STEUBENVILLE — A faulty boiler at the Heritage Place affordable housing complex in downtown Steubenville that hasn’t worked for six months has finally been repaired, but now some residents say there’s no electricity in their common areas — and without electricity to power the buildings’ hot water systems – that means they can only take cold showers.

The reports sparked a flurry of activity Wednesday, beginning with Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi — doing double duty as acting city manager — walking the hallways in all four Heritage Place buildings to gauge whether mandatory exit lights were working.

Also Wednesday, Legal Aid of Southeastern Ohio’s Pam Bolton filed a motion for relief in Jefferson Common Pleas Court after the same tenants who filed suit in January over the lack of heat in their apartments during the coldest winter months contacted her to report they now “had been without hot water to their units since (Tuesday)” and that electricity in the common areas “has not been functional since the same time.”

“These are the same units affected by the boiler (outage),” Bolton said in that motion for relief, adding that she had “requested restoration of the hot water and electricity from counsel for the defendant, WG Heritage Place Ohio…without success. As such, the only remedy is to ask this court to set the matter for an emergency hearing.” She said Kristopher Haught, who has been representing owner Green National and WG-Heritage Place, had not responded to the messages they’d left with his office or emailed.

Judge Joseph Bruzzese scheduled the hearing for Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Capaldi, meanwhile, reported hallway lights in two of the four buildings were working Wednesday – but in the two buildings with no lighting in common areas, he said it appeared “some of the exit lights were not working.”

Working exit lights are required in multi-unit apartment buildings.

Since Heritage Place’s building managers are not on site on Wednesdays, Capaldi said there was no one in the office he could talk to. As a result, he said his fire inspector will return to the complex Thursday for another look around and, if necessary, to talk to the management company.

“Some exit lights were working, that was what I worried about,” Capaldi said afterwards. “A couple of (them) were working, but not all, so tomorrow we’ll go back and talk to the manager, double check to see (if everything is working correctly).”

Capaldi said he also has been in contact with Law Director Costa Mastros.

“As acting city manager, I can tell you we’re looking into it, seeing what the city can do,” he said. “Hot water is not a city issue because residents still have water — our code requires that residents have water for a place to be livable, but it doesn’t say anything about hot water.”

Building officials also confirmed Wednesday that the boiler has finally been repaired, saying Heritage Place had secured the required permit and passed the post-repair inspection.

Bolton’s Legal Aid of Southeastern Ohio associate, Kristen Lewis, said they aren’t sure if the common area electricals being out “is a fluke or what” and eventually concluded that, “Given the situation (we needed) to file for an emergency hearing and demand that defendants personally appear before this court, because we’re just not getting straight answers from anybody.”

“We think they need to be there in person to answer some questions,” Lewis said. “There needs to be some accountability to the community.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Lewis said they don’t know whether the electrical outage is related to the boiler repair or if there’s some other issue, but found it concerning that only two buildings were out. In prior court filings, tenants had also complained that over the past two years the complex “lost water service many times because the landlord forgot to pay the bill” and that they’d lost trash service in the past for non-payment, but likewise, there’s no indication that is what happened this time.

“We’re continuing to advocate with the owners and managers to be in comm with the court to make sure these folks have safe place to live and that this complex continues to serve the community,” Lewis said. “We also understand the frustrations of the tenants and we acknowledge this not a good situation for them.

Lewis also pointed out that, regardless of whether the boiler is working again, tenants were still harmed by not having heat during the coldest months of winter, coping by using space heaters and leaving their ovens on all night–both of which ran up their electric bills.

“There’s still damages (to address),” she said. “These folks are not going to go uncompensated for them.”

On Tuesday, Councilman Royal Mayo had urged council to action, telling them “people are suffering.”