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Dream turns sour for old school's owners

Highlights of school’s history

Grant School was erected in 1895.
It was closed in 1974 as part of a Danville District 118 desegregation plan.
In 1979, the school was sold to Kenneth and Violet Ramsey to provide a recreation area for neighborhood children.
In 1982, it was sold to the Danville firefighters’ union, which staged bingo games in its gymnasium.
In 1990, it was purchased by Rick Omundson who lived in the school and rented space for events.
In 1998, the school was bought by Sherman and Lisa Imler, who turned it into a country music hall.

By Brandi Hopper

DANVILLE — When Sherman and Lisa Imler bought the old Grant School building four years ago, they never imagined they would need to guard themselves from the same floors and walls they scraped and refinished with their own hands.

"We came in and just redid the whole thing," Sherman Imler said.

He and his wife bought the more than a century-old building and put their hearts, souls and a lot of elbow grease into turning it into a country music hall, complete with a banquet center and a Cowboy Church.

"We jumped through all the hoops and did everything on the honey-do list," Lisa Imler said.

While a toxic mold scare leaves the family bracing itself for what’s next, the Imlers speak of Grant Manor’s heyday with a longing for the past.

"It was really big," Sherman Imler said. "People loved it around here."

Grant Manor had such success — bringing in country music singers like Joanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s sister, and serving Louisiana specialties to packed houses — that the Imlers wanted to expand their business to include a bed and breakfast on the third floor.

"It was just getting started and there was no stopping it," Sherman said.

Until the big hailstorm of 2000 hit.

Damage started as a hole in the ceiling "this big," Sherman said, forming a circle with his hands. During the year that the couple was in dispute with their insurance company, the damage has become unrepairable.

"(The insurance company) said it was repairable, but everybody we brought in to look at it said there was no way they could fix it," Lisa said.

After going back and forth collecting opinions from different roofers, the Imlers and their insurance company finally agreed on something.

"It’s too late to fix it now. It needs to be replaced," Lisa said.

But the couple’s policy was dropped in December 2001 and with no insurance to pick up the costs, the building stands empty indefinitely.

"It’s just really sad. You put in all this hard work and try to do the right thing and then something like this happens to you. We put our lives into this," Lisa said. "I’m broken-hearted because it’s not only a business, it’s my home."

Family blames mold for health problems

Mold basics

The following are facts and tips about mold in the home from the United States Environmental Protection Agency:

n It is impossible to get rid off all molds and mold spores indoors, but mold spores will not grow if moisture is not present.

n Dry water-damaged areas and items within 48 hours to prevent mold growth.

n Molds can gradually destroy things they grow on. You can save your home and furnishings by cleaning and preventing the growth of mold.

n Inhalation of and physical contact with mold can cause allergic reactions, skin rashes and other health problems.

n Places that are often damp, like the shower or elsewhere in the bathroom should be ventilated with a fan or an open window.

n Fix plumbing leaks and other water problems as soon as possible. Dry all items completely.

n Scrub mold off hard surfaces with detergent and water, and dry completely.

n Avoid breathing in mold spores when cleaning by wearing an N-95 respirator, available at hardware stores.

n Wear gloves and goggles when cleaning mold.

For more information about mold, visit the United States Environmental Protection Agency online at http://www.epa.gov or call EPA Indoor Air Quality Information Clearinghouse at (800) 438-4318.

By Brandi Hopper

DANVILLE — Grant Manor’s halls used to resonate with guitar plucking, hand clapping and singing, packed to the hilt with dancing couples each night, while renowned performers lit up the stage.

Now, mold that is possibly harmful creeps up the walls of the former school building and water leaks through its ceiling.

"It’s depressing," Sherman Imler said. "I don’t even like to come here because it just makes you sick."

When the Imlers, who own Grant Manor and lived upstairs, were forced to close the building after a hailstorm in 2000 ruined the roof, they didn’t realize how literal that sickness may be.

"It feels like my arm was shut in a car door," Sherman Imler said. "The pain is unbelievable."

His Lisa said she feels the same pain and it’s moved up into her shoulder.

"It’s unbearable and it gives me trouble sleeping," she said.

The Imlers’ 8-year-old son, who had no history of health problems, also has become asthmatic and their 9-year-old daughter is being treated for upper respiratory problems.

"If you ever have to watch your baby labor to breathe, that’s the most scariest feeling," Lisa said.

Her horror reached an apex when the Imlers discovered, on a fluke, that the air they had been breathing in their home for more than a year may have been the cause.

Lisa’s mother had a similar problem with her home when her roof collapsed.

"We went to (my mother’s) house and there were men in there with masks on cleaning up and we all had to evacuate because of the potential for mold," Lisa said.

Neither she nor her husband had ever thought of the potential for mold growth in their own home, with its leaky roof, and they say their insurance company never warned them.

"That’s when we thought maybe we ought to get our house checked out," she said.

First Home Inspection in Catlin took a sample of the mold from Grant Manor.

David Biggerstaff of First Home Inspection Co. collected mold samples from the Imlers’ home.

"Whether it’s mold, whether it’s carbon monoxide or whatever, if you have over-exposure to a chemical, your body is going to react," Biggerstaff said.

But it’s not as easy as recognizing the problem and removing it. Clean-up costs can be astronomical.

"They’re spores and they travel. Just like a dandelion with pollen on it. It’s fine until you pluck it. Then the spores fly everywhere," Biggerstaff said.

"They sit in clones (on a wall), but as soon as you come in scrubbing it, it flies all over the place. So then you have to block off rooms and clean and then move to another area and block that off so it doesn’t travel. It can be labor- and cost-intense."

Biggerstaff said costs and labor may be one of the reasons some insurance companies don’t recognize mold as a problem.

But the Imlers’ mold is a problem, according to an environmental microbiologist at Indoor Air Management in Indianapolis, who tested samples from Grant Manor, collected by First Home Inspection Co.

In a letter to First Home Inspection Co., environmental microbiologist Stacey McDaniel wrote that tests concluded that "an environmental imbalance may exist in the building."

The tests were done after comparing the differences in mold concentrations and identifications of the basement air sample to the outside reference sample. Tests also concluded the presence of surface mold contamination.

According to McDaniel, the effect of mold on humans can be separated into two broad categories, allergic response and disease, with the latter being the most common. She added, however that "healthy, immuno-competent humans have a high resistance of fungi, even though they are constantly exposed to them."

The Imlers, though, say they have never had health problems before. And since the hailstorm, when their ceiling began to leak, producing constant moisture, unexplained nodes have begun to form on Lisa’s neck, while her and her husband’s pain worsens.

"By the time we knew (the mold) was toxic, we had already been living there for 30 months," Lisa said. "There’s no doubt in my mind that my husband’s and my kids’ and my health problems are a result of living in a contaminated environment. I never would’ve had my family in a place if I knew it was unsafe."

The Imlers are preparing to consult an infectious disease doctor and also plan on disputing their insurance company’s decision not to pay for their roof in court.

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