PAUL JOHNSON/LEDGER PHOTO Albert Peguero Jr., foreground, pulls down damaged ceiling material as Armando Fernandez works on a ladder in the background recently at the Fort Meade Historical Museum.

FORT MEADE - Six months after Hurricane Jeanne blew the windows out of the Fort Meade Historical Museum, crews are beginning to rip out the mold-stained walls.

"It's been a long road," said Peggy Langston, a Fort Meade native and vice president of the Historical Society of Fort Meade. "And it's just so sad. We've worked so hard for so long to get it this far. It's just heartbreaking."

Initially, the roof on the century-old schoolhouse appeared to have survived the three hurricanes that crisscrossed Fort Meade last summer.

But a closer inspection revealed that nearly 80 percent of the metal roof would have to be replaced, said City Manager Al Minner.

Then mold invaded the original plaster walls, creeping onto some of the aging photographs on those walls.

"It's been a mess," Langston said. "We tried to get out what we could, but the mold got so bad we couldn't go into the building."

The city, which owns the building at Broadway Street and Tecumseh Avenue, called in special crews to pack up the rest of the exhibits.
 
"We have no idea what we're going to find when we start unpacking those boxes," Langston said.

"It's going to take a lot of time to go through everything that's been stored, to get it all labeled again and put back out. But there's a lot of work to be done before we even get to that point."

Crews, for the most part, are gutting the interior of the two-story building, Minner said.

"We've been working on drying it all out," he said. "We've had blowers going inside the museum for a few months trying to get it dried out, and to prevent new mold."

Once the demolition is finished, roofers will begin those repairs, followed by the interior repairs.

"We've ordered the roofing materials, so that should be ready to go when the demolition is done," he said.

When reconstruction begins, crews will replace the walls with plaster, mirroring the original material to retain the building's historic appearance, Minner said.

With luck, the project should be finished this summer.

At this point, the city expects to spend about $248,300 to repair the building, but insurance is picking up all but $18,820 of that. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to kick in about $9,500, leaving the city to pay about $9,300.

"It's definitely costing more to repair than any city structure that was damaged in the hurricanes," Minner said.

Next on the list is the city's warehouse, which sustained about $150,000 in damage.

Langston said she's just eager for the day when volunteers can begin arranging displays.

"We want to get the museum back in shape," she said. "We don't know when that will be, but we'll sure be ready when that time comes."
 

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