March 2nd, 2005

A meeting has been held in order to try and reassure parents of pre-schoolers following the colure of a pre-school center in February. The Bright Beginnings Center had to be closed on February 3rd of this year following the discovery of high levels of asbestos in the air in one of the classrooms. However, at the hour long meeting, the school superintendent, Patricia Ruane, and the Town Co-ordinator, Eugene Phillips, both confirmed that the airborne asbestos problem had been sorted out. Patricia Ruane told attendees at the meeting: "We have sort of a clean bill of health to go back there. The teachers have been there to move their materials back into the classrooms."

When the airborne asbestos was discovered there were dangerously high levels of it in the air – above the federal standards. This obviously raised concerns, and the building had to be closed down to allow investigations and a clean up. Following the clean up, the asbestos levels have been reduced to well within federal safety standards. However, Eugene Philips has also confirmed that there are and will probably always be some benign asbestos around the school.

Concerned parents demanded to know whether regular testing would be carried out to ensure that this sort of problem did not arise in the future, but they were told by Patricia Ruane that the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act regulations did not require regular testing. She stated that, instead of regular testing, asbestos materials in the school would be monitored to ensure that they were not disturbed, and therefore would no release asbestos fibers into the air.