LYNN ― After complaints to the city ― and attention from Fox25 News ― residents of an apartment building on Ocean Street might get their elevator up and running by the end of the week.
The elevator in the five-story building broke down about a month ago, said Sharyn Rogers, 68, who lives on the fifth floor. She overheard a maintenance person saying that the elevator was making a concerning sound and that he wouldn’t be able to fix the issue.
Since then, the elevator has been shut off and daily life has become very difficult for residents occupying the building’s higher floors.
Rogers, for example, has multiple sclerosis.
“Taking those stairs is very difficult,” said Rogers. “I have to go down backwards, one stair at a time.”
She added that it takes her 10 minutes to go up the stairs with her condition. Without an elevator, she can’t do laundry, take her trash down, or bring her groceries up.
Rogers called the building’s management company, but the situation didn’t change. She was notified by email that a replacement elevator part had arrived, but it would take a week or two to adjust it at a machine shop.
Rogers said that some of her neighbors couldn’t leave their apartments because of the broken elevator.
“It’s been very, very frustrating,” said Rogers.
Jason Dubois, 41, moved into the building in August. He lives in a half-empty apartment because he can’t carry the furniture up the stairs due to a bad back. He also saw neighbors struggling.
“I feel bad for the old people who use canes,” said Dubois. “Sometimes, I help them bring groceries up.”
Assistant City Solicitor James Lamanna said that the city received a complaint from a tenant about the elevator late last week. Representatives of a same-day inspection services crew went to the building to confirm that the elevator was not working properly.
The issue was not resolved over the weekend. On Monday, the city received another complaint, and Fox25 visited the apartment building on a tip.
“We would be taking legal action today,” said Lamanna on Tuesday, as the city’s building code states that any building with at least three floors must have a functioning elevator.
However, the property management of the building communicated to City Council President Darren Cyr and Lamanna that they were interested in resolving the issue outside of court. Lamanna said they were taking measures to expedite manufacturing of the part.
They also promised to make an offer to the residents to put them up in a hotel with a functioning elevator. Lamanna said that if they went to court, the city would be asking for such an offer.
“From the law department’s perspective, ISD, mayor’s office, and city councilor’s office perspective, this was something that needed to be taken care of right away,” said Lamanna. He also added that 72 hours could have been an acceptable timeline to fix an elevator, but not several weeks.
Gregg Clickstein, president of Sawyer Property Management ― which took over the building maintenance on July 1 ― said that the repairs were delayed because of a part that had to be manufactured by hand. He said Wednesday afternoon that the part is expected to be completed and picked up tomorrow.
“We believe we will have everything reinstalled and the elevator back up and running Friday,” said Clickstein.
On Wednesday night, the company was ready to provide residents with hotel rooms. Nobody has taken advantage of this offer yet, Clickstein reported, but the company is still offering assistance with laundry and the delivery of groceries and other parcels to residents’ apartments.
“We continue to communicate with the city to make sure they are in the loop and speaking with the residents,” Clickstein said. “We do have a budget for repairs and upgrades. We are not underfunded.
“There is no excuse for the elevator to be down this long,” he added. “We understand it put our residents into a difficult place; we understand that we have the responsibility to our tenants and the city, and we are going to fix the problem.”
