Several issues need to be addressed at Blueberry Hill Apartment No. 22.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Selectmen voted Tuesday to give an apartment building complex owner 30 days to make several repairs at Blueberry Hill Apartment No. 22.

Among the issues are a toilet that chronically backs up, a leaking roof, a second egress obstruction, making sure that electrical ground-fault-interrupter circuits are installed properly and and repairing ceilings.

Selectmen authorized Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser to draft an order this week to require a written plan within three days on how these deficiencies are to be corrected.

Board members gave seven days for owners to get the egress in the back of the apartment fixed and free of snow.

Kaiser was also directed to check all apartments to make sure ground-fault-interrupter circuits are installed and second egresses are able to be used and clear of snow at the North Street complex.

Selectmen also told Kaiser to include in the order that a portable toilet be given to the tenant for use until the sewage backup is fixed and that weekly reports be submitted.

Kaiser told selectmen that Dorothy Soule, a tenant at the complex, came to him in December to complain about the problems in her apartment.

Her toilet backed up, the roof was leaking, she didn’t have necessary safety electrical outlets and her back door leaked, so she taped it to keep water from seeping into her apartment but it blocked her egress, which was also hindered by snow.

Kaiser said he inspected the apartment and pursued the repairs.

He said Maine Development Associates of Bangor and North Street Associates have fixed some of the problems but not all.

Kaiser said he was encouraged by the “good faith” effort of the owners to get the repairs completed. The roof has been temporarily fixed, loose tiles repaired and receptacles installed but Kaiser said he would like to see long-term solutions to these issues.

Kaiser told selectmen these problems are violations under the state’s nuisance law and he needed an order to require repairs with a time limit.

A sewage pump at the complex needs to be fixed to stop sewage from backing over a toilet in Soule’s apartment, he said.

At times, Soule has had to use plastic containers for her bodily functions, Kaiser said.

Soule said that sometimes when the toilet backs up it overflows and goes into the ground outdoors, which is near the playground.

Soule took out a clear plastic bag partially full of ceiling pieces that had fallen in her apartment because of the roof leak to show selectmen. She has also passed around photos of the problems.

Soule said she wasn’t trying to harass anyone with her complaints, she just wanted a safe place to live.

“I don’t want to be kicked out, it’s the only place I have to live,” Soule said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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