Mold mitigation is underway at a Carbon County office building in Jim Thorpe.

On Wednesday evening, Commissioner Rocky Ahner provided an update on the project in a room in the 44 Susquehanna St. building.

“Mitigation was completed today,” he said. “Renovation will start tomorrow (Thursday). Moisture mitigation design should be finalized this week and elections should be able to return (to that room) by the end of the month.”

The room in question is a portion of the elections office, located in the rear of the building, that normally houses the election equipment, as well as where ballot counting occurs on election nights. Employees for that office are still located in the front end of 44 Susquehanna in their normal office area.

The mold was discovered at the end of July when an employee noticed water infiltration in multiple locations along the base of an interior wall.

The commissioners then hired ServPro of Carbon County to complete an air quality and microbial testing early last month to determine the next steps needed to rectify the issue.

As a result of the report from the testing, an emergency declaration was made last week to allow for immediate mitigation to begin.

The county hired Sargent Enterprises Inc. of Jim Thorpe at an estimated maximum cost of $9,363; as well as JMSI Environmental Corp. at a cost of $2,150.

Sargent would complete the mold remediation, while JMSI would provide on-site and off-site project management, air monitoring and a water/moisture vapor mitigation system.

The county also rescinded a motion from Aug. 7 with ServPro for the mold remediation work because it was a conflict, citing that ServPro completed the air quality and microbial testing.

In the meantime, all election equipment has been moved and secured in the current conference room in that building.

That also means that all meetings and tax appeal hearings that normally are held in the conference room at 44 Susquehanna St. are being relocated to the second floor conference area in Planning and Development until further notice as the first floor conference room must remain locked to ensure the election equipment’s integrity remains intact.

Other departments within that building were not affected by the mold.