Finance board gets update on Westport school PCBs

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By VINAYA SAKSENA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

August 18, 2011 12:00 AM

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WESTPORT — Superintendent of Schools Carlos Colley gave the Finance Committee an update this week on efforts to remove a hazardous material from Westport Middle School in time for the start of the school year.

Colley reported that work had begun to remove polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — a material commonly used in buildings prior to the 1980s but now believed to be a carcinogen — found in the building's window caulking and ceiling. And while the remediation project had not run into any major problems so far, the superintendent said it is difficult to estimate how much the work will ultimately cost.

Colley said that while most of the PCB-containing glue used on ceiling tile panels had been coming off easily, workers had sometimes encountered layers of it that were more difficult and time-consuming to remove. This, he said, could drive up labor costs for the project, which the School District plans to pay for out of its operating budget before seeking reimbursement via a special Town Meeting in the fall.

Finance Committee member Tracy Priestner asked if floor tiles had been affected by PCBs, to which Colley replied that cleaning and waxing the floors had been determined to be sufficient to address this concern. He noted that asbestos found on site would be properly removed and disposed of along with the PCBs, and that repeated testing for PCBs would be conducted after the known material is removed.

Committee member Bob McCarthy cautioned Colley that with the national economy still ailing, a bond article for the PCB cleanup might be more of a tax burden than voters could handle, and thus would have to be effectively pitched to voters by the superintendent. McCarthy also warned that if the article failed and significant budgetary cuts were needed to make up for it, the schools' workman's compensation costs would rise — something Colley said had already happened due to cuts made in the past year.

An Aug. 9 special Town meeting included two articles intended to appropriate funding for the PCB removal project, but both were passed over after Colley said the cost of the project exceeded the $1.1 million total allowed in the articles.

Colley has indicated that the PCBs had been discovered during preparation for a "green" window replacement project at the school that had to be abandoned due to the cost of PCB removal.

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