When environmental engineers began the physical work of removing hazardous materials from the Saxe Middle School auditorium, more contaminants turned up than originally expected, officials said this week.
Specifically, PCBs and asbestos were found above the auditorium ceiling and in the wooden panels around it, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi.
“When they got into that ceiling and they took down the ceiling, they found when they sampled the dust up there, it did have PCBs so that was a significant amount of work that had to be performed,” Luizzi said Tuesday during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall. “There was also some work around the acoustical panels that had to come down. The fact that the asbestos that was used in the glue to hold those on the wall, which we know was everywhere, necessitated additional work.”
The selectmen approved about $100,000 to pay the civil and environmental engineering firm that completed the remediation work prior to the start of school in the current academic year, as well as for the owner’s rep on the project, bringing the total cost of remediation work at the auditorium to about $157,000, they said.
The work was part of the original contract with Tighe & Bond, and funds already have been put aside for the remediation, officials said.
“As you know, we were pretty hard up against that start date with the start of school, we didn’t have any real wiggle room as we went through it all,” Luizzi said.
There is more remediation work to be done at the school, as contaminants had been found in the paint of a boiler room that’s now closed off, Luizzi said. The work there will be done over the summer, he said.
Getting the work done was important for the timing of the overall project “because the remediation process itself can be long and drawn out,” Luizzi said.
“We really thought it was vital to get everything finished in there that we could” in order for the larger renovation of the adjacent music rooms and 12-room addition at Saxe.
Officials had found PCBs in the Saxe auditorium last December, and it’s been closed since then. A committee originally charged with overseeing work in the auditorium morphed into the Saxe Building Committee after a study of enrollment and space issues at the middle school led to a proposed $18.6 million renovation and expansion. Finance officials approved that project last week following a strong show of community support, and the Town Council is scheduled to take a final vote on Nov. 30 (and one town resident has said he intends to pursue a public referendum in order to undo the funding).