Ralston owners headed to court over code violations, city issues more citations

Even with space heaters, 24 of the units at Ralston Towers fell short of the 68-degree threshold on Monday.

City Inspections and Code Director John Hudgison said Tuesday that the city planned to issue citations for every unit still not in compliance.

Hudgison presented the information at a Columbus Council meeting, where he provided elected officials with an update on the 10-story structure.

The company that owns the building, New Jersey-based PF Ralston, LLC, has a court date on Wednesday. City officials said owners have until then to perform all needed repairs or produce an action plan for resolving temperature issues.

Hudgison said space heaters are currently being used in some of the units without heat. He showed a picture of one heater in a room cluttered with clothes, pointing out the fire hazard.

The city will continue two-week inspections of the building, Hudgison said, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be back in town this week to assess the situation.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said several vendors have worked on the system, and refused to continue. She said she spoke to the most recent vendor who said Friday was his last day “because it is a catastrophic system failure that needs to be completely redone and invested in.”

“ And no reputable vendor will continue to patch work with not being paid, or periodically being paid, or by not authorizing what actually needs to be done,” she explained.

Tomlinson said some people may wondering why the city doesn’t just shut down the building.

“You shut the place down and you have 188 people, many of whom have physical and cognitive abilities, who are at the lower end of the income scale who don’t have a lot of resources, may not have family and folks who are able to take them in, difference situations,” she said. “So they just can’t go and rent an apartment some place else.”

Tomlinson also reiterated that the city city has no jurisdiction over the building, except in the area of code and inspection.

Tomlinson said the city has been working with United Way, Red Cross, the Housing Authority, Home for Good and other partners to find units. Some have been located, but the units at the Ralston are project-subsidized, she explained. The vouchers don’t necessarily, or easily, follow the individuals to another location.

The mayor said PF Ralston has a local representative on site now, and she issued a letter Tuesday to determine how the city and company can move forward.

Fire Marshal Ricky Shores said fire officials found problems with the building’s fire pump, hood suppression system and fire alarm system during a 2016 inspection. He said problems have been remedied, and a new fire alarm system was installed in November.

But fire officials never received a record of completion from the installer, which is required by a section of the national fire alarm code, Shores said. That means the company is technically in violation.

He said the fire department recently contacted representatives from Columbus Fire and Safety, the contractor for the project, who said the document hasn’t been issued because they haven’t received payment for the installation.

“But we are in there on a regular basis,” Shores said of the Ralston. “And it is a structure that could cause some significant issues if it were to catch on fire.”

On Jan. 3, the Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered areas of the Ralston Towers temporarily evacuated due to lack of hot water and a portion of the facility being declared unsafe by city officials. About 20 residents were temporarily evacuated from the building the next day to escape cold hallways and rooms with temperatures barely higher that the outside high, a city official said. They were transported by city Metra buses. Hudgison said a few more people left the building on their own over the weekend.

During his presentation Tuesday, Hudgison provided Council with a timeline of problems at the Ralston, starting with city inspections in June of 2016. Since then, the building has had a fire, elevator malfunctions, as well as cooling and heating problems.

In September, HUD issued an assessment report for the building, Hudgison said. The failing score is 60, and the Ralston scored 65.

The building, which has 269 rooms, is currently at 70 percent occupancy with 188 residents.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Ralston owners headed to court over code violations, city issues more citations."