Water, mildew haunt project

by Brittany Yingling
Staff Writer

Ohio University senior Mike Pearson said his first month as a resident of OU's University Courtyard apartments, 366 Richland Ave., has been riddled with problems.

"Saturday morning at 7:30 in the morning, I wake up to see an air vent above my bed shooting water at me at a rate I'd estimate to be a few gallons a minute," he said. "My blanket, comforter, sheets and mattress were soaked straight through to the point where it was all over my carpet."

Pearson said it took an hour and a half to contact management for emergency maintenance.

He said he slept on the couch of his four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment for three days while maintenance workers repaired a burst pipe and replaced carpeting in two bedrooms of the apartment, including his.

Mildew also has plagued the apartment, Pearson said.

"When we moved in, there was a bunch of mildew and stuff in my bathtub and it wouldn't drain," he said. "They came in and cut a hole in my wall so they could unclog (the pipe)."

OU President Robert Glidden said these problems most likely are typical of new apartments.

"In any big new construction project, you're going to have some problems," he said. "It probably will be quicker to get it fixed than any other landlord in Athens."

Keisha Bowman, a junior living in a University Courtyard apartment, also said mildew also has affected her apartment.

"There was green stuff on the walls and it wasn't there before – and then after that, we all got sick," she said. "They came in a painted over the stuff – therefore, we were still getting sick."

But mildew was not the only problem.

" There was no water pressure in the shower – no hot water," she said.

And an exhaust vent in another bathroom in the apartment leaked more than air.

"In the bathroom, dirty water was streaming down from the exhaust vent every time someone would empty their bath water," she said.

Bowman said she and her roommates eventually moved out of the apartment, where they were being housed temporarily, into another apartment within the complex.

But they encountered more difficulties in the new apartment.
"We got all moved and we got to our new apartment and there's no cable – cable is included in the rent," she said. "And the air conditioning doesn't work and the sinks are leaking in some of the bathrooms.

"And we still don't have hot water," she said.

University Courtyard officials said the problems usually are isolated and repaired quickly.

"Occasionally with new construction, you're going to have little things that pop up here and there and we take care of them immediately," said Beth Horner, director of marketing and communications for University Courtyard.

But Pearson said he no longer will promote the apartments.

"It certainly is changing the way I'm talking about it to my friends," he said.