Unhealthy living

BY PRENTISS FINDLAY
Monday, July 27, 2009

MOUNT PLEASANT - Antoinette Palmisano survived a lightning strike that threw her across a room in Syracuse, N.Y., leaving her disabled. Now, as she puts her life back together, she worries that mold is irreparably harming the health of her and her daughter.

"My daughter and I are getting very ill. We've got to protect our health. That's what we're fighting for is our health," Palmisano said.

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Antoinette Palmisano checks the mold on her blinds, where black specks gather despite repeated cleaning inside her Ellington Woods condo in Dunes West. Palmisano has had mold problems since she bought the property in 2003 and says it now is causing her and her daughter to have health problems.

Headaches, stinging eyes, difficulty breathing, gagging and heavy coughing were some of the symptoms she attributed to mold in her townhome. She and her daughter, Michelle Amerine, complained that they can't exercise like they used to without having to stop to catch their breath.

Palmisano said she has pulled shoes covered with black mold from her closet. Mold grows regularly in the bedroom, bathroom and living room. Windows are cleaned repeatedly but mold growth returns, she said.

The problem, she said, is moisture leaking into the townhome. "All the rugs need to be pulled out. The floor needs to be coated to keep moisture out," she said.

But it's not just the floors. She said the interior walls have such a high moisture content that they are infested with mold, as revealed in testing.

A consultant who investigated the situation in February reported visible moisture damage in the northeast corner of the living room. Wet insulation with mold growth on it was found after cutting into the wall to the right of the cable outlet.

"The wall cavity exhibited significant moisture damage with active termites, visible mold growth and structural damage to the studs," the consultant, S&ME Inc., stated in a report prepared after the property inspection. "The majority of the windows of the residence exhibited visible mold growth and condensation on the inside of the window panes."

In July, Sean Kennedy, a town building inspector, visited Palmisano's townhouse at 1336 Hopton Circle to see if there were possible code violations. "There are several locations in the unit that have water intrusion. This is a code violation. I could not identify the location of the water intrusion," Kennedy wrote in a subsequent letter to Palmisano. Kennedy wrote in the letter that the builder of record no longer has a current state builder's license and appears to have gone out of business. "The Town of Mount Pleasant does not have any way to resolve this matter. The only course of action for you in this matter should be in a civil court of law," Kennedy wrote.

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

'We've got to protect our health. That's what we're fighting for is our health,' said Antoinette Palmisano, seated with her daughter, Michelle Amerine.

Palmisano, 54, said that she is stuck in the condo for financial reasons. A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Ellington Woods owners, but it could drag on for years, and in the meantime, Palmisano worries about the long-term effects of living in an unhealthy indoor environment. "We may just have to walk away from this," she said.

Palmisano said she blames the builder of her townhome, Alison Dailey Properties Inc., for her problems. Palmisano said she wants the builder to take back the townhome.

Dailey said she couldn't discuss Palmisano's allegations because Ellington Woods residents have sued Alison Dailey Properties Inc. "My attorney has advised me not to give a comment. We need to resolve this matter in court," she said, "not in the media."

Her attorney, David Cobb, said Ellington Woods has 224 townhomes in 30 buildings.

"Some units have complaints. Many have no complaints," Cobb said. Certificates of occupancy for the buildings were issued between 1998 and 2003, he said.

Palmisano lives in phase four of the development. "Her (Palmisano's) lawyer has not provided us with any specific documentation of her claim," Cobb said. "To my knowledge there have not been allegations of mold in the (home-owners') complaint. We are vigorously challenging a number of their conclusions," he said.

Cobb said a trial isn't expected to begin before February 2010, and that date probably will be pushed back.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@postandcourier.com.

 (source article)