HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — District 4 Huntsville City Council Member Bill Kling says the situation at Todd Towers is a tough one.
"Myself as a council member received notification about this. And of course, I'm very concerned about it and what it would mean. Hopefully this problem will not happen again. Again, it's a very significant safety concern for those seniors who are wheelchair bound or cannot maneuver on the steps. And if they do have a medical emergency, or if they need to get out to get food or just to be able to get out for whatever reason, they should certainly be able to do so. It's my understanding the elevators were inoperable for the entire weekend and residents felt like they did not get a response from the management and the management is saying that they tried to get action taken as soon as they found out."
Senior residents of Todd Towers need their elevators working to go from floor to floor or to get outside the building. "Literally, you have seniors who could not go down the steps. they were confined to wheelchairs and they were literally prisoners on their floor. and a concern would be what if there had been a fire?, Kling iterated."
FOX54 reached out to Todd Towers and they state: "The safety and well being of our residents is our number one priority. the property management team resolved the issue as soon as she was made aware of the situation. we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
So what's the current facility status? "Well, at this point, one of the two elevators has been repaired. that's progress, but the other one still has not. and, of course, just that one operating elevator for that whole area is going to be very, very long wait times for people trying to go up or down, you know, as they need to. and for our seniors, it's very important to have elevators because many of them cannot maneuver going up and down steps," Kling added.