Removing the asbestos in the Health Services Building has not yet begun.

“I don’t know when the project will start,” said Conrad Miller, project manager.

Miller said Beling Engineering Consultants were called into the Health Center to assess the situation. Now that the problem areas are realized, the governing board has asked the Board of Regents to receive quotes from architectural firms in order for a contract to be drawn.

The architect chosen to do the work will set up a time schedule with the university as to the beginning and ending of the project. Miller says the majority of the asbestos is located in the frame of the building and in the duct work.

The State of Illinois Capital Development Board will review the project before work can be done. The project, expected to cost $3,879,700, will be overseen by the Capital Development Board, Miller says. They will monitor all work and progress through the duration of the project.

“This is a very frustrating situation,” said Rosemary Lane, director of University Health Service. “We have to turn away patients because we don’t have the room,” she said.

Dr. Lane said nurses are now in charge of deciding which patients can be seen and which ones must be turned away. “We have enough people on our staff, we just don’t have the room to see everyone,” she said.

Another problem lies in the temporary location of the Health Center on the second floor of the Student Center. Miller says the Health Center has not been guaranteed a temporary location on the second floor of the Student Center for next semester. For this reason, he is hoping to see the completion of the project by Fall 1991.

Before the Health Center can be re-opened, Miller says an industrial hygienist must be called in to conduct air tests and make sure the asbestos has been removed.

Miller said he witnessed “fast track” progress by the Capital Development Board in the removal of the asbestos from the fourth floor of the Health Center last semester. He hopes to see the same type of “fast track” progress in this project.

John Harrod, Physical Plant Director, says work should begin on the Health Center within two months, with the completion of the project scheduled for late summer. Harrod says there will be remodeling work done in congruence with the asbestos removal.

“We are most anxious to return to the Health Services Building,” said Lane.