ROCHESTER — As Beaver County experiences a surge of cold weather and heat loss across the county, caretakers at a local community are verifying that their vulnerable residents are staying warm and healthy.

According to officials from the Rochester Manor and Villa, the assisted living facility has not been experiencing widespread heat loss and residents are remaining safe during the surge of cold temperatures. While some recent reports and post across social media said that the facility was without heat over the weekend of Jan. 21, directors of the community say that the claims are not accurate.

"A local news organization reported that the Rochester Manor and Villa 'building has been without heat,'" said Kristin Oeder, regional director of operations at Penn Health Partners. "In fact, our building has been heated the entire winter, except recently in the rooms of some but not all of our residents, in which there was simply lower heat and which was immediately addressed."

The heating loss in these rooms was caused by an issue with a connected boiler, which made some of the rooms in the building unable to reach certain higher temperatures and causing some chilling. As crews work to fix the boiler, temporary heating solutions such as space heaters are being provided for this part of the building, officials said.

Residents wishing to leave the colder rooms have been offered alternative living spaces with normal temperature control during the repair period, but it was not required for these patients to make the move if they were still comfortable.

"Fewer than a third of our residents accepted the offer to move temporarily to other rooms," Oeder said.

The Department of Health has also confirmed that all of the currently occupied rooms are safe for residents, having adequate heating for patients to remain healthy. During this period of potential heat loss, residents who stayed in the colder rooms are continually receiving welfare checks.

Staff are keeping an eye out for any other potential heating loss and working with local emergency services to address any warmth related problems should they arise.

"We've been doing constant checks in all rooms," Oeder said. "We are so grateful to our residents, staff and public officials including the Department of Health, the Healthcare Coalition, and the Rochester Fire Department for all the ways they've helped us take quick action and make sure that all of our residents are warm and safe."

Garret Roberts is the local Public Priority reporter for The Beaver County Times. He can be contacted at groberts1@gannett.com and can be followed on Twitter at @ReportedRoberts.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Rochester Manor and Villa says building remains heated, never 'without heat'