Why have residents at 99 Riverside Towers been suffering through the heatwave with no AC?
Senior and disabled residents of 99 Riverside Towers in Medford have been suffering through the early June heatwave in apartments where temperatures have reached 98 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit due to the lack of air conditioning in the 200-unit high rise. Faces were shiny, and the sweat pooled on the upper lips and foreheads of the elderly men and women who congregated in the lobby Tuesday to discuss the lack of air conditioning with Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, who was alerted to the problem by residents. The heat wave was predicted a week ago, said Lungo-Koehn. They still have the heat on; its just a matter of flipping a switch, but they have to call someone to change it. They should have been proactive.  The air conditioning kicked in around 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to management. Richard Henken, president of the Schochet Companies, owner of the complex, laid the blame directly on the state health code. The state Department of Health requires we provide heat through June 15, Henken said, adding that, as owners and administrators of the complex, they face the same problem every year. We turned on the air conditioning as soon as possible.  Henken is confident that he would have been cited by the city if he had turned the heat supply off before June 15 and there had been a temperature drop below 64 degrees Fahrenheit. While some residents had been whisked away from the complex by relatives to cooler locations for the duration of the heatwave, others were trapped in their apartments due to physical conditions or lack of alternative living arrangements. Erika Chaves was checking on her aunt, Loretta Censullo, 81, a third-floor resident who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Shes lived here 27 years; this happens all the time, Chaves said. In her apartment Censullo sat with friends, Cathy DiNucci and Grace LaRiviere, both Tower residents, both complaining of sweltering conditions in their own apartments, all on higher floors. She launched into an impassioned speech; demanding to know whether m-o-n-e-y was the reason the air conditioning was not on. Dependent on oxygen and mobile only with the use of a wheelchair, Censullo was outraged at the lack of consideration for the Tower residents. I cant breathe, she said, pointing out that she was confined to her apartment by illness and physical impairment. I cant go anywhere; my feet are swollen; I have pins and needles in my legs and feet.  Building administration promised the air conditioning would be on first thing in the morning, then at noon, then after 1 p.m., then at 3 p.m.  It should have been on weeks ago, said Censullo. She looked ready to battle the building administration, despite her illness. She sat in her well-kept home, freshly painted ruby toenails blazing as fiery as he speech. While the woman and her friends recorded her apartment temperature in the low 80s, other residents on higher floors reported temperatures reaching the 90s. Marie Jonjoute sat outside in the shade, just waiting for the air to cool. She was joined on the bench by Maria Cussek, who escaped her sixth-floor apartment to do laundry and sit outside. Well have AC tonight, she said. It will be good. Worse things than this have happened; were all alive.  Other residents sweated through the heat, finding ways to escape their apartments; purchasing fans, sitting outside or visiting the cooling station set up by the city at the senior center across the parking lot. We were setting up the cooling centers anyway; Luong-Koehn said. But thank goodness we did.  Medford residents could escape the at the Senior Center and in five other locations around the city: including City Hall, the new police station, the fire station, the temporary library at 200 Boston Ave. and the West Medford Community Center. James Taverna, a sixth-floor resident at the Towers, said he left his front door open all night in an effort to get a cross breeze. He sat in the shade outside the Senior Center with a friend, waiting for the air conditioning to kick in. About a dozen people signed in at the Senior Center on Monday, and another dozen showed up Tuesday. Candy Tello, helping people find things to do at the center, said people have been showing up intermittently. They are watching television, reading magazines, chatting. One person even brought their knitting, Tello said. Some residents visited the library, where amenities included water, and books, puzzles and magazines. The centers at the police and fire stations, less visited, offered water and a cool, quiet place to sit. Conditions at Riverside Towers were exacerbated for some residents by an apartment fire that erupted a Saturday on the 11th floor, filling the upper story with smoke and causing some water damage to residences on lower floors. Four engine companies and two ladder trucks responded to the blaze, mainly due to its location in a high-rise building. The fire was contained in one residence and is still under investigation by Medford Fire Department. There were no injuries reported.