Funds Held From Contractor to Pay for Mold Cleanup

CADILLAC, MICHIGAN- The contractor for the new courthouse addition can kiss $16,502 of its remaining money owed it goodbye. Members of the Wexford County finance committee Wednesday directed county Administrator Mike Sutter to use part of the $38,000 he still holds of Gundlach Champion funds to pay for black mold cleanup at the courthouse. “Take it out of the Gundlach fund,” said Commission Jay Thiebaut. “They are the people that flooded the basement. They were the ones that ran water all over.”

Sutter sent a letter to the contracting firm in December stating they could have some funds if they secured the heating stack with guy wires. That has not been accomplished. Commissioners directed Sutter to rescind the letter. “The bushes aren’t growing, the grass isn’t green, the furnace doesn’t work. I could make a laundry list,” Thiebaut said.

Commissioners awarded the $16,710 contract to remediate Black Mold to ServPro of Manistee at a meeting last week. County officials believe the mold is due in part to flooding caused by heavy rain last May. A pipe in the crawlspace of the old courthouse was not properly rerouted, officials have said.

In a related matter, commissioners directed Sutter to hire a heating expert to look at the heating system at the new and old courthouses to advise how to get it to work properly.

By Dale Killingbeck

Author: Carolyn Willbanks