Foley faces yet another fungal infestation, but the most recent mold found within city buildings is endangering historical artifacts entrusted to the city’s depot train museum.

The depot building was originally the train station in Foley and was built in 1909. The station was rescued in 1971 from being demolished and moved out of Foley. The building was brought back in 1995 and has been in the care of the city ever since. The city turned the depot into a museum and houses memorabilia related to trains and also the history of this area.

Bonnie Donaldson, museum director, approached Foley’s City Council last week to bring the mold infestation at the depot, which has already impacted artifacts housed there, to the council’s attention.

She told the council mold has encroached on many areas in what used to be the freight area. In the museum, she pointed out areas where mold is easily visible, including a framed drawing of the depot from the 1920s.

“This is where it is located up here in the freight area, but you can see, that picture is a good example. You can kind of see it up here on the walls. I think probably that picture is damaged so bad it can’t be fixed, but that is the only thing at this point and time that I think we won’t be able to repair,” she said.

According to Donaldson, a thorough cleaning of the depot was done in the past three years to get rid of mold, which had accumulated there. She also said the structure is prone to mold because of the many doors and cracks in the construction.

“Of course, when you have got cracks like over there and like this it is not well-insulated because this is the original freight area. So all of the dews and the damps come in and get us,” she said.

After the mold was cleaned out three years ago, Donaldson was told to keep the fans running.

“We did that,” she said.

Despite her efforts to keep the mold at bay, she noticed it had come back recently.

“Then one day I just happened to look up and see that picture. I am not one to go around looking at the ceiling all the time. I looked at that picture and then I got to checking other things out and saw that the mold was really bad,” said Donaldson.

She immediately took action to determine what could be done to preserve the history housed in the depot. She had a company come in to assess how much it would cost to remove the mold. The commercial cleaning service gave her an estimate of $5,207 to clean the building.

Donaldson shared this information with the city council last week. The council agreed something had to be done about the mold in the depot museum, but asked Donaldson to seek an estimate for the cost of fixing the holes in the walls and the gaps between the freight doors so mold would hopefully not find its way back in. The council expressed concern for pouring money into the depot museum for mold removal without addressing the cause.

Donaldson is looking forward to, and dreading the cleaning.

“It will be kind of nice if that would be the extent of it, however it is going to take a couple of days to take everything down off the walls. In doing that I would like to go ahead and clean it up also before we pack it away for storage. Then it is a matter of bringing it all back again and putting it back up,” she said.

Despite all the work involved, Donaldson knows it will be worth it.

We’ll get it done,” she said.

While the museum undergoes cleaning, the front part of the museum will be closed for at least a week. The model train exhibit will not be impacted, however, and will maintain regular hours.

Donaldson is still working on the estimate for the work to fill in the gaps to keep the excess moisture out of the depot, so the exact closure dates for the museum are not currently known.

She is also trying to find other ways to combat the moisture. She said she has put in an order for silica, which will help absorb the excess moisture. She will place it around the freight area. She also anticipates dehumidifiers will be used to keep the moisture level under control.

“The fans didn’t do it,” she said.