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Date: 3/29/2022
SPRINGFIELD — At the request of the Hampden County Bar Association, Congressman Richard Neal announced on March 14 he has asked Marty Walsh, the U.S. secretary of labor, to conduct a study of the health and safety conditions of the Roderick Ireland Courthouse. The study would also involve Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Neal emphasized the issue of a new courthouse is one for the state as opposed to the federal government. The building “remains the responsibility of the state of Massachusetts,” he said.
Neal did state that there have been five deaths from ALS and 60 from cancer among people who regularly worked in the building in the past several decades.
The congressman also listed how county officials have reacted to the most recent report detailing the presence of mold and other issues at the courthouse. Sheriff Nick Cocchi has announced he would not send inmates to the courthouse, while Register of Deeds Cheryl Coakley Rivera has ordered her staff to work from home. District Attorney Anthony Gulluni has moved his staff from the building.
Neal said he hopes the federal agencies begin “right away.”
He explained the advantage of having OSHA involved as it has “a long reach” in terms of health and safety issues in the workplace.
Attorney Jeffrey Morneau, past president to the Hampden County Bar Association and current president of the Hampden County Bar Foundation, said the organization is “very grateful” for Neal’s request for more investigation.
Before the Bar Association filed a lawsuit against the commonwealth concerning the building, members toured it and Morneau said the water damage and mold were “blatantly obvious.” He said unrelated to the issues in the lawsuit there was a report of leaking sewage causing a ceiling to collapse on the third floor of the building recently.
Hampden Superior Court Clerk Laura Gentile noted the health problems in 2013, as reported then in Reminder Publishing, and testified before the state Senate about what was happening in the building.
She said the issue is balancing the safety and health concerns with the work the court must do.
“This is the stuff we’re dealing with every single day,” she said.