By Jerry Sowden - Karen Rupert and Garry Coleman, both project consultants for Venango County's Mental Health/Mental Retardation administrative offices, unpack boxes of their supplies as they move into their new space in the former UPMC West Unit in Franklin.

Venango County officials are convinced the former West Unit building at 1 Dale Ave. in Franklin, previously used by UPMC Northwest as a cancer care facility, is safe for county workers.

The building, now known as the Venango Human Services Complex, will eventually house all the county's human services agencies under a 20-year lease between the county and the building's owner, the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism.

"Absolutely it's safe," commissioners chairman Timothy Brooks said. "The majority of the board feels it is safe. We wouldn't let people be up there if it wasn't."

He offered to move his office to the building from the courthouse annex if that would help convince county workers of his belief in the building's safety.

But while the preponderance of county officials is satisfied with the proofs of the building's safety, commissioner Jan Beichner has raised questions about the facility and last month called for the results of tests for mold, asbestos and radiation.

She said she remained unconvinced of the building's safety following a question and answer session held by the alliance for all county employees moving into the building. All safety concerns were addressed at that meeting, according to Randy Seitz, president and chief executive officer of the alliance.

After Beichner's call for the test results, the alliance gave the county the results of a phase I environmental assessment of the building (designed to identify potential or existing environmental contamination) as well as the findings of an asbestos inspection.

The environmental study, required by the lender prior to the sale of the building, found no environmental conditions or hazardous substances in the building and no cause to move on to a phase II assessment.

"If anything is suspect on a phase I (assessment), they move to a phase II. There was nothing there," Brooks said.

While the asbestos inspection found asbestos-containing materials in the building, those materials only pose a hazard if the material becomes "friable" and is released into the air, Brooks said.

"As long as it's not friable, it's safe," Brooks said. "If they seal it, that's acceptable."

In addition to those results, chief clerk and county administrator Denise Jones has obtained various documents from UPMC Northwest showing that required radiation tests performed when the hospital moved out of the building found no radioactive material present in the building.

Hospitals using medical radiation equipment are subject to various regulations by a number of governmental agencies including licensing and inspection requirements by the state Department of Environmental Protection and other requirements by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency.

When the hospital moved its cancer care facilities out of the West Unit to Seneca, it was required to terminate its license for its two radiation-producing machines (linear accelerators) through the DEP and to have the facility tested for radiation.

Those evaluations - including tests of the safe used to store radioactive materials, the accelerators prior to their dismantling and removal and the room where the equipment was housed - found the sites and equipment to be free of radioactive material.

The type of radiation-producing machine used at the West Unit only gives off radiation when it is turned on.

"Once you turn the machine off, it (the radiation) is gone," Brooks said. "According to the study, there's nothing (no residual radiation) there."

Jones said she is sending copies of the radiation test results to the county's human services department heads to share with their employees and "hopefully quell some of their concerns."

Brooks said the building is "perfectly safe" and wondered what additional proof might be required to demonstrate its safety.

Since taking office, Beichner has expressed misgivings about the county's decision to lease the building.

The lease is the subject of a lawsuit filed in February against the county, the alliance and others by Rod Bedow and some 29 other plaintiffs.