Problem Solver: Apartment Elevator Not Working for Weeks

An elevator fire in a Union apartment building on August 7th left residents there with little choice but to use the stairs. Problem is about half of them are elderly or disabled. When 7 On Your Side found out the elevator still wasn't working nearly a month later we went looking for answers. Dianne Derby has the details in a 7 On Your Side Problem Solver.

At 88-years-old Mildred Gault has a tough time getting around.

"I can't walk my legs are out of whack," said Gault.

Relying on a walker to keep her on her feet and an elevator to get to and from her 3rd floor apartment at Pinckney Place in Union. But that elevator hasn't worked for nearly a month. Police say a man who lived in the building set fire to it hitting the most vulnerable part of the building for residents like Jerry Atkinson who can hardly breathe with 3/4 of his right lung missing.

"It's the heart of us for the 3rd and 2nd floor," said Atkinson. "We depend on it 100%."

Each time he climbs the stairs to his 3rd floor apartment he has to take a break on the 2nd floor.

"I come up to where I got that chair and I sit down and I rest long enough so I can go ahead and get up a little further," said Atkinson.

Now almost a month later he's fed up with what he's had to do.

"If an elevator was down in the hospital or the courthouse how long do you think it would take them to fix it," asked Atkinson.

Property Manager Stephanie Snipes says it will be at least another month before the elevator is up and running. In the meantime she said she would be sending a letter to all residents to provide relief.

"We are offering them to stay in hotel until the elevator is repaired and we also will be hiring temporary workers to come in and be available to them to help them up and down the stairs and carry groceries," said Snipes.

When asked to explain the holdup elevator repair company ThyssenKrupp's John Buhler sent an e-mail saying "these parts must be custom made" and referred all further questions to the management company.

Answers that leave people like Mildred Gault and Jerry Atkinson with little choice but to accept the offers made by management or stay prisoners in their own home.

"I can't get out of the room well," said Gault. "I can walk up and down the hall with my walker and that's all."

Police say a man who lives at Pinckney Place intentionally set a fire inside the elevator. They say he is Terry Donald Slentz. Union Public Safety Department Chief Sam White says Slentz is charged with second degree arson and is in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing. SLED also says Slentz has a conviction on his record in Ohio for arson.