The Burton Towers building at 36 Cerone Place.
By Nancy Peckenham
City of Newburgh fire chief Michael Vatter is turning up the heat on the managers Burton Towers, telling them that if they don’t get the elevators in the eight-story building repaired or replaced as soon as possible that the city will condemn the building and move the residents out.
Chief Vatter updated the city council last Thursday on a meeting he had with representatives of the Schindler elevator company and LWC Management, the company that manages the senior citizens and disabled residents building on Cerone Place. One of its two elevators has been broken for more than a year and the second one has intermittent problems.
A resident waited for the one working elevator.
Vatter said that it could take six months to get new elevators installed in the buildings and in the meantime the residents are living in unacceptable conditions. “In good conscience I can’t leave 225 people there,” he told the council. “These elevators have to be done immediately.”
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the Section 8 housing, has notified residents of an impending foreclosure against the current owners of the building, the non-profit Burton Towers Housing Development Fund Co., Inc.
Chief Vatter said he expects the foreclosure to be completed by June or July.
Relocating residents would present a challenge. HUD would have to sign relocation waivers, Vatter said.
Meanwhile, new city corporation counsel Michelle Kelson said she has heard from someone interested in purchasing the building and Mayor Valentine added that any new owner would have to get some kind of approval from the city council.
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