Resident tells Missoula County commissioners of alleged asbestos exposure and accessibility barriers; testing underway

A Missoula resident identified in the meeting record as "Matt" told the Missoula County Board of County Commissioners that a woman working from a home office may have been exposed to asbestos and that the Missoula City-County Health Department had not acknowledged the complaint in writing.

"The Missoula City County Health Department refuses to even acknowledge her complaints in a written form," the resident said, adding that he and others had contacted the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We're doing some testing right now on her place. We should have results in about a week," he said.

The resident also described repeated barriers for people with disabilities in the city and county, saying accessible materials are unavailable at the local library, sidewalk cutaways and curb ramps are missing or out of spec, and newly built areas such as the Aspire development have sidewalk grading that is "not up to ADA spec." He said those conditions make navigation dangerous for people who are visually or physically impaired and that the problems have persisted for years.

A county official who heard the remote comment asked the resident to provide details by email to the county at bcc@missoulacounty.us so staff could follow up; the resident said he would email a full description. The transcript records no formal county action or response beyond the request for documentation and staff follow-up.

The resident also referenced a prior Department of Justice settlement with the City of Missoula from 2004 regarding disability access; he said the issues he described indicated the county and city had not made sufficient progress on related accessibility obligations.

County staff did not state at the meeting that the health department had declined to investigate in writing; the transcript attributes that claim to the resident making the comment.