June 22nd, 2006

It has been revealed that the Roaring Forks School District is set to spend nearly one million dollars on asbestos removal, with spiralling costs adding to its already huge bills. Work is being carried out at both Glenwood Springs High School and Glenwood Springs Elementary School, and is running into hundreds of thousands of pounds due to problems with asbestos presence.

The School District originally thought that the work at Glenwood Springs High School would come to around $400,000, but the cost of this work has already almost doubled to $750,000. At Glenwood Springs Elementary School another project is costing around $185,000, bringing the cost to $935,000 in total.

According to School District officials the additional funding required for the work will come from savings made on a construction project at Sopris Elementary School, as well as from contingency funds. The high school is largely being demolished and all asbestos must first be properly removed hence the high cost of the works, stated officials.

Asbestos was also found in another building that had to be demolished in order to make way for the new high school, but officials state that the cost of the removal of asbestos in this building was included in the total cost.