Evergreen Apartment Residents Lose Water for Over 30 Hours

Residents at Evergreen Apartments on Welsh Hill were without water for over 30 hours between February 26 and February 27 due to construction on a sewage pipe that has repeatedly clogged and caused water to back up.

Evergreen Apartments on Welsh Hill have been plagued by water issues for several months now, with some residents reporting that, frequently, water gets backed up or that brown water comes out of the sink.

In October 2015, Kim Lartz’s bathroom flooded after water backed up, and it almost went into her bedroom. No serious damage was caused, however. This has become a recurring issue for Lartz and other tenants.

Just a few weeks ago, on February 16, brown water flowed out of Kim Lartz’s sink in an Evergreen Apartment. “I’ve lost count,” she said on how many times this has happened. She said it was probably the fifth time since October that this happened. 

“It’s fixed this time, but I bet it’s gonna happen again soon,” she said a few hours after that incident. “Everyone on the bottom floor of my apartment has had their bathrooms overflow before.”

Lartz said that Daniel Witter, Evergreen’s property manager, stayed on the phone with her for hours to try and solve the problem.

Witter told The Bottom Line that clogged sewage pipes have caused water to get backed up into the apartments, but that this problem hasn’t happened before in the 12 years the building has existed.

Lartz, a senior theatre major at Frostburg State University, is in her Welsh Hill apartment for the fourth semester. She lived on campus for her freshman year before leaving for her internship with the Disney College Program during Fall 2013. When she returned in Spring 2014, she was unable to get a dorm on campus, so she moved to Evergreen. She has also said that this hasn’t been a problem until October 2015.

“We have 96 percent females that live with us,” Witter said, explaining that personal hygiene products and grease have tended to clog the sewage pipes. Evergreen has hired a company to unclog the pipe once a week, but because Frostburg winters are so cold, they have been unable to dig into the ground to expand the pipe for a long term fix.

Evergreen Apartments turned the water off on at 2 a.m. on Friday, February 26 in one of its buildings in order to excavate the ground at Welsh Hill road to expand the sewage pipe. Lartz said that residents weren’t told that the water would be turned off.

The company began working to expand the pipe on Saturday, February 27.

“It’s uncomfortable for them now, but it’s in their best interest for us to do it now,” Witter said. “It’s not a management issue. This is a structural issue.”

Frostburg’s Board of Public Works has tried to help Evergreen with this issue, Witter said. “This city really does do its best,” Witter said.  “They were just as stunned as we were. They don’t know what the issue was in the pipe. We don’t know what the issue was in the pipes.”

“We’re not a company that points fingers and blames,” he added. “We try to find solutions.”

Laura McBride, Frostburg’s rental housing officer, told The Bottom Line, “the City of Frostburg and the owner of the apartment complex have been diligently working together to identify the problem, work toward a solution, and make a final and complete repair.  Our top priority has been to continue to provide the highest quality, clean water to all of our citizens.

The Bottom Line has contacted Chris Hovatter, Director of Public Works, for further comment.