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The company, Dover Greens LLC, which changed its name from Olivet Management LLC in 2015, is linked to Olivet University, a Christian college based in San Francisco and founded by a Korean pastor with ties to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church.
It is renovating the former home of the abandoned Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center on a 900-acre site off Route 22 in the hamlet. The site contains 80 buildings.
The project, which is currently being weighed by the Dover Planning Board, reportedly includes educational facilities, an IT center, and a business park.
Dover Greens LLC had been cited in 2014 by the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupation Safety and Health Administration for exposing its workers, and the employees of 13 contractors, to lead and asbestos during the renovation.
The OSHA settlement announced Monday, March 28, requires Dover Greens LLC to provide “basic” safeguards for workers who are removing peeling paint, sagging ceilings, and other hazardous materials.
The Department of Labor has also fined the company $700,000, which it will be allowed to pay over a 10-year period.
If the company fails to live up to the terms of the agreement, it will have to pay the original fine of $2.3 million, according to Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York.
Among the things the company will be required to do are hire a general contractor with experience in lead and asbestos removal; hire safety consultants to monitor the work; make sure all contractors and subcontractors are properly trained in health and safety issues; and to not oppose workers' compensation claims for illnesses resulting from lead or asbestos exposure.
By failing to implement preventative measures such as air sampling, respiratory protection and dust control, the company may have put workers at risk for the long-term neurological and respiratory problems, OSHA said.
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