Skip to main content The Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Organization has cited the defunct Police Activities League of Greater Portland for three health violations, after finding asbestos in two restrooms in the PAL youth center in East Portland.
The citations, first reported today by The Skanner, are the result of a complaint filed with OSHA on Nov. 5—more than three months before PAL folded under financial duress and gave the youth center to Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland.
OSHA sent compliance officers to the PAL Bud Monnes Center on Northeast 172nd Avenue on Dec. 18 and Jan. 10 in response to the Nov. 5 complaint from an employee that the roof was leaking onto light fixtures and there was asbestos in the ceiling.
The officers found no leaks. But OSHA's asbestos investigation was completed last month, and includes two "serious" violations from asbestos found in deteriorated tiles in the girls' restroom and a staff closet and restroom.
WW visited the youth center—located at Northeast 172nd Avenue and Glisan Street—in March, during its first week as a Boys & Girls Club facility.
The girls' restroom was missing tiles in the toilet stalls. The plaster above the men's restroom door was bent and cracked, and the white ceiling tiles held brown water stains, including around a fire alarm. The disabled parking signs in the parking lot had fallen off their poles and lay in the grass.
One of PAL's reliable benefactors was the City of Portland. Since 2008, the city has given $368,000 to PAL, even as parents and workers at the program for at-risk youth complained that the East Portland facility was crumbling, leaking and dangerous.
Boys & Girls Clubs now says the youth center is so worn out, they may simply knock it down and build a new one.
WWeek 2015