CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFTS) — Deborah Hicks moved to On Top of the World Clearwater five years ago.
“We didn’t want to do any more maintenance on our house,” Hicks said, explaining why she chose to relocate to the senior community.
She loves her condo on the third floor of Building Nine. Except there's been a big problem for the last six weeks.
“We want our elevator working. We want an update on how many more weeks. It’s already been six weeks,” she said.
Frustrated with the lack of communication regarding repairs, she reached out to ABC Action News to shed light on the ongoing struggles faced by residents.
Hicks and multiple other residents met with us in the building.
While there, we saw countless other residents struggle to take the stairs. One third-floor resident had a new chair come in. The movers were surprised to learn they would have to carry it up the stairs.
One second-floor resident even left a note by the elevator that stated, “We will sue. Have attorney.”
Jim Johnson said he has volunteered to take out the trash and walk pets of others, more vulnerable residents.
“It’s extremely frustrating, because I see these people every single day, people struggling upstairs. They can’t get their groceries up. They leave their garbage,” he said.
Ann Cornell is 88 years old and wheelchair-bound. She was stuck inside the condo for the first couple of weeks.
“I’m so disgusted. It’s terrible. I used to say to [my son], ‘Don’t ask me how I am today. I’m in a bad mood,’” she recounted.
Her son, Ron Cornell, eventually bought a specialized wheelchair to get her up and down the stairs.
“It was over a couple thousand,” he said.
The residents tell me getting answers about the elevator outage has been sparse.
The elevators have signs taped to the button. One notice is from Feb. 13.
“It is a slap in the face because they won’t address, they’ll take our HOA fees every single month without hesitation, but they can’t bother to send the residents a decent email or update as to when the facility will have an elevator,” Jim Johnson remarked.
ABC Action News reached out to On Top of the World Clearwater management. While they acknowledged the request, they stated they were still working to gather information for a response.
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