A school in Northeast Dallas that teaches military veterans how to repair medical equipment has sued the City of Dallas after it was forced to shut down abruptly.
Cleanup efforts from the storms that rocked Dallas in May have apparently led to sawdust clogging the air conditioning units at the vocational school, which has caused it to close amid the summer heat.
Following the storms, city officials assigned 12000 Greenville Ave in North Dallas as a temporary “debris storage and reduction area.” Medisend College of Biomedical Engineering Technology is located right in front of the 12-acre property.
“They took all of the trees and debris from Dallas and parked it right behind our building,” Nick Hallack, president and founder of the school, told WFAA.
“We had to shut the school down because of the damage done by the city. We can’t turn the air conditioners on,” he added.
The shutdown has caused the veteran students to miss key classes, which will prevent them from graduating and finding jobs, Hallack said. Additionally, replacing the units could cost over $50,000, and the loss of school revenue may be even more.
During a court hearing on Monday, City leaders agreed to visit the site to assess the concerns, per The Dallas Morning News. The court hearing has been postponed twice in order to allow the City Attorney’s Office more time to research the case.
Monica Uribe, an attorney representing Medisend, told DMN that the school plans to hire a third-party expert to evaluate the damage done to it.
In the meantime, Hallack claims that despite daily cleaning and repairs of the rooftop and air conditioning units, the AC units remain down. As a result, the school remains closed indefinitely.
“In our case, it’s an existential threat. It’s a real existential threat because we can’t stay closed for very long,” Hallack said to WFAA.