Asbestos Laden Mall Given Ultimatum
The owner of a downtown Toledo mall that’s laden with asbestos was given two choices by city officials: “clean it or we’ll close it.”
According to an article in the Toledo Blade, the city plans to shut the doors of the nearly empty Southwyck Shopping Center in South Toledo if its owners do not clean up toxic mold and seal off the asbestos contamination found there by inspectors on May 2, said Chris Zervos, the city’s commissioner of building inspection.
“The present condition of the mall makes it a health hazard for the public and employees working there,” Mr. Zervos said. “They’ll have 72 hours to clean up the mold and secure the asbestos so dust is not allowed to escape into the public.”
Zervos says most of the asbestos can be found in the former Montgomery Ward department store. While that particular facility is closed to the public, maintenance workers who travel through the store on a regular basis are thought to be spreading asbestos throughout the rest of the mall.
“In anticipation of our coming, the maintenance man there swept it up and cut a path through it for us,” Mr. Zervos said. “That of course made it airborne. It’s a tremendous health concern for anyone who is there, anyone passing through the building, [and] for walkers who are there.”
Toledo’s commissioner of environmental services, Tim Murphy, said the roof of the closed Montgomery Ward store has leaked, which caused asbestos-containing insulation to become dislodged and fall off onto the floor.
Tenants and patrons, however, seem unconcerned. “I don’t think we are going to die if we don’t leave right now,” said Barb Porter of Perrysburg, who walks the mall as part of her daily exercise program.
The mall’s manager, Glen Anderson, of MD Management in Mission, Kan., declined to comment.
