Photo by Eric Ayres Officials in the city of Wheeling are closely monitoring an aggressive pest control plan that is being implemented at the Windsor Manor on Main Street downtown. Earlier this month, the city issued a notice to condemn the 11-story high rise apartment building after inspections revealed a serious cockroach infestation.

WHEELING — An aggressive pest management plan is being implemented at the Windsor Manor in Wheeling, according to city officials who are closely monitoring a cockroach and bed bug infestation problem that led to a condemnation notice being issued at the downtown high rise earlier this month.

The 109-unit apartment building at 1143 Main St. remains occupied, but management must take steps to bring substantial improvements to the situation there.

The notice of the building being “condemned as dangerous and unsafe” remains posted on the entrance doors with a stated deadline of Feb. 9 for the property owner to “have an extremely aggressive exterminating plan implemented by a professional exterminating company for any and all infestations.”

Brenda J. Delbert, director of Building and Planning for the City of Wheeling, said this week that management at the 11-story riverfront building was to begin implementing its plan, working with a professional pest control company at the site on Wednesday.

“They are to do the initial full-building treatment today,” Delbert said on Wednesday. “Then continue that every other week and also start spot targeting certain apartments that need it after the full-building treatment.”

Delbert confirmed that the notice to condemn and the deadline to address the problem remains.

“It stays in place until the matters are corrected, but they are taking the appropriate steps to have it lifted,” she said, noting that the pest infestation involves both cockroaches and bed bugs. “It is building-wide.”

The Ohio County Health Department was also contacted about the bug infestation at the Windsor Manor and performed an inspection the day before a city building inspector came to the site and issued the notice of condemnation.

In order to get the notice lifted, substantial improvements to the living conditions – as it relates to the elimination of pests – must be made, officials noted.

“They’d have to be significantly decreased,” Delbert said of the pests. “I don’t believe it’s realistic in a building that size to say that there would be zero anywhere, but it would have to be significantly under control.”

If the problem does not get under control, the city could take action to have it condemned and not allow it to be occupied until the problem is fixed.

“We’re not there yet,” Delbert said, noting that a number of people who live in Windsor Manor have been afraid to speak up about the issue because they have nowhere else to go if the building were to be shut down.

Attempts to reach officials that operate the Windsor Manor for comment on the situation have gone unanswered. J&S Management, the Cleveland-based property management company that operates the Windsor Manor and many other apartment complexes in the region, lists rooms at the Windsor Manor under its “senior” and “affordable” housing category.

“J&S manages properties that work directly with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),” the company states on its website. “These communities provide rental assistance to people across the country with programs like HUD project-based Section 8 contracts and local housing vouchers from local housing authorities.”

Wheeling City Councilman Ben Seidler said the lack of affordable housing and Section 8 housing availability in the area leaves few options for people living in apartments such as Windsor Manor. In certain cases, people are “held hostage” by the fact that they cannot go anywhere else or do anything about the living conditions.

“With HUD waiting lists stretching for months and a severe shortage of low-income housing, many tenants are effectively intimidated into silence,” said Seidler, who represents the Ward 2 neighborhood in the downtown where the Windsor Manor is located. “Many are afraid to report unsafe or unsanitary conditions because they know how easily they can be replaced. This fear does not negate their rights. Housing that is subsidized by HUD must meet basic standards of safety and habitability.”

Seidler said the residents there deserve to live in a clean and safe environment.

“No one should be forced to live alongside roaches, bed bugs, or other health hazards simply because they are low-income,” he said. “Safe housing is not a privilege. It is a requirement.”