Camden County Commission approves bid to remove asbestos from county buildings

CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. (KY3) - The Camden County Commission recently approved $4.7 million to remove asbestos.

“There were some people who claimed it was full of dangerous asbestos. So we always like to bring in an outside, unbiased expert to give us an opinion on anything that’s questionable,” said Commissioner Don Williams.

He says the Missouri Department of Natural Resources checked all the buildings. The department’s report came back, saying they were all in compliance with requirements, and the asbestos amount wasn’t dangerous. Only two buildings have the asbestos that needs to get removed. Those buildings are the old courthouse and the commission building.

”Despite that, we’re still going to have it removed. What I’m worried about is at some point, we all know right now, and all of our maintenance team know right now, that there’s asbestos. So they know to be careful about cutting into certain areas or drilling, that kind of thing.”

The commission would instead get it done sooner rather than later.

”I’m worried that, you know, 15-20 years from now, that might not be the case. So I figured we’ll get the asbestos out now while we are all focused on it,” said Williams.

Camden County is currently in a good position now to get it fixed.

“The National Public Finance company recently encouraged us to apply to have our credit rating raised. Right now, Camden County’s financial strength is in seventh place statewide. We only have 45,000 people. We’ve been very careful with our bonding capacity,” said Williams.

Employees in those buildings will move to other buildings owned by the county.

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