November 28th, 2006

A man who worked on an asbestos removal project at Fort Morgan High School has been charged with the inadequate supervising of the asbestos removal, and has pleaded guilty to the charges. The man was sentenced to six months of in-home detention by a federal judge for failing to properly supervise the work.

In addition to the in-home detention, the contractor, Joseph John Cannella, received three years probation and a fine of forty thousand dollars. When the incident occurred, Cannella was in charge of a team of asbestos removers at the school where works were being carried out. Two other men have also been sentenced.

The school where the asbestos removal work was being carried out had been shut down by authorities in 2000, and this was because asbestos levels were raised following other works that had been carried out at the school.

The renovation of the school along with the asbestos clean up amounted to around eight million dollars, and around two million of this was paid through the state.