Parsons Hall demolition delayed again

A piece of demolition equipment stood sentinel over Parsons Hall for part of the weekend, but razing of the historic building on the Maharishi University of Management has been put on hold.

John Revolinski, the university's director of public affairs, said "because of additional scrutiny," the Iowa Department of Natural Resources had asked that floor tiles in the second floor of the building be evaluated for asbestos content.

On Thursday, demolition opponent Carl Wagener retrieved a floor tile from the second floor of the building and took it to the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory for independent analysis. The report provided by Wagener showed the tile was 2.7 percent asbestos, which the DNR regards as asbestos-containing material.

Regardless of what its own analysis shows, the university plans to remove the floor tile "in order to put the controversy to bed," said James Bedinger, M.U.M. physical plant director..

"We don't care if it's 1 percent or less than 2 percent," said Bedinger. "Even if it's zero percent, we're going to take it out. This puts that issue to bed."

(For the complete story, please refer to Page 1 of the May 8 issue of The Fairfield Ledger.)