The Sebastopol City Council voted Tuesday to approve $175,000 for the Sebastopol Regional Library’s continued mold remediation and investigative demolition.
On June 4, the Sebastopol library abruptly closed indefinitely due to a potential environmental hazard. After various tests, the city of Sebastopol and Sonoma County Library released a joint statement the following week that peeling wallpaper in the staff room and teen area exposed mold spores.
According to City Manager Mary Gourley, the $175,000 approved Tuesday is in addition to the initial $47,687.55 spent on the library’s initial emergency response, which the Sonoma County Library reimbursed half of. In total, the city and library have spent approximately $198,000 on the mold remediation.
“This investment is critical to addressing the mold issues, ensuring the long-term safety and usability of this important community resource,” Gourley said. “We remain committed to transparency throughout the remediation process and will provide further updates as the work progresses.”
Gourley said the city is working closely with the library to ensure a responsible use of public funds. As part of the emergency response, the city’s cleaning contractor, Servpro, established containment measures and installed air scrubbers. Remediation specialists also investigated and ran tests to identify the source of the moisture and other potentially affected areas.
Gourley said investigative demolition will need to continue before the Sebastopol Regional Library can move forward with repairs.
In June, the library announced that all books on hold were relocated to the Forestville Community Library, which had extended summer hours to account for the closure. Gourley said the city is continuing to open temporary locations for drop-offs, classes, programs and the mobile library service, Bibliobus.
