City of Reedley, Fresno County to receive $260K for illegal lab cleanup

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The City of Reedley and Fresno County have reached a settlement with the owner of building where the illegal bio lab was discovered for the cost of cleanup.

The agreement will include a payment of more than $135,000 to the city of Reedley and nearly $125,000 to the county.

That more than $260,000 settlement reached at Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting is for the owner of the building in Reedley, not the lab owner.

The illegal bio lab was discovered by a code enforcement officer in December of 2022.

Authorities uncovered unauthorized biological agents, infectious diseases and nearly a thousand mice without permits or permission.

In October of last year, the city and county served the property owner with a bill of over $310,000.

Reedley city manager Nicole Zieba says this includes the cost to get rid of the lab.

"The actual cost of the clean-up itself, the contractor that came in and removed all of the materials, it also includes all of the attorney's cost that the city incurred to go through the abatement process and get those legal court orders," said Zieba.

It also includes the hours code enforcement spent on the lab for both the city and county.

The two agencies reduced the amount of their invoices for abatement and code enforcement costs by $50,000 to reach this deal.

Chairman and board supervisor Nathan Magsig says this shows significant progress over the last 13 months.

"We've gone from the code Enforcement officer who discovered the hose in the wall in December of 2022 to today, where just last week, the EPA cleaned up some additional items that were left on site. So with this settlement agreement today, it's kind of like the last chapter, as far as we are concerned, at the local level," said Magsig.

Zieba says this should be a wake-up call for property owners.

"If you own property, pay attention to what's happening within that property because ultimately, it is a property owner's responsibility to know what's happening, and they can be held responsible for what their tenant does," said Zieba.

For Fresno County and Reedley officials, their goal was to ensure residents got their money back.

"These are dollars that can be used again for other code enforcement activities in the county of Fresno," said Magsig.

"I think it's really important to stand in front of our community and say, we fought to make sure that every penny that we had to expend to get rid of this lab, every penny is coming back," said Zieba.

The pregnancy and COVID tests found in the lab still need to be removed, but Zieba says the state will cover that cost.

Zieba expects that to happen sometime in February.

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