The letter from the Hampden County court clerk ran for three pages and listed the problems with the Springfield courthouse. There was mold in the air vents, which was suspected of making employees sick. There was a lack of air circulation. The temperature was inconsistent, and the roof leaks. “Employees note that they feel better when they are not in this building,” the letter said.
The letter was not penned last week, when District Attorney Anthony Gulluni ordered the evacuation of his staff from the Roderick Ireland Courthouse due to mold and concerns about health hazards. It was written by clerk Laura Gentile in 2013.
After more than eight years of steady complaints by court staff, advocates, and local officials, could the recent evacuation be the push the state needs to finally replace or refurbish the long-ailing courthouse? Advocates certainly hope so.
When Gulluni evacuated his staff from the building on August 25, he cited the discovery of mold throughout courtrooms and offices, the Springfield Republican reported. Photos supplied to the Republican by courthouse workers showed mold on walls, floors, ceilings, ventilation ducts, chair arms, books, and a courtroom microphone.
Hampden County Register of Deeds Cheryl Coakley-Rivera followed Gulluni’s lead in evacuating her staff – and then filed a lawsuit this week seeking a judge’s order to immediately close the courthouse until it can be determined that the building is safe.
A Trial Court spokesperson said the court has hired a mold abatement company to clean the building. But a number of Western Massachusetts lawmakers are seeking a more permanent solution: raze the courthouse and build a new one.
State Rep. Bud Williams, a Springfield Democrat and former probation officer, told the Springfield Republican that he can name three or four colleagues who died young of different ailments, including lung disease, after working in the courthouse. That is in addition to the deaths of two successive presiding justices of the Springfield District Court – Robert Kumor and William Boyle – who died of ALS after using the same office.
Yet Western Massachusetts lawmakers have been saying the courthouse is unsafe for nearly a decade, with little to show for it.
Trial Court administrator Harry Spence acknowledged in 2013 that the Springfield courthouse was one of the “more severely ailing courthouses” in the state, and said the question was getting money to rebuild it. In 2016, the Legislature approved a budget earmark to study the courthouse, but the study never happened. A draft of the Trial Court’s 2017 Capital Master Plan did not list repairing the courthouse as a top priority. In 2019, the Republican reported that legislators met with state Trial Court officials to discuss plans to determine if the courthouse was making its employees sick, after Boyle raised concerns about whether his ALS diagnosis related to his work in the courthouse.
Now, Gulluni, Coakley-Rivera, and others are hoping the latest events will be the push the Legislature, governor, and Trial Court need to finally fund and move forward with repairing or rebuilding the dilapidated court. At a press conference Thursday, plaintiffs and their supporters slammed state authorities for years of inaction, with retired state Supreme Judicial Court Justice John Greaney of Springfield calling the building a “Hall of Toxicity,” rather than the Hall of Justice.
On Friday, Williams, who is the House chair of the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion, and other members of the Springfield delegation are planning their own press conference to discuss a letter they submitted to Baker on Thursday requesting an emergency order to rehabilitate or rebuild the courthouse. The letter said that “the only real solution is to tear it down, rebuild or find a new home for the courthouse.”
SHIRA SCHOENBERG
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Back to the future: After an attempt in 2001 to create a second Black Senate seat in Boston ended with no Blacks in the chamber, the push is on during the current redistricting process to consolidate Black voters back in a single district to enhance the chances of electoral victory. Kevin Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition called the 2001 redistricting “an utterly failed experiment” and vowed to consolidate voting areas split apart 20 years ago.
— The redistricting effort comes on the heels of Census results showing Boston’s overall Black population has decreased by nearly 9,000 residents since the 2010 tally. The Black share of the city population has fallen from 22.4 percent in 2010 to 19.1 percent in 2020, a change many attribute to high housing costs forcing an exodus of lower-income residents from the city.
— Former state senator Dianne Wilkerson led the bid to create two potential Black Senate districts in 2001 — and then lost her seat to Sonia Chang-Diaz amid campaign finance and tax troubles. Now Wilkerson is part of the effort to consolidate Black voters in one district, a move made easier by Chang-Diaz’s decision to leave her Senate seat and run for governor. Read more.
Mandate matters: State House vaccine mandates raise tricky questions for lawmakers. For example, can a senator or a representative who refuses to get vaccinated be denied access to the State House to vote on behalf of their constituents? Read more.
UMass goes global: The University of Massachusetts system is acquiring a California digital university in an attempt to broaden its appeal to adult students. The new system is being called UMass Global. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Amid talk that the city was planning — but then scuttled — some kind of enforcement action in troubled Mass. Ave. and Melnea Cass Boulevard area, Acting Mayor Kim Janey isn’t saying whether some kind of action had been contemplated. (Boston Herald)
A plan to rezone part of an old highway access road in Newburyport to allow for wind turbines is meeting with resistance from neighbors. (Salem News)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Striking nurses at St. Vincent Hospital will have their unemployment benefits suspended pending a state review, due to a request by the hospital. (Telegram & Gazette)
Contact tracers at the Pittsfield Public Health Department say the attitude of those they call trying to track the spread of COVID-19 has shifted, with many people being abusive. (Berkshire Eagle)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
US Reps. Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating both say they agree with President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. (Patriot Ledger)
The Wall Street Journal editorial page, a bastion of conservative thought, blasts the new Texas abortion law.
ELECTIONS
The Boston Globe endorses Andrea Campbell for mayor of Boston, saying “she radiates a sense of urgency, a palpable hunger to confront Boston’s hardest, most politically fraught challenges — its uneven schools and a law enforcement system that has lost the trust of too many residents.” Why the Globe endorsement matters, or could matter, in a tight race. (GBH)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
South Shore businesses are shortening operating hours, offering signing bonuses, and generally getting creative to address a nationwide labor shortage. (Patriot Ledger
EDUCATION
The Worcester School Committee votes to move on from Superintendent Maureen Binienda at the end of her contract next June and to immediately begin searching for a new school superintendent. (Telegram & Gazette)
Less than a quarter of Boston public schools students have agreed to weekly COVID-19 testing, a key mitigation step the system is aiming to put in place. (Boston Globe)
A UMass Amherst department head is charged with child exploitation for taking photographs of a nude child. (MassLive)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Three New Bedford police officers are suspended over how they handled the investigation into a car crash involving a city councilor. (Standard-Times)
MEDIA
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is making calls to high-level Democrats about staffing up a possible run for governor of Oregon. (Politico)