Coaldale discusses air quality issue at complex

Coaldale Borough Council has broken its silence regarding air quality problems inside a borough-owned building which caused a Head Start program there to close.

A half-dozen parents and relatives of students in the Pathstone Head Start program attended a council meeting Tuesday night to learn more about why their school, located in the Coaldale Complex, has been closed since before Thanksgiving. The students have been off since Nov. 21, but returned to classes Wednesday at another Pathstone location in Lehighton.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council President Angela Krapf read a statement and stayed after the meeting to answer questions from the parents.

Krapf said she was told by Pathstone in mid to late October that there were air quality issues, but they asked her not to tell anyone.

“We all feel that, had parents been given honest answers from day one, it would have saved everyone a lot of unnecessary stress,” she said.

Krapf said a contractor who was hired by Pathstone determined that there were particles that could affect people with allergies, but there was no reason people would have to vacate the building other than the four days when they were doing remediation.

“The company then stated that these particles are caused by basically what causes stale air. They are in most people’s homes, but they don’t know it because they don’t get tested,” she said.

The borough, which was already planning to upgrade the HVAC in the building, decided to install four HVAC units to address the stale air.

Following the remediation, Krapf said she was dissatisfied with the results, and the borough has now hired their own contractor, who will conduct air quality tests and remediation.

While the contractor Pathstone hired was only doing the part of the building used by the Head Start, Krapf said, the borough’s will address the entire building.

Parents who attended the meeting say that they are wary about having their children return to the complex.

Alex Willis said his son had been sick all school year.

“I’d rather him stay in Lehighton, or I wouldn’t put him back in school. I don’t want him going there,” he said.

Bob Corson also noticed that his granddaughter, who attended the school, always had a runny nose when she came home. He said she seems to be doing better.

They were also upset by the lack of communication.

While Krapf said she heard about the problem in October, parents didn’t find out until the end of November.

Corson said both sides are blaming each other.

“They’re blaming the borough, the borough’s blaming the school. It’s he said, she said,” Corson said.

Corson said he used to do mold remediation for a living, and wouldn’t want to send his grandchildren back to the Coaldale Complex because the problem isn’t completely eliminated unless the walls are replaced.

Councilwoman Claire Remington addressed rumors that borough workers were wearing respirators inside the building over the summer.

Remington said the workers were doing insulation work and the respirators had nothing to do with mold.

Remington said the borough has invested thousands of dollars into the building in the past few years, and believes it is better maintained than it has been in 25 years.

“It’s not just for you folks, it reflects on us, it reflects on our town. I went to school there. We want it to be safe for everybody, certainly for the children,” Remington said.