RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The top cop in Riviera Beach says that the city’s police force has a long-term problem with mold.
The building is old, so the police chief says the whole force will move out.
In 1978, the police station in Riviera Beach was built. Due to mold, the police chief says it’s time for everyone who works there to leave and tear down this building.
“Experts say that we can put a band-aid on this building, but that won’t solve the problem in the long run,” said Riviera Beach Police Chief Michael Coleman.
Coleman says there is mold in several places at the police department. Over the years, the building has been cleaned and treated to get rid of the mold, but it keeps coming back because the roof leaks and some of the windows let water in.
We asked the Chief, “How much of the building has mold?”
“I don’t know that, and I don’t have a percentage answer. But I’ve been here for two weeks, so I’ve walked around the building. I began work on April 10. “I’ve walked around the building, and there’s mold in a lot of different places. Because of the mold problem, we don’t use some areas as much,” said Chief Coleman.
When we asked to see the mold in the building, the police chief said no. But he says that even though the building hasn’t been shut down, some buildings have been closed.
In 2017, the police union gave CBS12 News pictures of the mold in the police station.
“We’ve done a lot of different things to keep our people safe. Chief Coleman said, “We have already moved some people out of this building.”
At this point, they want to move all of the police officers out of the police station.
“We want to stop doing fixes over and over again. “It’s expensive, and until we get a new station in four years, we feel better moving to a new building,” said Assistant Chief Michael Madden.
For the next four years, until a new police station can be built, the city will pay $512,000 a year in rent to put the police force in the Port Center in Riviera Beach.
The Chief thinks the price is well worth it.
“I don’t know if it’s dangerous enough to keep people from coming here. “We just want to make sure that no one has been exposed to a bad environment or bad air,” said Chief Coleman.
A mold expert says that mold can make people cough, have trouble breathing, and get headaches.
He also says that long-term contact can hurt the heart, the lungs, and the brain.
Christopher Shean, the owner of Titan Remediation Industries in West Palm Beach, said, “Usually, you’ll start to feel the effects three to five days after the mold starts growing because it starts making the gas (from the spores).”
The police chief says that he hopes all Riviera Beach Police officers and staff will be moved to the Port Center within 90 days.
The police chief says he knows of only one report about the mold problem, and he doesn’t know of anyone who’s gotten sick from the mold.
We asked Shean, “How worried should you be if you work in a building with mold?”
