Mold forces clerks and police out of Inola Town Hall and into school administration building

INOLA, Okla. -- Mold is forcing town employees and police out of Inola’s Town Hall.

Workers are relocating to the school administration building for an undetermined amount of time while the mold is removed. About 10 employees work out of the building. Board meetings are also held at Town Hall.

Currently, there are no operating bathrooms in the building and affected areas are taped off to avoid spreading the contamination.

“They didn’t say it was a lot and the report they gave us didn’t say it was at a dangerous level,” Vice-Mayor Darlene Shear said.

Shear said an employee first noticed a leak in the at least 50-year old building. That prompted them to call maintenance who found the mold. They do not know how long it has been there.

Police Chief Brad Craig closed the police department last week because of it. He made officers who did need in the building wear masks.

“This is my office. There is water that comes underneath the wall here,” Craig said pointing at a spot on the carpet. “It has for some time. It hasn’t been fixed. You can see the stains right here of how far it comes out.”

Craig said some employees have recently suffered from illnesses they have not had in the past, but they have not been linked directly back to the mold.

Fans are constantly running throughout the building, while a company out of Tulsa continues to remove the mold.

Shear said it will cost more than $7,000 to fix, but it is necessary.

“We are thinking about our employees and our citizens,” Shear said.

Workers with the company removing the mold said they hoped to be able to test Town Hall by next week to make sure all the mold is gone.

Shear said they anticipate moving to the school administration building in three to five days. Their phone number and hours will be the same.

<p><em><strong>Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.</strong></em></p><p>Download our free app for <a href="http://bit.ly/2wfyiphoneapp" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/kjrhandroid" target="_blank">Android</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://amzn.to/1dLTWVt" target="_blank">Kindle</a> devices.</p><p>Sign up for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kjrh.com/account/manage-email-preferences" target="_blank">newsletters emailed to your inbox.</a> Select from these options: Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines and Daily Forecasts.</p><p><em><a href="https://twitter.com/KJRH2HD" target="_blank">Follow us on Twitter</a>:&nbsp;</em></p><p><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.html?screen_name=KJRH2HD" style="width:300px; height:30px;"></iframe></p><p><em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/kjrhtv" target="_blank">Like us on Facebook</a>:&nbsp;</em></p><p><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fkjrhtv&amp;width&amp;layout=standard&amp;action=like&amp;show_faces=true&amp;share=true&amp;height=80" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; height:80px;"></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p>