Danville seniors stuck after storm

At the end of Rocky Lane in Danville, a steep hill leads down into Janie’s Hope Apartments, a HUD-subsidized complex for the elderly.

Residents at the complex say delayed snow-plowing following the season’s first two storms has left them stranded, unable to leave their apartments or get up the hill to shop or go to medical appointments.

Following the most recent storm overnight Friday, which left about five inches of snow in Danville, residents waited until Monday afternoon for a snowplow to arrive and workers to clear the sidewalks.

“This is senior housing, and people here have a lot of medical problems,” Mae Bailey said. “Some people have home health workers come every morning and give them shots, and they couldn’t get in here. From Friday to Monday, we were prisoners in our own homes.”

Bailey said there are people in the complex who have missed dialysis appointments because the snow hasn’t been removed in a timely manner, and that emergency services have trouble getting in and out of the complex following a storm.

Monday morning, Evelyn Hedrick was tired of waiting, and called HUD to complain.

“I called HUD this morning, and I had to call them last time it snowed, too,” Hedrick said. “You couldn’t get in here. There’s a gentleman with no legs here, and he didn’t get to go to dialysis today.”

As Hedrick watched men shovel snow off the walkways at about 3 p.m. Monday, she commented, “This is the first time I’ve been down to get the mail since Thursday. When it snows, you can’t get out for nothing, and you can’t get in for nothing. It’s a problem and it’s got to be fixed.”

Michael Morings, the property manager for Dynamic, said he was not aware of how long it took to get the roads and walkways cleared.

“We hire contractors to do that,” Morings said Tuesday, but noted that it sometimes takes contractors a while to work through their list of customers. “You tell me how to control Mother Nature, and we’ll have a viable conversation.”

Morings also seemed unsurprised that some of the residents are unhappy with the delayed service.

“There are 76 units in there; you’re not going to get everyone that’s happy all the time,” Morings said. “

Marshall Construction Company has plowed the complex out following the last two storms. Vice President Tim Pressley said they do not have a contract with Dynamic, and that snow removal at the complex is taken care of as requested.

Pressley said his company was contacted after the December storm, when the snow had already been there for a day. For the most recent storm, they got a call the day before the storm was due, he said.

“We got there as soon as we could,” Pressley said. “We have contracts with several other people who have long-term contracts. We just add them (Dynamic) to the list as they call in; we can’t move them to the top of the list.”

HUD does not have a specific policy that says how quickly snow has to be removed from its subsidized housing locations, according to Maria Bynum, regional public affairs director. She said in an e-mail that the “lease does state that the owner has an obligation to maintain the property in a decent, safe and sanitary manner.”

Bynam said the steep hill, in combination with snow, “would have an impact on emergency vehicles and family members accessing the property … We can certainly understand the difficulties the residents faced in the wake of the most recent snowfall and we regret the inconvenience.”

To make future storms easier to bear, Bynam suggests the residents and landlord/management company work together to determine priorities, to “come up with some realistic timelines for when snow removal can occur and identify priority areas of the complex that should be cleared of snow immediately and subsequently to make it safe for all involved after snowfalls.”