Mayor Rickenmann reacts to Columbia residents living with no heat, water
Columbia, SC (WOLO) — A deadly shooting in Columbia ends up tipping city officials to another situation at the Colony Apartments along West Beltline Boulevard.
According to Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, while police were on the scene of a deadly shooting they notified him that there were residents who have been living at the same complex without heat or water for at least three days. A system the Mayor says are connected to each other, but not operated by the city.
Rickenmann says some of the people living in the units claimed to have alerted the owners of the apartment complex 30 days ago and are accused them of getting the cold shoulder. Rickenmann responding to news of the situation saying, ‘I’m pissed’ calling the owners disregard for the occupants “disgusting” and “not what Columbia is about”.
The occupants endured these conditions during some of the coldest days South Carolina has seen during the winter in the past 5 years.
The Mayor, City Manager Teresa Wilson and Code Enforcement went to the property to get some answers but say they were met with on site managers who could not even tell them how many resident could possibly be affected. City officials say Code Enforcement had to go door to door to do their own research to locate how many people were involved. The Mayor says as of 7 p.m. Tuesday, owners of the complex were not responding to calls from Code Enforcement or the City Manager.
ABC Columbia News reached out to the Colony Apartments Maintenance Emergency line to get their response to the allegations, but once the recording ends the call is disconnected. We also reached out the owners of the complex via their main office and when prompted to leave a message, the machine responds only saying ‘this is not a valid mailbox number’ and once again disconnects the call. Attempts to reach the company via their website, and through social media have been unsuccessful.
According to Rickenmann, buses were brought in to take affected residents to either the home of family members with heat or area hotels to ensure they have a place to stay where they can be warm.
Stay with ABC Columbia News for updates to this developing story on air and online.
