For the second time in two years, the Willowdale Child Care Centre in Guelph’s west end has been shut down due to asbestos concerns.
The asbestos was discovered last Friday, peeking out from behind a baseboard.
Parents were notified of the shutdown over the weekend and informed that they would have to find alternative arrangements for their children.
Cleaning up the asbestos is expected to take about a week.
“We found vermiculite insulation that traditionally has some asbestos in it,” says Mario Petricevic, the City of Guelph’s manager of building maintenance.
“We’re not sure what the concentration is here.”
The same situation occurred at the Willow Road facility in December 2011 and resulted in the building being shut down for nearly a year while the daycare operated from a temporary location.
Jennifer Blomberg, whose three-year-old daughter attends Willowdale, says she’s become increasingly concerned about the facility.
“I’m thinking health risks for kids, health risks for parents. It’s not a safe environment,” she tells CTV.
Officials at the City of Guelph, which owns the building, says there is only a low risk to human health but they still don’t want to take any chances.
“We have to take every precaution,” says Petricevic.
