Residents at Akron's White Pond Villa senior apartments see more elevator problems
After days of being forced to use stairs or being stranded on their floors, around 200 older and disabled residents of the six-floor White Pond Villa apartments in Wallhaven spent the rest of the week wondering if they would be trapped after the elevator doors closed.
After a four-day stoppage was followed by further breakdowns on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the fire department was called to rescue a resident on Friday, a week after both of the 176-unit building's elevators initially went out of commission.
Akron Fire Department spokeswoman Lt. Sierjie Lash said the resident, who had been stuck inside a car on the first floor, was not injured.
After the second of the building's two elevators went out of commission Jan. 7, one was repaired Monday afternoon. The second was repaired Tuesday afternoon. Then both almost immediately stopped working until a repairman could return three hours later.
Residents reported both elevators were broken again for hours on Wednesday and Thursday.
Sherry Hall, 67, who lives on the building's third floor, said the man who was stuck Friday lives on her floor. She said another resident of her floor had been stuck in the elevator twice in recent months.
"That's just those who live on my floor," she said. "The gentleman today was stuck on the elevator for 30 minutes."
Hall said the elevator is frequently broken, leaving residents who use scooters, wheelchairs, walkers and canes stranded.
"The elevators go out all of the time, all of the time – weekly," she said.
Hall cited conversations she overheard between elevator technicians and building maintenance staff, where she said technicians said water leakage was causing malfunctions.
"Management has been told several times that they need to replace the roof."
Building owner Oron Zarum previously said the management company was not able to get a repair person over the weekend following the Jan. 7 elevator outage. He said part of the problem was a $3,000 part was not immediately available, a detail Otis Elevator Co. later confirmed.
Zarum, whose company purchased the building in December, 2020, referred further questions to Property Manager Andrew Swinkoski, with Integra Affordable Management.
Swinkoski said Friday he had no immediate comment on the elevator problem.
Katy Padgett, director of communications for Otis Elevator Co., said Thursday that the company only recently signed a service contract covering White Pond Villa.
"We were just contracted for the elevator maintenance by the building management last week, and we worked closely with them to return the elevator to service as quickly as possible," she said.
The company later issued a follow-up statement.
"This particular building restarted a maintenance agreement with Otis on Jan. 5, 2022. We visited this site multiple times over the past week starting on Jan. 7 and look forward to working with the customer to maintain the elevators and prevent future interruptions of service."
Vince Curry, executive director of the non-profit Fair Housing Advocates Association, said the building has a history of problems, along with multiple owners in recent years.
In 2018, a previous owner was ordered to fix non-functioning air conditioning by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 subsidy program many residents benefit from.
An Akron municipal court judge in November ruled that one of the building's residents can put her rent in escrow until the landlord makes repairs to her apartment caused by water damage.
Following an inspection last year, Akron's Department of Neighborhood Assistance in July ordered repairs to that tenant's apartment walls, doors and windows, as well as the sanitation or replacement of the carpet in her apartment.
Community Legal Aid’s Neighborhood Law Project in Akron said the agency expects to help establish a tenants committee in the building to address problems. The non-profit law firm serves the legal needs of low-income individuals and families in central Northeast Ohio.
Curry noted that of the two elevators, one is possibly too small to fit a gurney and firefighters.
"If the elevator that's working is the smaller elevator – if the ambulance comes and they have to take someone away – it's a problem if the one that's not working is the larger one and there's not enough room for the stretcher," he said.
Eric Marotta can be reached at 330-541-9433, or emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron's White Pond Villa apartments elevator problems continue
