Health Department cites carbon monoxide violations in Kent residencies

Housing violations continue to be a prominent issue for college students and departments in Kent, Ohio. Violations are reported to the Kent City health department, which handles a wide variety of cases.
As is often the situation with college students, college-style housing can be more susceptible to violations. The violations can be as common as litter and empty beer bottles in yards or more immediate violations, such as entire front or backdoors missing from the residency. Two major violations the health department continues to combat is problems with carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarm detectors within residencies.
Kent’s public health webpage contains a standard housing inspection procedures and reports, with violations separated into two categories: critical and non-critical. However, carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarm detectors listed as broken, missing or stolen is not considered a critical violation. The report states that there have been at least five incidences of carbon monoxide detectors missing during inspections since January 2016.
Kyle Kelly, Public Health Sanitarian for city of Kent, states the reason for not listing the detectors violations is not due to urgency but to technical issues.
“Our standard guidelines are that we consider this something to check as soon as possible,” Kelly said. “For housing, we recently started putting the inspections online and every violation, until we get some of the glitches fixed, will show as non-critical.”
Although the website doesn’t specify between critical and non-critical violations, Kelly understands the importance of having proper detectors within houses, as both carbon monoxide and smoke can be deadly. While it is common for students to remove the alarms themselves, Kelley said there are times when landlords have not provided the detectors for tenants.
“If the furnace or hot water (systems) malfunctions, that can be life-threatening and someone could die,” Kelly said. “So we definitely consider those critical violations, along with broken or missing fire extinguishers or someone missing a front door.”
Another frequent issue that students and residents encounter is animal control. Danny Pierreti, a senior psychology major, has lived in the same house off campus for three years and has had issues with animal control.
“There was a bat problem, bird problem and there still is a bat problem,” Pieretti said. “It got to the point we were actually shocked if there wasn’t a bat.”
Bats are known to carry many diseases that be harmful or deadly to humans, such as rabies and histoplasmosis which affects a person’s lungs. Pieretti stated that he reported the issue to his landlord and they brought an exterminator. However, the age of his house makes it difficult to keep track of all infestation.
“The house is older so it’s easy for them to get in and out without us knowing,” Pieretti said.
Not all violations college students and residents deal with are as severe. Some violations can be as simple as snow removal or grass height, both of which are responsibilities that Paul Bauer, code enforcement officer for building services, directly oversees.
“We enforce city code that is not criminal and also handle building zoning issues,” Bauer said.
Bauer and his department oversee the buildings themselves, exterior maintenance, issues with front steps and other general exterior problems. Bauer is also responsible for making sure cars have proper tags and are serviceable. His main issue especially during the warmer seasons is tall grass.
“In the summer, it’s definitely grass,” Bauer said. “The property tenant will get a warning and typically a contractor will come and issue a bill, plus a $100 fine if grass is over 12 inches.”
For more information regarding services and departments available to students and residents in Kent, visit http://www.kentohio.org/index.asp. Health Commissioner Jeff Neistadt was unavailable for comment.