The owner of the building that used to house the Matanuska Maid creamery and warehouse in Midtown will pay $70,000 in penalties for failing to protect employees renovating the structure, according to a state safety agency.
Investigators from Alaska Occupation Safety and Health say Northern Lights Center LLC knew the building contained asbestos but failed to perform an adequate asbestos exposure assessment. The corporation also failed to ensure proper exposure control methods were used and failed to warn employees about the asbestos hazards prior to performing demolition activities, according to AKOSH.
Safety enforcement officer Keith Bailey said he first approached the site in April 2009 in response to a complaint from a worker. The company was unable to provide an asbestos hazard assessment, and a survey conducted with an environmental company discovered asbestos was present, Bailey said.
Investigators didn't issue a stop-work order after the initial visit, though the company was put on notice that it needed to take action to avoid putting workers at risk, said Grey Mitchell, director of the state Labor Standards and Safety Division. Then in June, the city informed investigators that work was continuing at the site, he said.
Bailey "returned to the building and found that work was in fact continuing and that there wasn't an asbestos hazard assessment completed. That's when a stop-work order was placed," Mitchell said. "And that's the basis for this higher level penalty of a willful violation, where the employer has been made aware and yet chose disregard for employee safety and health, and continues on."
Again in July, Bailey did an inspection and found that additional construction had been taking place, despite the stop-work order, he said.
AKOSH issued the corporation two citations in September. Northern Lights Center initially contested the citations, but now has agreed to pay the penalty specified in the initial citations, Mitchell said.
Matt Bobich, along with his family, bought the building from the floundering state-run dairy in 2008 for $1.5 million, according to news reports at the time. Bobich said Friday the building now has a number of tenants and he's been preparing more space for others, including some self-storage space. The crew was taking out Mat Maid's refrigeration system at the time of the alleged offense, he said. Bobich maintains he didn't do anything wrong.
"I will have to pay a fine but part of our settlement agreement is that I am not admitting any fault," Bobich said. "When we got into the demo portion of the building, apparently I was supposed to file some paperwork with OSHA. My contractor and my architect did not advise me to do that, so I feel it's more of a technicality than anything else, but it's one of those government red tapes that I had to go through."
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com