WASI residents consider council

WASILLA — Residents of the housing units of Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. could take a step in unifying into a residents’ council today.

Residents will have a general meeting at 11:45 a.m. in the campus’ dining hall where the discussion could turn to creating a council to handle grievances and serve as one voice for each building.

The possibility of a council comes on the heels of controversy at the seniors campus regarding accusations management forced an elderly couple who complained of an odor in their apartment to move out of the building.

Those accusations have been staunchly denied by both the campus’ executive director, Robin Hall, and Director of Housing Laura McCammon.

But the idea of organizing seems to be catching on.

A resident of the campus, who did not want to be identified, said some buildings already have members picked to serve on a potential residents’ council.

The idea for unification among seniors living at the Wasilla seniors campus gained speed after Lisa Merrill, a state assistant ombudsman with the Office of Long Term Care, floated the idea.

Merrill said residents’ councils are commonplace at retirement and assisted living homes, adding seniors at the Wasilla complex could benefit from their own.

Merrill’s boss, Bob Dreyer, the state’s ombudsman at the Office of Long Term Care, said he agrees with Merrill that residents’ councils are generally a good idea.

In an interview last week, Dreyer said part of his role as an ombudsman is to encourage people to handle problems or issues themselves.

“She (Merrill) was hearing a lot of complaints” from residents of the Wasilla seniors campus, Dreyer said.

Hall, by way of e-mail last week, said she wouldn’t be commenting again until the investigation of the apartment odor is over.

The Frontiersman reported Sunday that 87-year-old James Eller and his wife, 68-year-old Carmen Reisdorph, had complained for months about a sewage-like odor in their apartment. The pair lived in the Susitna Place building on the Wasilla Seniors Campus.

The disagreement with management over how maintenance responded to the smell led to the eventual departure of Eller and Reisdorph from the campus.

Before they left, however, the pair did not pay their August rent, because, in their view, the odor issue was not fixed, resulting in a termination of tenancy letter.

The senior center management, for its part, said it did everything it could to fix the odor, along with offering Eller and Reisdorph another apartment on the third floor.

The family declined that offer because Eller is confined to a wheelchair and elevators on the senior campus lock during a fire alarm.

On Monday, Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings, who Hall said inspected the apartment and did not find a smell, said that claim is mostly true.

“I was not going over there to see if there was an odor,” Giddings said. “I was just seeing if they could explain to me the problem and figure something out.”

Giddings, who said he has a background in engineering but is knowledgeable about plumbing, said whatever was causing the smell is a mystery.

He has not smelled the odor himself, he said.

“The next step would be to take sheetrock apart and find the plumbing,” Giddings said. “You could have a tiny pinhole in there. Looking at it you wouldn’t know.”

Giddings added he can’t speak as to how the senior center handled the odor problem, adding the staff is still trying to figure out what caused it.

“I don’t think they found the smoking gun, so to speak,” he said.

No matter who is right or wrong in the situation, it seems to have opened a can of worms with many residents who now seem ready to start a residents’ council.

Some Wasilla City Council members said Monday a residents’ council seems like a good idea.

Councilman Marty Metiva said he thinks it’s good practice in any organization to have a concise way to present issues to a board or whoever is at the top.

The happiness of the area’s senior citizens should be a priority, Metiva said.

“That’s the generation that made America what it is,” he said.

The city might have a vested interest in what goes on at the WASI facility after giving $25,000 to “keep the lights on,” according to councilwoman Dianne Woodruff.

Woodruff supports the idea of a residents’ council.

“The residents there have felt they really haven’t got all the facts for some time,” she said about residents to whom she’s spoken.

But Merrill’s urging for a residents’ council appears to have rubbed some the wrong way. Dreyer, Merrill’s supervisor, said Hall called him to complain that Merrill was trying to have her thrown out.

Merrill responded by saying she’s merely trying to do what’s in the best interests of seniors.

“A resident council is a constructive way with which to organize as a unified voice in order to address concerns,” she said.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.