Florence family’s mold concern grows

By: Stephanie Prokop
   FLORENCE — It has been just under two and a half years since Bart and Jennifer Shrader first started having difficulty with mold overtaking their Tall Timber Lane home.
   "It’s just been a nonstop continuous cycle, and I still can’t explain how stressful it’s been … and how much time it has taken away from our family," Mr. Shrader said via phone interview on Aug. 2.
   The Shraders claim runoff and improper drainage from the new water retention/detention basin on the high school site off Cedar Lane are to blame for the serious mold problem in their Tall Timber Lane house. They are seeking unspecified monetary damages from the school board for inverse condemnation, property damage and emotional distress.
   Thomas Booth, the Haddonfield attorney representing the Shraders, said he’s ready to start taking depositions in the case next month.
   "(Hopefully) we will be completing all of the depositions that we need to have complete by the early fall," he added.
   From there, Mr. Booth expressed confidence that the court will rule in the Shraders’ favor.
   "Obviously, the basement isn’t draining as it should be," he said.
   The Shraders purchased their house in October 2003 for $275,900, according to the records from the Florence tax assessor’s office, and claim their basement began smelling musty shortly after construction started on the new school’s retention basin in spring 2005.
   When Mr. Shrader discovered black mold in a corner of the basement in October of that year, his wife and children moved in with his mother-in-law in Burlington, where they have been living ever since.
   In July 2006, Mr. Shrader said there was black, white, and green mold throughout the house, and that one could see and smell it, "everywhere."
   An April visit from Microbiological Air Safety Laboratories Inc., of King of Prussia, Pa., last year confirmed the severity of the situation.
   The inspector found significant levels of stachybotrys, a dangerous mold that can produce mycotoxins, some of which are poisonous to humans. Samples also revealed cladosporium, a mold closely associated with allergens, and penicillium/aspergillus, a common mold known to cause respiratory problems.
   Mr. Shrader has since been dealing with two break-ins that occurred at the Tall Timber Lane housewithin the last two months, and is faced with the possibility of having to board up his unoccupied house as a result of this.
   "People are now abusing my property, and I rather just say that I’m living with my family somewhere else," he stated.
   Mr. Shrader said that there was nothing notably taken from his property, but when he went back for a recent visit, he noticed that the back door had been broken into and was ajar.
   He had said previously that he was hesitant to move out of his house for fear it would be considered abandoned or unoccupied and as a result wouldn’t be covered by his homeowner’s insurance. According to the tax assessor’s office records, the taxes are paid current.
   But since then, he said, the conditions have gone from bad to worse.
   Mr. Shrader now says that he cannot stay in the home for any length of time, due to a recent bout with asthma that makes him wheeze even if he’s in the house briefly.
   In March 2006, school officials hired Christopher Noll, who serves as the Medford Township engineer, to assess whether a retention/detention basin on the edge of the high school property off Cedar Lane could be causing water-related problems and damages to an adjacent residential property. The assessment is part of a Superior Court requirement issued by Judge Ronald Bookbinder in February 2006 after Mr. and Ms. Shrader filed a motion to have school construction halted.
   The judge had denied the request and the school was completed in time to open its doors in Sept. 2006. The Shraders’ property hasn’t been the only property affected by mold. Frank Gigliotti, who lives at 4 Evergreen Lane, has also had problems with mold in his home too.
   Mr. Gigliotti lives two houses away from the Shraders’ home, and said that he had noticed spots of mold on parts of his drywall in his basement approximately two years ago when construction began on the new school.
   "I noticed the sump pump running continuously, and wound up ripping out and replacing the dry wall," he said.
   Mr. Gigliotti said that he also believes that the construction of the retention basin that sits right behind the Shraders’ property is the culprit of the water problems, and that it flows throughout the ground soil, and it drains off and hits his house.
   He also stated that every time it rains, "my front yard looks as though it is a swamp."
   Mr. Gigliotti said that although he hasn’t had any problems with mold re-occurring in his basement, his sump pump runs almost constantly when it rains.
   "Am I happy about it, no, because my finished basement is useless, and you can’t ever really fix it," he added.