PERRY, Ga. — Robert Smith peels back a plastic curtain and strides down a gutted hallway.
"Initially when we had it broken down into phases, they would come in rip out the ceiling tiles, all the carpet, that sort of thing," he said.
The reason for the work?
Mold.
Smith, Perry's assistant city manager, said it was first detected in the city's Public Safety Building in October 2018. Tests later revealed parts of the building could be hazardous to employees.
Jim Taylor, who's worked in construction for decades, said mold problems can be serious for structures, too.
"It does get into the wood, it does get into the sheetrock," he said. "It does get into the insulation -- all that has to be removed."
That, Smith says, can be costly. He estimated the total price for cleanup and repairs would come to around $300,000, "unfortunately."
The mold has also forced Perry's fire department to split the firefighters that were stationed at headquarters (located at the Public Safety Building) between two alternate locations: another city fire station and a Georgia State Patrol office that's volunteered to house on-duty firefighters and their equipment.
Department Battalion Chief Kirk Crumpton said his firefighters don't mind.
"Failure is not an option," he said. "We have to keep going and the protection of the citizens of Perry has not changed, just the direction from which you hear the sirens may have changed."
Smith added that although it can be an inconvenience to some employees, the work to clear the mold had to be done.
"We came and did the testing. The testing came back -- it's a rather serious situation," he said. "There are different tolerances with people in regard to mold issues and that type of thing, but we're not going to take a chance."
Smith projected the work to wrap up in May.