The dank smell that permeated the hallways is gone. The fuzzy green stuff that grew in the walls, on the ceilings, even in the pages of law books has been banished.
 
On Thursday, the chief judge declared the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach fixed after a short tour of the floors where crews are still painting and putting up moisture-resistant drywall in judges' chambers and courtrooms. The $1.8 million restoration is still on schedule to be finished by December.
 
"It doesn't look pretty right now but for those of us who have been in the courthouse before, it was a mess," said U.S. District Judge William Zloch, who at one time proposed scrapping the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and Courthouse after last year's hurricanes exacerbated a mold problem that had been present since the building opened 32 years ago.
 
On Thursday, the predominant smell in the columned courthouse was of bleach as workers disinfected the stairwells. Soon all the case files will be disinfected in the garage.
 
Zloch ordered the courthouse closed on Nov. 19 after asbestos and mold were found following Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.
 
The closure forced judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys to commute to the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce and Fort Lauderdale. The government also rented office space in the Forum business complex on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard at a cost of $461,317 annually.
 
U.S. Magistrate James Hopkins, also on the tour, said: "I'll be ecstatic when we get back into this courthouse. It's not just for the judges, it's for everyone involved in the system. It has been a tremendous hardship for the parties to have to travel."
 
Jill Shafer, project manager for U.S. General Services Administration in Atlanta, said where evidence of fungus was found, the drywall was removed, as was anything that could feed mold, such as vinyl wainscoting throughout the building. "Everything has been treated with biocides," Shafer added.
 
More than 360 windows were sealed, outside and inside. The mold problem was initially caused by exhaust fans that pulled moist tropical air into the building.
 
"The important thing about the skin of a building, especially an office building, is that you want it air-tight," Shafer said.
 
The gaps around the windows didn't help matters when the hurricanes blasted the building with horizontal rain last year.
 
Work on the courthouse began in July after a slow start as officials debated how to fix the problem.
 
There was some good news discovered during its recent restoration. Asbestos was not found. The previous asbestos finding probably resulted from roofing material that blew into broken windows following the hurricanes. And tests also did not find Stachybotrys chartarum, a type of mold that causes severe health problems.
 
The government has been busy repairing federal buildings throughout the South during the past two years. Thomas Walker, assistant regional administrator for the General Services Administration, said 11 federal buildings have been hit from hurricanes.
 
In Gulfport, Miss., the 2-year-old federal courthouse was hit by a 36-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina.
 
As a result, West Palm Beach courthouse is somewhat of a test project on how to create a mold-free environment.

"This is a lab," Walker said.

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