Jan 17, 2016

Senator Mikulski Brings Home The Bacon

     From the Baltimore Sun:
The Woodlawn headquarters of the Social Security Administration is set to receive a $150 million overhaul to remove dangerous lead paint and asbestos, rip out corroded plumbing and modernize the 10-story building for 21st-century technology. ...
Officials declined requests by The Baltimore Sun to tour the building but outlined plans to update the 250,000-square-foot facility with new elevators, modern office layouts with more open space, and windows and insulation that better regulate the temperature. The building is not open to the public. ...
Design work is beginning, he said. No timetable has been set for the project, and [Chris] Molander [the agency official in charge of facilities] said he could not estimate how long it will take. ...
[Senator Barbara] Mikulski, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Social Security workers at the recent gathering that they deserve a better work environment than the Altmeyer Building.
"We know it's been lead paint, it's asbestos, electrical circuits are out of date," she said. "We're very concerned about your health, about your safety. A modern social insurance company — which you are — deserves to be in a facility where we can bring in the technology that makes your job more efficient and helps you be more effective."
Molander said the building poses no threat to workers' health or safety. All of the asbestos is contained (most of it is in the ceilings), and the lead paint is not "an overriding concern," he said. If coated properly, he said, the old paint won't cause problems. ...
     Meanwhile, claimants wait two years for hearings.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on, Charles. Everyone knows that exposure to lead paint decreases cognitive skills. A bunch of the muckety-mucks who make the big decisions work in Altmeyer. Don't you want those decision-makers to work in an environment that doesn't make them stupid?

Anonymous said...

@9:28 pm 1-17- Too late.

Anonymous said...

I am confused. What does wait time have to do with building updates? Are you suggesting some correlation? How about airspeed velocity of coconut bearing swallows to wait time? Same relevancy.

Anonymous said...

@4:59- What do mean? An African or European swallow?

Anonymous said...

This blog's absurd coverage of the budget continues. That $150mil is not going to appreciably reduce the wait time for a hearing.

Your petty crusade against long delayed building updates is getting stale, move on to something relevant.