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Boise police vacate downtown substation because of potential health risk

The Boise Police Department packed up and moved out of the building in January.

BOISE -- If you've driven down Capitol Boulevard near Boise State University recently, the vacant Boise Police Department substation might have caught your eye.

Thanks to potential health risks, BPD packed up and moved out of the building in January. There are other city-owned buildings on that same property as well, like a low-income housing complex.

Boise police found a leak in the roof and smelled something funky in October 2017 so they had it checked out. That's when they found a mold problem. The mold was tested and they didn't find it to be at hazardous levels.

But when crews were fixing the leak and doing mold remediation in January, they ran into asbestos in the walls. The building is old and asbestos was commonly used in construction material back when it was built.

An issue came up, however, when the asbestos went airborne after it was disrupted by the repairs. That's when police decided to pick up and move out of the old motel-turned-downtown police station that they've been housed in since 2015.

The building is also home to Life's Kitchen and other buildings on the property are home to a city-owned low-income housing complex.

"I'd like to know about it if it's in there," resident of four years, Dennis Orr, told KTVB. "When I found out about that it made me a little curious, you know, what's going on in these buildings, you know. But I've never really been overly concerned."

So KTVB asked the city whether those other buildings been tested, and if they have found hazardous substances anywhere else.

The city tells us roofs on three of the four apartment buildings were replaced within the last 18 months and they didn't find a need to test for mold.

"There has been significant work done in those buildings and there is no evidence when that work was being done so there's no indication at all that there was any mold in any of those other buildings," City of Boise spokesman Mike Journee told KTVB. "Going forward, we are going to be doing some more testing with that. We are going to be looking at other repairs and other things we need to do as part of our regular maintenance of those buildings and if any issues crop up, obviously we will take care of those."

Officials are still waiting on reports from the asbestos remediation to determine whether BPD officers can move back in. The city says they want to have an accessible downtown home base for police, so if they can't move back in to the substation at 1025 S. Capitol Boulevard they hope to find another spot in the city's center.

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