Employees of the Dallas County School System central office can take a deep breath and relax now.

A mold problem that had been identified in the building has been eliminated, Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard said.

The project, which cost just under $30,000, now has air in the building at a higher quality than the outdoors.

“It is somewhere between 10 to 12 times better than outside air now,” Ballard said. “We knew there was a problem there and we did not want to take any chances.”

National Dry Out representative Kevin Ricke said the problem began with the air conditioning system.

“We went in there and found a small leak in the air conditioning system,” he said. “From there, we did some pre-testing where we took three air samples from the building and one from outside.”

The idea, Ricke said, is to get the air quality in the building equal to, or cleaner than outside air. When the crew was finished, the air was actually cleaner than outside air.

A crew of 15 worked on the building for three days before eliminating the mold, Ricke said.

They used a chemical that dries and dissolves into a nontoxic substance leaving no danger behind.

The building, Ricke said, was cleaned from top to bottom.

Though mold in air vents should always be taken seriously, Ricke said it was not a huge problem.

“We have seen much worse,” he said.

Regardless of the size of the threat, Ballard said he and the Dallas County Commission were more than happy to make the needed repairs to protect employees.

“We worked as hastily as possible to get this problem fixed,” he said. “We wanted to assure the people at the Board of Education and Extension Service the building was safe.”