When I started the Behind the Blackboard series, I never imagined it would evolve into multiple counties and now into multiple departments within those counties.
But here we are.
This is the next concern that has been brought to me, and it is one I am beginning to dig much deeper into.
I have now been contacted by multiple employees regarding conditions inside the Wicomico County Health Department’s Seth H. Hurdle Building in downtown Salisbury.
Employees have reported concerns involving mold, water intrusion, wet walls, buckets catching dripping water, repeated leaks, illnesses they believe may be associated with time spent inside the building, and the condition of a basement they describe as having been condemned for years.
I have not personally been inside the building in several months, so I am not going to pretend I have personally witnessed its current condition. However, I am being told by employees that the smell of mold can hit you as soon as you enter the building.
Employees tell me the basement has been closed off with yellow barrier tape and described internally as condemned. Yet their concern is simple: even if an area is closed to employees and visitors, the building still shares air circulation.
That raises questions not only about the employees who continue to work there, but also members of the public who enter the building to conduct business.
I am also being told that portions of the third floor have experienced enough water intrusion that tarps have been placed over paperwork and other materials, with buckets positioned to catch active leaks.
Before anyone immediately dismisses this as rumor, there is already a substantial paper trail in Wicomico County’s own records showing that water and moisture problems at this building are nothing new.
And to be clear, I am not placing this at the feet of the current County Council or current administration. These problems have been documented for years and span multiple administrations.
The employees working for the Health Department are State of Maryland employees, but the building itself belongs to and is maintained by Wicomico County.
County capital improvement documents going back years describe water intrusion into the basement as a chronic problem.
The county documented groundwater and tidal water infiltration, excessive moisture and hydrostatic pressure beneath the building. At one point, an engineering proposal contemplated raising the basement floor, with an estimated cost approaching $1 million, before other alternatives were pursued.
By FY2019, the county was budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars for additional work. That included removing flooring down to the concrete slab, installing another sump pump and specifically bringing in a mold remediation specialist to evaluate and correct problematic areas.
Then there are the County Council minutes.
During an October 2018 County Council discussion about relocating employees, Councilman Joe Holloway specifically referenced employees having mold problems where they were working.
Assistant Director of Administration Weston Young responded that, with the water pressure coming into the building, there was “bound to have mold.”
The discussion also made clear that Health Department employees needed to be moved out of the Hurdle Building basement so the county could investigate and attempt to correct the problems.
Years later, the problems apparently were not entirely behind them.
County documents subsequently described significant failure of portions of the exterior wall covering that allowed water penetration into the building, with approximately another $200,000 proposed for repairs.
By 2025, while discussing moving the Health Department out of the building, County Executive Julie Giordano publicly stated that the basement could not be utilized.
Now we get to what employees themselves are telling me.
Multiple employees have described the basement to me as “condemned.”
There is an important distinction that needs to be made.
Thus far, I have not located an official county document or formal condemnation order using that specific legal terminology.
What I have found is employees repeatedly describing the basement that way, combined with years of county documentation showing chronic water intrusion, excessive moisture, mold remediation efforts, employees being moved out of the basement and ultimately the basement becoming unusable.
Employees also tell me complaints have been made over the years and that MOSH has previously conducted air quality testing. I am told employees were advised that results were within acceptable or tolerable standards.
But some employees are also reporting something that deserves further examination.
They say they experience symptoms after spending time inside the building and that those symptoms improve after they have been away from the building for a period of time. Symptoms and conditions treated by a pulmonologist with actual prescriptions. This is several employees working in the same building. I guess it could be coincidence.
That does not prove the building caused those illnesses.
I am not a doctor, and I am not making that medical determination.
But it absolutely raises questions that deserve answers.
The Hurdle Building has now been declared surplus as the Health Department prepares to relocate.
So my questions are only beginning.
What areas of this building have employees actually been working in during all of these years?
How extensive were the documented mold problems?
What environmental or indoor air quality testing has been performed?
Who performed it?
When was it performed?
Were employees given complete copies of those results?
Were there areas employees were prohibited from entering?
When was the basement first determined to be unusable?
What remediation was completed?
What problems remained afterward?
Were follow up tests performed after remediation?
How many employees have reported illnesses or symptoms they believe are associated with the building?
Were those complaints documented?
And most importantly, is there any connection between what employees are reporting medically and the conditions that have been documented inside this building?
Again, I am not making that medical determination.
That requires evidence.
But when multiple employees begin coming forward describing sickness and workplace concerns while the government’s own records document years of water intrusion, excessive moisture and mold remediation problems in that same building, it deserves more than a shrug.
It deserves questions.
It deserves records.
It deserves answers.
And most importantly, it deserves daylight.
Because closing off a basement does not close off the questions surrounding what happened inside the rest of the building.
This one is just getting started and I quote “as state employees we feel forgotten by Wicomico County”.