are today. It’s really that simple.”

Councilman Shawn Hartmann was among those encouraging city administration to relocate employees until the mold is reduced.

“I would never put my employees of my company in an environment like this. There’s a lot of other safety issues we could bring up along the way, but I just don’t think it’s a safe environment right now.”

Metcalf has the authority to relocate workers for health and safety reasons without council approval.