Fate of Asa Wood School is still murky

Libby Montana News Archive

LibbyMt.com > News > September 2011 > Fate of Asa Wood School is still murky

Fate of Asa Wood School is still murky
by Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio
September 13, 2011
In a meeting Monday with EPA's Victor Kettelapper, Carol Campbell, and Libby Faulk, the Libby School Board made no final decision what to do with the building.

The controversy began when a piece of heavy machinery removing snow bumped the building and vermiculite began pouring out of the concrete block wall.

CDM, the EPA contractor, inspected the building inbetween December 28 and December 31, 2009, according to a CDM document, for vermiculite and found the material only in the exterior walls of the newer west wing, not including the library.

The school board asked the EPA for demolition costs of the newer west wing only. In the discussion were the options of removing the vermiculite from the walls, or removing and replacing the walls themselves thus keeping the building intact.

The construction is typical of the 1960s of filing the cells of concrete block with poured in vermiculite to increase the insulation value. There are many buildings in Libby, in addition to Asa Wood, constructed using this method. The addition was built during the Libby Dam era.
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Story by Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com e-mail: klcb@frontiernet.net.

LibbyMt.com > News > September 2011 > Fate of Asa Wood School is still murky

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