Williamstown's 1896 House Back Before Board of Health on Electrical Issue
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The months-long conversation between the owners of the 1896 House and the Board of Health finally may be coming to a close … at least on one front.
On Monday morning, at a special meeting of the board, it reaffirmed an order to correct electrical deficiencies at the Brookside motel but heard that order could be lifted by the middle of this week.
The '6 House Pub, also owned by the Oring family at the same property, remains under a boil water order under the jurisdiction of the town's health department.
But the last remaining electrical issue — upgrading the motel's service to 400 amps — triggered the town's building commissioner to suspend the certificate of occupancy for the 16-room motel on the east side of Route 7.
That problem could be repaired as soon as Tuesday.
"My last conversation with [the electrician on site] Friday evening was he'd be done [Tuesday], and I'm scheduled to inspect the service," Electrical Inspector Joe Beverly told the board on Monday.
Beverly and Building Commissioner Ryan Contenta attended Monday's meeting, as did one of the property's owners, Michael Oring, who attended virtually, and Zach Oring, who manages the property.
Health Inspector Ruth Russell opened the meeting by taking the board through the history of her office's effort to address violations of the state sanitary code at the motel.
The saga began when the town received complaints about a Brookside motel room starting on Aug. 9. After an Aug. 22 inspection, Beverly and Russell identified 14 code violations.
By Oct. 4, most of the violations had been mitigated, and all but five rooms in the motel were determined to be habitable.
"On Dec. 5, we got a bit of an update from the owners," Russell said. "The update was the remaining five motel rooms had the upgrades completed after the last hearing. At that point, it was 84 days since we ordered [the 400 amp service]. Joe, the wiring inspector, and I felt we'd been waiting long enough and wanted to see more action."
In mid-January, the Board of Health authorized Russell to send the Orings a strongly worded letter demanding that the business give the town a timeline to correct the problems — a timeline that was sought in the original order from the health inspector and which the town says it never received.
Board member Dr. James Parkinson said the town and board had waited too long to see the issues resolved.
"What disturbs me about this whole process is it's taken so long," Parkinson said. "They knew what needs to be done, and it seems like we've had four meetings now since August. It's not like if they wait, we're just going to change our minds.
"What is says to me is you don't care, and I think you do," Parkinson continued, addressing Zach Oring.
The younger Oring told the board that he had been pushing to get the electrical issues taken care of from day one but had difficulty getting any action from the first electrician he hired. He finally switched vendors, and the work was completed "in a couple of days."
"Hindsight is 20/20," Zach Oring said. "This week I said I should have gone with the electrician we have now from the beginning. But we were scrambling at the beginning, and we went with the first electrician who showed up."
Michael Oring objected to Parkinson's characterization of the 1896 House's response to the town's enforcement order and implied that the town should have ordered the work to be done years ago.
"Joe [Beverly] identified 10 years worth of work that needed to be done in a really short period of time," said Michael Oring, who has owned the business for 10 years.
"Joe told you [in a prior meeting] he hadn't come out [to the 1896 House] in the nine years he's been the inspector. His predecessor wasn't out that first year. My guess is there hasn't been an inspection in significantly longer than that.
"Now we're in a position to do 10 years of work in a really short period of time."
Michael Oring said the work has been a "financial hardship" to the business but it nevertheless has addressed the correction order from the town.
"Did [Zach Oring] write a timeline? No," Michael Oring said. "I don't think he did. But I can tell you Zach has had numerous conversations with Ruth [Russell]. I had a conference call with Zach and Ruth in December. My wife sent an email to Ruth.
"In January, the town sent an email regarding three enforcement items. I personally sent an email back addressing those issues."
Russell told the board that the 400 ampere upgrade could be completed as soon as Tuesday and that would complete the issues for the health department.
There remains another issue under the purview of the building inspector regarding air-conditioning in the Brookside motel.
Contenta told the board on Monday that the owners have two options to address cooling needs in the guest rooms: installing individual units in the rooms or repairing the central air-conditioning system on the property.
And while Contenta recognized that air-conditioning is not a concern right now, he said that getting it fixed before the warm weather months will be a condition on any certificate of occupancy he re-issues this week.
"Other than that, I don't have anything to add other than: Communication is really important," Contenta said. "We pride ourselves on really helping business owners in the community. But with lack of communication, this is what happens. These are life safety issues."
