|
Questionable Antics of Safety in Unhealthy and Dangerous Buildings
This Month's Issue targets on some rather unsafe Structures and Circulated Air of Public Buildings in Rural Communities that obtain services in Housing, Lodging, or Restaurant Businesses to the Public.
by:HKH
We've had our attention drawn to the well-being and safety that Public Services, do or don't offer with their Business. Otherwords, is your Health and Well-Being Safe, if you are eating in a Village Diner and the ceiling caves in?
Is your Health o.k. when you are lying asleep and the furnace that's pumping hot air into your room, comes from an area that's covered in mushrooms and fungi?!!!
We've had reports that we've been following through for the past few months, seeking photos and documentation! We're not near done, as what we've discovered has amazed us so much so, that we weren't sure as how to catagorize the Series you'll be viewing over the next few editions.
I gotta tell ya, that in some areas we've come across, we've been left to wonder who's getting paid to turn a blind eye?!
We were directed to three buildings in 2 Villages and a fourth to compare to the first three, in another county under the same Agency-Permits and jurisdiction.
We went to what we were told was the Condemned Building. We were to use this building as the comparison, as it was appaently the worst. This building had Officially been Condemned with a Notice posted to the front of the building.
It's located in a very small village of approximately 30 homes off of Highway #22 South.
There is but only 3 visible business establishments for Folks to attempt at making self employed income.
One of which is Condemned by notice attached to the front of the building. The building itself was approx 4,000 square feet, covering 2 floors and a basement. The first floor, at one time was a Store Outlet, with the living quarters upstairs on the second floor.
The structure itself appeared all intact. The unique top molding was painted and intact. Windows were large and double paned. The foundation itself, appeared in fair shape for the buildings age, with the exception of one area, where it appeared they had to do digging in the basement.
It is to our knowledge that this area in particular was experiencing problems with "bad water", so that was a possibility for the basement digging, but that's not what we were here for.
Upon viewing the building structure by a complete walk around, it was apparent that a good $10-$15,000.00 had recently been applied. New Window Awnings, New Doors, Brass Handles, New Brass Locks, New -Huge- Back Porch, New Fencing covering approx 3 large lots, New Stairs, No Apparent Rotting Wood, No Cracking in the building!
Upon looking in the windows, there had been new wall framing, new sheets of drywall on the walls that was only partially finished and that's as it sits. We revisited a few months later to see if any further labor had been completed but the only thing that changed was the Condemnation Notice. It had become more sunbleached.
Figuring that this was the worst, as it was the one condemned, we went off to view the other three buildings in two different Villages in another County but under the same jurisdiction!
We found Dry and Rotted back Fire Escapes that had nails protruding an eighth of an inch out of the wood, because it had been so weather beaten and shrunk.
We sat and ate under a "rigged up beam" over a doorway to enforce the main structure frame over the doorway. Otherwords, it was holding up the ceiling over the doorway. Upon using the washroom facilities upstairs, it was clearly visible how the building itself was sinking and the main chimney still stood strong. The flooring from the top of the stairwell to the end of the hallway had a visible decline of close to 12", maybe more.
Down the entire hallway, the old plaster was falling from the roof and along the upper areas of the walls. The inner structure was still the old thin 2" wood, spaced approx. i/4 inch apart. In some areas, there were cracks that overlapped, but had a spacing of approximately an inch and a bit! The windows at the top of the stairwell measure about 24" in width and are about 4' in height. From one bottom corner to the other along the width of the window,
there is visably a 10" drop!
There were cut Wires hanging from the ceiling and in my intense disbelief, I was startled by a Gent who came out of his rented room in this Hotel! Oh My!
I returned back downstairs to the Diner, where I have to say, the meal was pretty good! The Kitchen, visible to the clientel, you could lean over and sorta watch your food being freshly prepared! So, don't get me wrong, the service was great, it's the building that horrified me! I knew I had to get back there with my camera!
I personally asked the woman serving, if they owned the building and she said no, they just rented the restaurant area for their business, so I complimented her on the food and service and left it at that. But... it opened another area. Here was a building, in a condemnable state, not only being rented to Boarders that rented rooms,
but was also creating income on renting out to Business localities.
The Hotel also had a Bar-Lounge that was rented to another Entrepreneur. We were then told by another Customer,
who saw that we weren't from the area, said proudly, that the County MLA was located in the Village and that it was a "Nice Big Town"
Holy Cow!
The local MLA lived there?! There were about 100 homes, 9-10 business localities and after checking Alberta Stats for population, there's 250 folks.
This was but the first building we visited, there's still two more! Wait till you read about the conditions of the next two in our next edition! Series Two.
Series Three will conclude with Resources to Agencies, Building Codes and other. Till next time. Be Well!
Back to Top
Any unauthorized
duplication or reproduction of the information or graphics contained on this
site is prohibited by law.
All Rights Reserved. C.A.N.A.D.A.'s
Village Herald Magazine. 2000/2001/2002/2003.
© CreativeExec Designs Site Design
Canada.
