The Burton Towers building at 36 Cerone Place.
By Nancy Peckenham
Residents of Burton Towers, a building designed for disabled and senior citizens in the city of Newburgh, have been living without full elevator service for more than a year and recently Fire Chief Michael Vatter told the city council that he is concerned about the safety of residents. He told the council that one elevator has been broken for a year and the second elevator only works intermittently in the eight-story building. If no elevator service is available in an emergency, Vatter said, responders could be forced to carry people up and down the stairs.
“It’s a nightmare,” Vatter told the council. “We get calls almost every day of things not working up there.”
Burton Towers residents Joseph FIndley (l) and Felipe Vega agreed that a lot of things don't work in the building.
Vatter also said that his calls to the building’s management company have not been returned though he has been informed by a representative of HUD, the federal department of housing and urban development, which monitors the property, that a foreclosure against the current owners could occur within the next few months.
During a recent visit to the building on Cerone Place, a half-dozen residents gathered in the lobby and described how the bell system to let visitors into the building doesn’t work and that a manager is on-site only two days a week. They confirmed that the second elevator has frequently shut down.
A resident waited for the one working elevator.
Last May a city of Newburgh code enforcement officer issued a violation against the building for the inoperable elevator. A return visit in July found the elevator still out of order and the building’s owner was ordered to appear in court. In November a $250 fine was levied and as of March 23rd, the fine has not been paid.
LWC Management of Manhattan manages the building and company president Lilly Keller said in a phone interview that she is working on getting the elevators replaced. She said that she has the financing and needs to review a report on what other repairs need to be made before two new elevator cars can be installed. “My timetable to get it fixed was last year,” Keller said. “Hopefully by mid-week we will know what we have to do.”
Fire chief Vatter says that he hopes he can report some progress in fixing the elevator problem in the near future.
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