JACKSON — The day after developers of a new Hilton hotel suddenly started demolishing structures on a two-acre site in the heart of Fondren, asbestos inspector Ryan Galfetti showed up unannounced after the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality received a complaint that asbestos may be present in the structures and the new piles of debris.
“This site was visited to investigate a complaint that demolition activity was occurring and compliance with asbestos regulations was a concern,” Galfetti wrote in a Sept. 22, 2017, inspection report, released to the Jackson Free Press Tuesday, Oct. 17, after an open-records request to MDEQ.
Galfetti found a trac-hoe operator loading out debris from one of the demolished buildings at 523 Fondren Place. Operator Daryl Catchings, employed with S&R Development of Ridgeland, allowed him to inspect the debris, and he found no asbestos. The inspector learned from a phone call to construction superintendent Lance Conn of S&R that the developers had done an earlier property survey and found no asbestos on the site. Conn also told Galfetti that the company had submitted required paperwork for demolition activity…