State Health Department critical of HoJo motel

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State Health Department critical of HoJo motel

May 2, 2005

Vermont

The Associated Press

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20050502/NEWS/505020395/1003

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Mold in some of the rooms, a lack of hot

water, buckets catching water falling from hallway ceilings, no

chlorine and too-acidic water in the pool, refrigerators in need of

cleaning.

Recent state health and fire-safety inspections have found lots of

problems in a motel whose manager says, " Everything is neat and

clean. "

" You will not find (anything) like this hotel anywhere, " says Latis

Shak, manager of the 's off Sykes Mountain

Avenue. " This is like a resort. "

The state Health Department has asked the motel to stop renting out

most of its rooms until it fixes problems related to the mold and

lack of hot water in some parts of the building.

Three wings in the 121-room motel on Holiday Drive have closed

temporarily at the request of a Health Department official who

visited unannounced last month, according to Beth Sisco-Cheng, the

department's food and lodging program chief.

Shak denied most of the problems and said others had been corrected.

" Everything is fixed and we are OK at the moment, " he

said. " According to me, the hotel is in very good shape. We spent

close to a million dollars here to renovate everything. It's a very

nice property. "

The state's investigation was prompted by concerns from motel guests

over the past several weeks, Sisco-Cheng said. " It's atypical for us

to receive eight complaints on one particular facility, " she said.

Neither the state nor Shak was able to provide definite figures on

how many rooms were unavailable for rent or how many rooms are in

each wing.

The state also issued a $1,500 administrative penalty on April 15

against the motel after finding a history of silencing activated

fire alarms before firefighters arrived and before employees knew

what had caused the alarm — a violation of the state fire safety

code, said Howe, assistant fire marshal for the state of

Vermont.

" We don't get into a penalty situation like this until we have a

series of problems, " Howe said. " We try to work with people and

educate folks on the needs for the different fire codes. " The motel

has 20 days to appeal the penalty, he said.

Niteen Hotels LLC, the Vermont subsidiary of a New York company,

purchased the motel, a former Holiday Inn, in June 1998, according

to town documents. Since then it has been a Ramada Inn, a Regency

Inn and, since September, a , Shak said.

The motel has experienced financial troubles in the seven years

since Niteen purchased it. The owner owes the town of Hartford more

than $100,000 in taxes for the past year, with nearly $80,000 more

owed to the state of Vermont.