News Photo by Julie Goldberg Scott Reynolds, superintendent of the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District, on Monday holds a ceiling tile that’s falling apart.

ALPENA — The Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District has worked the past few months to put its administrative building back together.

From July to October, the district dealt with mold, damaged windows, water damage, and a section of ceiling tile collapsing at the building on U.S.-23.

Some employees are working in the building, while others are working in surrounding K-12 school districts. The district has worked to reopen the building to all of its employees.

The building is open to the public for district-related business, but rooms cannot be reserved for public use.

Mold was found in July when crews were doing minor renovations to the building. The mold was found on wallpaper when removing drywall and insulation, so siding was removed and the damaged area got a new moisture barrier, along with new siding.

The district found in August that two windows had damaged casings and a few other windows had gaskets that failed because they outlived their lifespan.

A section of ceiling tile collapsed in October. ESD Superintendent Scott Reynolds said Monday that was caused by a combination of the ceiling tile grid not being secured with insulation laying on top of it.

“We’ve been fortunate where we never had an issue where anyone was injured,” Reynolds said. “We’re fortunate that we’re able to get everything fixed.”

Water damage was found in the main vestibule of the building, so the district removed some of the wood and replaced that.

The total cost of all of those projects is $86,429, according to numbers provided by the district. Insurance is covering $21,332, so the district is paying $65,097.

The district has had to make some adjustments to its budget because of the projects, but Reynolds said the district has enough cash on-hand to cover the needs.

“Thankfully, it’s not going to have an impact on operations,” Reynolds said. “Generally, when we have facilities repairs, those are one-time expenses, and, so, if an organization has planned in advance and is able to anticipate, like our board and administration did, it puts us in a better position. But you can never predict when surprises can come up in a facility.”

Reynolds said it’s too early to define a clear return to normalcy for the building, but he is hopeful that it may be fully open by April.

“I think that staff would be happy to get back into the building and the community will be able to see that we’ve been reasonable in use of the funds to take care of some of the basic necessities of the workplace,” he said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.