ASHLAND — The Ashland County Common Pleas courtroom’s ceiling contains asbestos, county commissioners said Thursday.
Commissioners hired Envi Environmental LLC to remove asbestos that was found in the ceiling slated for repair, adding complexity to an already challenging situation.
Ashland County commissioners hired Simonson Construction earlier this month to fix a bowed ceiling in the second-floor courtroom that has been deemed unsafe for those sitting underneath.
The nearly $220,000 project is expected to last up to 15 weeks. The courtroom will close during that time, and all court proceedings in that span will move to a room at the Ashland County Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Removing the asbestos will add a little more than $15,000 to the project’s cost, according to county records.
The asbestos was found during an inspection before contractors started construction, commissioner Jim Justice said.
He said the substance is limited to the courtroom’s ceiling and emphasized the company’s commitment to keeping the entire second floor of the courthouse safe. Other offices on the floor will remain operational during the courtroom’s repair.
“Before anything happens in the courtroom, the person taking out the asbestos will the (courthouse) staff know, let us know where it’s safe,” Justice said.
“But my understanding is it will be contained to one room, it’ll be the courtroom. And the other offices will all be used.”
Commissioner Denny Bittle said the courtroom’s side walls do not have asbestos.
Asbestos can be found in a variety of products, including insulation, brake linings and is used to manufacture chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide.
The Environmental Protection Agency-banned substance is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers.
It’s linked to around 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation and the International Commission of Occupational Health.