“The bat could not be located.”
That was the conclusion of a Big Blue Bug Solutions technician who spent over two-and-a-half hours last month inside the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Providence headquarters searching for a flying intruder.
In the Aug. 23 service inspection report obtained by Rhode Island Current, technician Michael Brooks wrote that he checked cubicles, ceilings, staircases, and any where the winged mammal may still be hiding after being spotted the night before, just as contractors were set to seal the building. But the only evidence he found were two bat droppings on the windowsill of a corner office. Brooks noted a gap in the ceiling the bat could have reentered.
“At this time, it is likely that the bat made its way back into a void space through one of the various gaps around the beams and ceilings,” Brooks wrote.
It was the third reported sighting in August. The sightings added to a list of health and safety concerns from unionized workers who are urging state officials not to renew the DCYF’s 10-year lease for the converted factory building, which expires at the end of November. DCYF has already missed a key deadline to renew the lease for another 10 years.
One bat was seen on Thursday, Aug. 14, and another on Sunday, Aug. 17, which led to the building being closed for a week while pest control technicians tried to deal with the situation.
That also meant a third $350 bill for building manager Ron Varone, who’s grown frustrated over having to deal with the repeated sightings and payments to pest control technicians.
“Every time they came, they charged my credit card,” he said in a phone interview. “Bats have been in every building in downtown Providence this summer — but for some reason it’s a big deal.”
Matthew Gunnip, president of SEIU Local 580, which represents about 300 of the 460 workers in the building, wrote an email to DCYF Deputy Personnel Administrator Cheryl Mammone the night of the Aug. 22 bat sighting
“There are people who work at DCYF who have autoimmune diseases and you are making us return to work in an unsafe and unhealthy environment!” Gunnip wrote. “I thought the company secured the building?”
But since the Aug. 23 pest control visit, no bats or bat droppings have been seen within the five-story office building in Providence’s Jewelry District, DCYF spokesperson Barb Francella confirmed in an email Tuesday afternoon.
Gunnip hasn’t heard of any unwanted flying visitors either. “It’s good news, but in the big scheme of things, this bat stuff was a new and additional concern for us,” he said in an interview.
The State Properties Committee was set to consider and vote on a renewal of the office building’s lease on July 22, but the union’s pushback led the panel to pause the process while it awaited the results of an air quality test. The committee postponed another vote on July 29 in order to hold a public hearing that has yet to be scheduled as of Wednesday.
“I will let you know when it’s been scheduled,” Karen Greco, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Administration, said in an email. She said the hearing would be scheduled after normal business hours to ensure workers and DCYF administrators can equally have their say.
The lease terms required the state to sign a new lease by July 31 in order to extend it for another 10 years after it expires Nov. 30. At the July 29 meeting, the State Properties Committee members suggested that in the interim, DCYF officials could negotiate new terms with its landlord, New York-based Provident Property.
Francella said officials are in close contact with Provident Property but are unable to discuss a potential lease or its terms until a deal is approved by the State Properties Committee.
After the Aug. 22 bat sighting, Gunnip emailed Mammone a list of 40 questions ranging from concerns over the use of cleaning chemicals, the last time the building’s HVAC was inspected, and perceived communication issues from state officials.
“Why did we not hear of the office closure until many of the employees we(re) already in the building?” Gunnip wrote. “Our health and safety does not seem to be prioritized.”
As of Tuesday, he said his email was still unanswered. Francella said officials are still collecting the information requested by the union.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
