There was some excitement and the sense that there’d be more certain direction when a team from the Centers for Disease Control investigated the conditions of the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Bunnell in October 2018. By then the building had been evacuated for five months after dozens of employees reported sock-building-like illnesses and it was becoming apparent that sheriff’s employees were not interested in returning there. The CDC’s findings and eventual report could provide an objective analysis of the building’s problems.
When that report finally landed in Flagler County commissioners’ in-boxes, it made the sort of noise a falling tree does in a forest, when there’s no one there to hear it. Though addressed to Sheriff Rick Staly as far back as Feb. 21, the county didn’t bother posting it to its website or announcing it through a news release, as it had on a few occasions when the operations center controversy had the previous county administrator and the sheriff at loggerheads. Like that administrator, those days are gone, as is the county’s interest in the building, other than to sell it or demolish it. The current county administrator mentioned the report’s arrival in an offhanded way to Bunnell city commissioners Monday evening.
“At this point it really doesn’t change anything,” County Commission Chairman Dave Sullivan said of the CDC report. “It was neither fish nor fowl, basically said the same things we already know, being that there are problems with the building, but that they could be corrected. But there’s no dollars associated with it.”
Even if there were, the county and the sheriff have moved on. The county will either sell the building, though it hasn’t gotten any serious offers, or it will demolish it for $250,000. Taxpayers are on the hook for a $5 million debt.
“I often use the analogy that a car has a very little rear-view mirror and a great big windshield,” Cameron said of the building, “because you’re supposed to be looking where you’re going, and I’m not looking backwards. I’m looking to the future and to resolve these issues and move the county forward.”
Sullivan was under the impression Bunnell government was interested in the building. “That’s the only thought I’ve heard since we put it up for sale,” he said Wednesday. But there is no such interest, Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson said. Bunnell several years ago accepted the old county courthouse and briefly imagined it as its city hall. The city quickly returned the building to the county when it discovered it, too, was mold-infested. The county cleaned it up and leased it to a Christian school.
The CDC report is not particularly thorough or original. It relies on documents and inspections of the building that had been carried out previously, on visual observations by CDC personnel, and on interviews with county and sheriff’s employees.
“We observed signs of building dampness,” the report states, an observation lay people have made before and since. The report described some rust in the roofing structure, visible water damage in spots, stains and mold under carpeting and mats, water runoff accumulating at the foundation of the building, “allowing for potential water infiltration.” But the ventilation system was found to be “functional and well-maintained.”
The report summarizes employees’ descriptions of their working conditions in the building and the sort of symptoms they suffered. But then the report reverts to a documentation of subsequent analyses by an environmental consultant the county hired. That consultant concluded the HVAC system was not functioning properly after all.
The report then lists a few recommendations others have previously put forth–mitigating water intrusion and mold, cleaning up bat droppings, maintaining the ventilation system according to certain standards. One recommendation not mentioned before, and one that might catch the attention of sheriff’s or county employees regardless of the old operations center (or precisely because sheriff’s employees are headed into a new district office in Palm Coast eventually) is to “develop a communication system and a health and safety committee.”
Why? “It is important that clear procedures for recording and responding to indoor environmental quality complaints be established to ensure adequate and timely response and to prevent small complaints from becoming major health or comfort problems,” the report states. “Communicating with building employees and involving them in the process of addressing indoor environmental quality problems is essential.”
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Outsider says
Yes, the county has indeed moved on, leaving the taxpayers with 5 million in debt and ready to soak us for another 13 million. The building can be remedied, for much less than 13 million in additional debt to build a new Taj Mahal. Way to go, champs!
Alvaro says
Wow so it was never a sick building!? Have we been swindeled by the sherrif and the employees? Was this all just a roose to get a nicer new place out of dirty old Bunnell?
What a shame. The community has zero trust in its leaders if they do not remedy this building like the CDC has said would be fine and get the sherriff and his employees back to work in the fixed building saving us litterally millions of dollars
snapperhead says
Why is the county suing the seller, realtor and inspector of the Sears building but not taking any legal action against the contractors who obviously did shoddy work at the Operations Center? Homeowners and businesses sue for half ass workmanship for far less than what was spent there.
Outsider says
Could it be that the county building inspectors didn’t do their jobs? This whole situation is a stinking cesspool that needs an outside investigation. Fix the building; you can get downspout extenders at Home Depot. You can get dirt and re-grade. Pull up the flooring and seal the concrete. Clean up the bat shit; that can be done with some Lysol and paper towels. What is the hurry to tear the building down? Fix the building and do it right.
!
palmcoaster says
Wasted by FCBOCC five millions here and 15 millions plus in the Hoseinni Plantation Bay utility and several more millions buying derelict real estate from their buddies and on and on wasting our hard earned taxes while refusing to fork the 600,000 a year requested by the sheriff for more needed traffic units, a service that our ad valorem taxes over pay to the county. Also our taxes used by city and county to pay lavish VIP events at $80 a head per attendee at Hammock Beach resort and other venues. if they want to dine and dance benefiting the local private organizations like the Chamber of Commerce black tie galas pay their own way. We need FCBOCC members that will tighten their belts and gives us the services we are paying with our taxes other than frivolous waste.