The Shadow
Welcome back, Shadowers! Groundhog Day may have come and gone, but does anyone else feel like we’re still trapped in a Bill Murray-style “Groundhog Day” time loop—waking up to the same problems, the same excuses, and our community leaders insisting, everything is fine?! Can you guess the common theme? Let’s start with these: City of Covington Building Department, Certificates of Occupancy, Fire Marshal, children…
Our Groundhog journey begins with what happened around this time last year. Here’s an excerpt from a Virginian Review article from May 30th, 2024, that provides a good summary:
December 2023-May 2024: While under construction, 410 on Main St building ‘opens’ its doors to the public and begins hosting events without any permanent Certificate of Occupancy, no fire marshal inspections, and apparently no Health Dept inspections. 410 hosted 10 major events and several minor events. 410 only obtained 3 temporary, single-event use Certificates of Occupancy, however, since they were issued by an uncertified building official, they were deemed invalid by the Commonwealth Fire Marshal.
February 14: 2024: After 3 months of inaction and denial, neither the City, Mayor Sibold, nor 410 attempted to rectify these alleged unlawful and unpermitted construction activities. A FOIA was issued to request official documents, which revealed that the City had been operating with an uncertified building official since 2021, and the current building official (Michael Mines) missed all the required deadlines to be certified by September 2023.
When confronted with these allegations, Mayor Sibold acknowledged that his building department was operating illegally and claimed he would have Bath County’s Official and an engineering firm fill in temporarily. However, official documents from the City revealed that neither of these actions took place.
March 12, 2024: DHCD official issues stern warning to the City allegedly operating illegally without a Certified Building Official since 2021. The DHCD warned the City of potential civil and criminal exposure if any structural failures happen with any construction that’s not properly permitted. They advised the City to seek legal counsel.
Here’s why this matters: If an accident were to occur due to unpermitted work failures or a fire in a building that was illegally occupied and still under construction, both the City and 410 On Main could face civil or criminal liability. Such incidents could also render insurance claims invalid. Despite these risks, both the City and 410 On Main have denied all allegations and continued to host unpermitted events.
On March 21, Mayor Sibold denied that the building department and 410 had done anything illegal, and stated in defense, “Over half the stories told on 410 were from imagination.”
Now, here we are, one year later, still playing the “Pass the Hot Potato” game. On Jan 31, 2025, according to Covington Chief of Police Chris Smith, Covington Middle School was shut down due to a suspicious odor. The Virginia Department of Health stated, “[On Jan 31, 2025] Approximately 15 individuals were transported to a local hospital after exposure to the unknown gas.”
On February 3, the AHPS School Board had an open call meeting to discuss their findings, which apparently the suspicious odor was the result of a faulty gas oven and range hood. Parents at the meeting were very upset, calling for the resignation of Superintendent Halterman and the board for negligence in putting our children in harm’s way.
CMS posted the current Certificate of Occupancy (COO) issued to CMS on December 27, 2024, by Building Official Eric Tyree. Tyree stated, “This Certificate of Occupancy is issued for 606 South Lexington Avenue, Covington, Virginia at the owner’s request. This structure was constructed prior to the adoption of USBC. This Certificate of Occupancy and the inspection were in accordance with the Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) as it relates to existing buildings constructed prior to USBC adoption.”
Why did Tyree hammer the point three times in the COO letter that the building and his inspection were in accordance with building codes prior to USBC adoption? Shouldn’t the real question be, if Virginia Code has required Carbon Monoxide detectors in schools since 2020, why didn’t Tyree address this or require it in order for CMS to meet and pass the occupancy certification requirements?
In 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation requiring all public schools and licensed daycares in Virginia to have at least one carbon monoxide detector. This mandate was a response to a carbon monoxide scare at a daycare center in Virginia Beach, highlighting the need for detectors in older buildings that were not previously required to have them. The mandate for carbon monoxide detectors in Virginia schools includes buildings that were previously exempt from the Virginia Uniform Building Code. Specifically, all public school buildings constructed before 2015 that house classrooms are required to have at least one carbon monoxide detector.
The Certificate of Occupancy (COO) letter issued by Tyree states that the building was built before the adoption of the USBC. However, since 2020 is when Governor Northam enacted this law, it raises questions about who the Covington Building Official was at that time and who was responsible for maintaining Covington School facilities in 2020. Documents show Mr. Tyree’s first term as the building official began in 2018 and ended in 2021 when the Building Official from Bath County was hired to fill in. Oddly, Tyree then went to work for AHPS as Director of Maintenance and Transportation, so apparently he was uniquely qualified to not only know about USBC requirements as a certified Building Official, but also someone ultimately responsible for the school’s maintenance.
There have been reports from students and teachers since October of headaches, nausea, and other symptoms of Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
One Parent stated, “My son was tested for Carbon Monoxide poisoning last night at the ER in Lexington. The results in fact came back elevated. He Tested at 3.9. He has been coming home from school with headaches, nausea and dizziness for months. He is extremely tired all the time and will sleep got 20+hours a day if allowed. The emergency nurse speculated that the kids have been slowly being poisoned since October at the least to have levels as elevated as they are 5 days past last exposure.”
Another parent stated, “[Our son] came home from school on Monday with a stomach ache, dizzy, headache. Wednesday went back for only a couple of hours, and we picked him up. Headaches dizziness. When my husband picked him up, he said the school smelled like cat urine and dirty mop water. Thankfully, the 2nd time we saw the doctor, he just put him out for the rest of the week. Tested last night with a blood count of 2.7 that’s 6 days afterwards. Still having headaches and stomachaches.”
When asked why there weren’t inspections from a local Fire Marshal, Covington Fire Chief Andrew Baker weighed in on the matter, “The Covington Fire Department does not perform any type of safety, fire or occupancy inspections. Inspections would be performed by either the State Fire Marshal (Division 6 office in Roanoke) or the City’s Building Official.”
The Commonwealth Fire Marshal was then contacted for clarification, which indicated that the Virginia State Fire Prevention Code is a maintenance code that works in conjunction with the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code. In other words, the Fire Marshal’s Office can only enforce what has been approved by our local building official Eric Tyree for the City of Covington.
So here we are, folks, once again playing a game of “passing the hot potato.” If our officials are absolving themselves of the responsibility of the safety of our children by pointing fingers and stating it’s someone else’s problem, we’re in big trouble. The only person I saw stand up and take responsibility so far has been new board member Bob Umstead.
I’m out of time, out of coffee, but never out of material! Next week, we will cover the ongoing local Department of Social Services activities and their lawsuit that has been rescheduled for trial to March 19, 2025, and more.
