Local News

Displaced Heritage House Tenants Have Nowhere to Go | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

January 26, 2024

[ad_1]

click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD Lillie Crockett, 86, has been staying at a Hilton after frozen water pipes damaged her apartment building.

Lillie Crockett’s life has been a giant, hassle-filled question mark since the evening of January 14 — when frozen water pipes burst at the 252-unit Heritage House Apartments in Midtown St. Louis, forcing the evacuation of Crockett and 119 fellow residents.

Crockett, 86, spent the next week at the Hilton at the Ballpark. Then, on Sunday she was bused to the Hilton St. Louis Airport, where she was told that she would be on her own in less than five days, with the need to find new housing by January 30.

“I’m very stressed,” Crockett said Thursday in a hotel meeting room filled with donated food, water and sanitary supplies. “Someone had to call me this morning to get me out of bed.”

But Crockett received a dose of good news shortly after she uttered those words. Word came down that the evacuees would be able to stay at the hotel another week longer, until February 6.

Even so, she’s unsure where she’ll live after that, or how to retrieve any of the larger items, such as a sofa and bed, left behind in the apartment she’s lived in for the past 13 years.

“Just give me my fireplace, my TV and my pictures on the wall,” she said.

Sansone Property Management Company, which oversees Heritage House, had previously arranged to put residents up at the Hilton and was paying for their stay. But the company sent a letter to the evacuees on Monday, January 23, informing them they had until January 30 to stay at the Hilton, after which time they could stay there at their own expense.

Sansone representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Heritage House tenants will be refunded their current month’s rent, as well as any deposit they had made on their apartments, according to Marquetta Hamell, the on-site property manager.

Heritage House, an 18-story building at 2800 Olive Street, has been condemned and will remain closed for at least a year, Hamell said.
click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD Heritage House was badly damaged by the burst pipe and has been condemned.

Action St. Louis, a tenant rights group, has been coordinating relief operations at the Hilton. On Thursday, group representatives were going door-to-door to check on the food and medical needs of tenants, most of whom are elderly and disabled, says Kennard Williams, the group’s organizing manager.

The situation is improving for most of the evacuees, but problems remain for those seeking to retrieve major possessions. Tenants have been given only 15 minutes to fetch valuables, Williams says.

“They got to get access at some point,” he says. “They got to get their belongings in a real amount of time. Because 15 minutes ain’t enough.”

A woman who identified herself as a family member of one of the evacuees tells the RFT that a major source of stress is the pushback the tenants have been getting from providers of renter’s insurance.

“And so we got hundreds of seniors who’ve been paying monthly to insurance companies,” says the woman, who asked not to be identified. “And they’re now saying they won’t cover the claims. They’re determining it’s not an act of nature.”

A woman interviewed in the parking lot of Heritage House — who identified herself as the friend of a longtime resident in her 80s — said she had heard the pipes had started freezing on January 13, when the heat went out in the building in the midst of a bitter cold snap, when night temperatures sank below zero.

“What we heard is the windows got left open on the 11th floor the day before the freeze,” the woman says. “It was an empty unit. That froze the pipes.”

A few days after the frozen pipes burst at Heritage House, broken pipes at the Mark Twain Building complex on North 9th Street led to the evacuation of 213 tenants.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

[ad_2]

Source link