Today, services at the Bennington state office building off North Street are expected to be back on the same site they’ve been for decades after weeks of dislocation.

The offices are to open at regular hours, although situated slightly to the south and north of the existing state office building, which will remain closed.

The Department of Corrections, which includes the offices for probation and parole, will be in the modular office building in the south parking lot of the state office building.

The Bennington County district and family courthouses, state’s attorney’s office, Vermont Department of Labor’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Department of Children and Family’s Economic Services, Family Services and Office of Child Support will be in the modular building to the north.

State officials were awaiting the results of an air-quality test Saturday at the new building. Results weren’t available before press time, but because other offices in the same building opened as planned, the latest test was not expected to show a problem.

Offices opening this week are those under the umbrella of the Agency of Human Services. The courts have already been open for business since the beginning of the month.

A sign in the parking lot shows where different offices are located, and prominent signs have been placed on the buildings themselves.

The state office building has been empty since February and will remain closed to the public while an environmental testing agency tries to diagnose any possible problems there.

The state has budgeted about $7 million toward the project so far, but that figure may be altered by the Legislature before the end of the current session.

The state agreed to move workers out of the building in October after at least six past and present employees developed sarcoidosis, a rare and non-contagious disease that affected the building’s workers in disproportionate numbers.

Medical science has not come to any accepted conclusions on the cause or treatment of sarcoidosis. The disease causes the growth of granular cells in the body’s organs, usually in the lymph nodes and lungs. Sarcoidosis has been fatal in some cases and one of the building’s employees said it left her legally blind in one eye and diminished her vision in the other, forcing her to give up her driver’s license.

After several setbacks developed in the plan to relocate the employees and complaints from the Vermont State Employee Association, the Legislature began to draft bills to address the issue earlier this year. A short time later, Gov. James Douglas and Secretary of Administration Michael Smith visited the building to talk with employees.

On Feb. 1, the governor ordered the building closed. But with the temporary on-site modular offices not complete, most of the employees were moved to various locations in Bennington’s downtown.

Since the end of February, state employees have worked out of hotel rooms, the Bennington Superior Courthouse and the Vermont Veterans Home, among other locations.

On Monday, however, the new modular offices will open. The state’s contract with the vendors who provided both sets of trailers currently have two year agreements.

Ed Turbitt, who has overseen the project for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, said less than 100 days had passed since the foundation for the northern offices was laid and employees moved in.

Turbitt said ModSun, which has offices in New Britain, Conn., deserved a lot of credit for that swift action, especially because much of the work was done in some of the worst weather in Vermont’s recent history. (The company was called ReSun when the state entered into contracts but it has recently been bought and renamed.)

“We had days where, with the wind chill, it was 40 degrees below zero, and those guys were up there on the roof. They never stopped,” Turbitt said on Friday.

Charles Gingo, field director for the Agency of Human Services in Bennington County, said employees had seen their new office space and were impressed.

“Someone said to me, ‘I thought these were going to look like the inside of a construction trailer,’” Gingo said with a laugh.

Employees will be in today to set up their desks. Buildings and General Services has already moved all the furniture into the trailers.

According to Turbitt, his agency has done its best to communicate with employees in the building about the status of the move and make it as smooth as possible.

“We tried our best to give the best we could under the circumstances. … This is not just something that was thrown together,” he said.

While Monday should bring to a close, for the time being, efforts to relocate the state employees, the situation regarding the building is likely to continue to be felt in Vermont. The Legislature has proposed bills that would alter the way the state deals with “sick” buildings and make it easier for Bennington state office building employees with sarcoidosis to collect worker’s compensation.

There has been no decision about what will happen to the existing state office building. A new round of environmental testing is scheduled to begin April 30.

source : Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com www.rutlandherald.com