Ralston Towers declared unsafe by Columbus Inspections and Code director

The Inspections and Code director for the Columbus Consolidated Government has declared The Ralston Towers unsafe after several fire code violations at the 102-year-old building.

The announcement was made in a March 15 letter by John C. Hudgison, director of Inspections and Code, to the owner of the building, Ralston LLC. The Flemington, N.J.-based owner was given up to 90 days to fix all the fire code violations and to provide Inspections and Code Department and the Department of Fire & Emergency Medical Services with an extensive schedule to remove all fire code violations.

“If this timeline is not met, the city of Columbus will be forced to close this building to prevent occupancy,” Hudgison wrote.

A much stronger letter was sent to Ralston Towers management from Chief Jeff Meyer and Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who serves as the public safety director regarding the fire and life safety violation. “It is our recommendation that Ralston Towers located at the above address either be brought into code compliance or provisions started to relocate the residents to another location until such time as the building is deemed code compliant,” the letter stated.

Some of the issues noted by the fire department indicated an old fire alarm panel did not operate on Jan. 3, and some devices didn’t report to the fire panel on June 21, 2016. In other tests, a fire pump failed on June 23, 2016 and numerous sprinkler issues were found during a test on Jan. 3.

The owner faces the action from the city more than six months after residents complained of bedbugs and other issues at the 211 12th St. building.

Earl Robinson, an 11-year resident of the Ralston, expressed concern after hearing the possible action. “Where are we going to go?” he asked. “I’m not going on any streets. We just ain’t going to live on the streets.”

There are 269 rooms in the building. The Ralston Towers is under a Section 8 Project Based Rental Assistance contract with HUD. All units are covered under the contract, which helps low-income residents with their rent. The subsidy is administered for HUD by National Housing Compliance Inc.

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Ralston Towers declared unsafe by Columbus Inspections and Code director."