NEVER PAINT AGAIN

in over and they’re negative pressure, meaning that air is always being sucked up and out — that the exposure risk was minimal to zero,” he said.

Experts like Eric Hill, an emergency medicine physician and the EMS medical director for the Medical Center of Aurora, previously told Colorado Community Media that secondary meth contamination in public spaces poses a fairly low risk to the public.

“I seriously doubt someone would be symptomatic related to exhaust vent residue in an exhaust vent. It certainly means that, yes, there was methamphetamine smoked in there, but I think the public health risk is fairly low on that,” Hill said.

As of Jan. 27, the Englewood Public Library, the civic center’s second oor public restrooms and the north and south civic center lobbies are closed until further notice.

“We did secure additional restroom facilities for the public, since the public bathrooms are closed. We have a heated bathroom trailer here, available at the service center with separate women’s and men’s facilities, and we also secured two ADAcompliant portalets,” Rachael said.

“And we increased security during the day, when people might be using those, to help prevent any contamination concerns on these temporary facilities,” he added.

What are the costs?

e original testing the city did in early January cost approximately $2,800, Harguth said via email.

Rachael said the city has not yet gotten the exact cost of the additional testing but thinks it will be in line with the original testing cost.

For the cost of remediation, it was estimated to be approximately $40,000 for the initial remediation, Rachael said, but that cost will increase due to the additional testing nding contamination in more spaces.

“We’re getting a quote for that now, so the cost will increase based on the new scope requirements,” Rachael said.

Remediation process will not be as extensive as city originally thought

Originally, the city thought the cleaning process would involve a more extensive remediation for the restrooms in the library and the restrooms on the second oor of the civic center, likely involving the removal of drywall and ductwork.

“ at’s no longer the case, is our understanding,” Rachael said. “ e contractor who does the remediation … they’re gonna be doing just a deep cleaning on all surfaces.” e city said on its website there were some spaces in the library that tested positive for “lower levels of contamination.” When asked if these spaces will also be undergoing the three-application cleaning process, Rachael said, “Yeah, as appropriate.”

Harguth said in his email that the city anticipates the process will require a triple application of a mild detergent to clean the a ected areas.

Rachael explained this threeapplication cleaning process is what the remediation contractor will be doing for most of the contaminated spaces — the restrooms in the library, the civic center’s second oor restrooms, the north civic center lobby and the south civic center lobby.

“ e MOA bathrooms and the third oor bathrooms, the contamination was only in the exhaust vents, so there’ll be di erent cleaning for the exhaust vents,” he said.

“Some of the materials are going to be a little bit di erent. ere’s the oor, there’s the walls with the drywall, there’s things like — there’s a park bench that’s gotta be cleaned.

“So, generally, yes, I would say it’s the three-application cleaning process. ey may have to get a little more intricate depending on the material, though,” he added.

Looking ahead

Rachael said the city is having conversations as it moves forward through the remediation process about what reopening will look like and what it should include to help prevent this situation in the future.

“We’re looking at things like regular deep cleanings, similar to what’s being done now. We’re also looking at increased security. We’re looking at technology options — additional detection devices that can pick up not only smoke but other particles in the air,” Rachael said.

“ e health, safety and welfare of sta and the general public are the reason things are closed, the reasons we did the testing — and (are) gonna be our focus, as they have been, as we move into reopening and trying to make this a safe public space for all to enjoy.”