City officials condemned the McLure Hotel in downtown Wheeling this week, leaving tenants of the apartments inside scrambling to find new places to stay. (File Photo)

WHEELING — Employees of the recently condemned McLure Hotel described experiencing sewage issues, mold, falling ceilings, electrical hazards and fire code violations while working there.

The city condemned the apartments in the building on Friday, Nov. 15, after the Ohio County Health Department closed the hotel section of the building on Nov. 14. Tenants of the apartments were forced to vacate by noon on Monday due to the hazardous conditions and code violations.

Frank Gooch, an employee of the McLure who ran security and did maintenance work, said he saw many issues with the cleanliness, safety and functionality of the building.

Gooch found mold in the walls and bathrooms on the apartment side of the building. There was also a storage room under the apartments filled with feces and sewage, he said.

The sink in Gooch’s own apartment did not drain so he was doing dishes in his bathtub for months. He said he also discovered a methane gas leak in his bathroom after noticing a strange smell and frequent headaches.

Gooch said he submitted multiple work orders to have the issue fixed without response from McLure owner Frances Garey. Gooch eventually paid out of pocket for a maintenance worker to fix it.

Just before the building was officially condemned, Gooch said he was asked to clean out a room adjacent to the lobby, behind the kitchens, which had been previously inaccessible and locked from both sides.

Video footage from Gooch shows that the ceiling had caved in and there are large puddles of sewage water containing black mold. Had the doors remained open, this space would be visible from the front lobby. The mold could already be smelled.

“You could be in the lobby for five minutes and have a headache from the smell,” Gooch said.

The ceiling was leaking directly onto an electrical unit which could have caused a fire, he said, and no one would have been alerted as the fire alarms did not work for months.

Gooch had been living in his apartment at the McLure starting in May and stayed up until tenants were forced to vacate Monday. His 3-year-old daughter would stay with him for most of the week.

Though he was hired as the head security officer, Gooch said he was one of several employees who did not have a written contract and wore many hats. He said Garey quickly started asking him to take on roles like doing repairs, cleaning, housekeeping, laundry and manning the front desk.

Already overwhelmed with frequent security breaches and constant activity from people entering the building, Gooch said he requested a second security employee to help him, which was denied. Gooch said his maintenance workload kept increasing until it reached 70-hour weeks.

Donna Loy, who worked as the McLure’s bookkeeper, said that soon after she began there and observed the conditions, she felt maintenance issues weren’t being addressed.

Loy said Garey was “constantly cutting corners” and trying to “put makeup on a pig.” Loy claimed Garey had maintenance workers paint over mold.

Gooch said he and other staff were never made aware of just how abysmal the condition of the building was until representatives from the county and city showed up.

Gooch claimed Garey had frequently assured staff that code violations like the broken alarms were “being taken care of.”

“We were all living in these conditions unknowing that it was that bad,” Gooch said.

Garey could not be reached for comment as of Thursday night.