{"id":274,"date":"2024-09-05T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-10-29T22:09:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:09:47","slug":"opelika-council-discusses-possibily-of-revoking-springwood-hotel-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/2024\/09\/05\/opelika-council-discusses-possibily-of-revoking-springwood-hotel-license\/","title":{"rendered":"Opelika Council Discusses Possibily of Revoking Springwood Hotel License"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Opelika City Council has tabled a vote until Oct 1 <\/span>t<\/span>hat could<\/span> potentially revoke the <\/span>business <\/span>license<\/span> of the Springwood Hotel, located at <\/span>1002 Columbus P<\/span>a<\/span>rkw<\/span>a<\/span>y in Opelika<\/span>,<\/span> for multiple <\/span>alleged <\/span>health and safety violations. <\/span>The tabled vote <\/span>decision came after an hours-long <\/span>public hearing <\/span>at the city\u2019s Sept 3<\/span>, <\/span>2024<\/span> <\/span>c<\/span>ouncil meeting. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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During the meeting<\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>Opelika <\/span>C<\/span>ity Building <\/span>Official, <\/span>Jeff Kappelman<\/span> said <\/span>Springwood Hotel<\/span> had <\/span>\u201chorrific conditions<\/span>\u201d<\/span> <\/span>in all four of its buildings<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>Kappelman<\/span> alleg<\/span>ed the hotel had <\/span><\/span>electrical code <\/span>violations<\/span>, <\/span>fire code violations, <\/span>structural violations<\/span>, <\/span>sewage under <\/span>its<\/span> floors<\/span>,<\/span> plumbing violations<\/span>, <\/span>standing water<\/span>, <\/span>holes in <\/span>the <\/span>flooring<\/span>,<\/span> mold<\/span>,<\/span> and bed bugs<\/span>, among other issues. <\/span>Kappelman <\/span>showed photos of the damage to the city council he took during <\/span>his<\/span> Aug<\/span> 22, 2024 inspection. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Additionally, the Opelika Police <\/span>Department<\/span> <\/span>(OPD) <\/span>said they had had <\/span>769 <\/span>responses to the Springwood Hotel <\/span>b<\/span>etween January 1, 2021, and July 14, 2024<\/span>. <\/span>Captain John Hester with <\/span>the OPD <\/span>investigations division <\/span>broke down <\/span>its calls<\/span> <\/span>to<\/span> the hotel. <\/span>He said <\/span>during th<\/span>at<\/span> <\/span>three-and-a-half-year<\/span> period OPD had <\/span>received<\/span> <\/span>six<\/span> weapons<\/span> calls<\/span>,<\/span> 19 drug<\/span> calls,<\/span> <\/span>four<\/span> <\/span>burglary<\/span> or car break<\/span>–<\/span>in<\/span> calls<\/span>,<\/span> 14 <\/span>disturbance<\/span> calls,<\/span> 1 <\/span>prostitution<\/span> call,<\/span> <\/span>nine <\/span>assault<\/span> calls<\/span>, <\/span>18 theft<\/span> calls<\/span>, <\/span>21 harassment<\/span> calls<\/span>, 22 domestic violence calls<\/span>, and 20 criminal <\/span>trespass<\/span> calls<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest would be <\/span>labeled<\/span> as miscellaneous <\/span>calls,\u201d Hester said. <\/span>\u201cThat could be traffic stops, <\/span>police contacts, things of that nature.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Hester said there had been 43 arrests at the hotel during the same period. <\/span><\/p>\n

Al Agricola, the defense <\/span>attorney<\/span> for<\/span> Springwood Hotel\u2019s owners<\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>BRP Hospitality LLC<\/span>, <\/span>found several issues with the City\u2019s claims. Agric<\/span>ola said <\/span>plumbing<\/span> work performed by <\/span>Rotorooter<\/span> <\/span>around <\/span>the time of Kappe<\/span>l<\/span>man\u2019s inspection accounted for <\/span>holes in the floors.<\/span> <\/span>He also <\/span>said<\/span> Kappelman did not go into any of the hotel rooms but rather <\/span>did his inspection in a<\/span>n<\/span> access hall that ran between the rooms of each building. <\/span><\/span>Kappelman confirmed <\/span>he did not go into any of the rooms<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Agricola <\/span>further<\/span> noted<\/span> that <\/span>OPD\u2019s<\/span> <\/span>number of miscellaneous calls to the hotel was higher than all the other calls combined. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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The Opelika City Council itself <\/span>said<\/span> Kappelman should have notified the <\/span>fire department when <\/span>health and <\/span>safety issues with <\/span>the <\/span>hotel<\/span> had first come up. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The fact that h<\/span>e ha<\/span>d<\/span> the ability to shut it down and <\/span>he <\/span>did not,\u201d said councilmember<\/span> <\/span>Erica Baker-Norris<\/span> regarding Kappelman<\/span>,<\/span>\u201c<\/span>That gives me some struggle with <\/span>whether<\/span> or not the issues and the claims put forward are as severe as <\/span>what he\u2019s listed<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The city council told<\/span> the<\/span> <\/span>Springwood Hotel<\/span> owners and management<\/span> <\/span>they had<\/span> <\/span>30 days to hire an <\/span>architect<\/span> and <\/span>structural engineer <\/span>to look into the alleged issues and file a report back to the city council<\/span>. <\/span>The council will the<\/span>n<\/span> decide if the <\/span>hotel\u2019s business license should be revoked. <\/span>The city council must render a decision within 30 days of Tuesday\u2019s hearing<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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In ot<\/span>her <\/span>n<\/span>ews:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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The <\/span>city c<\/span>ouncil awarded a bi<\/span>d<\/span> <\/span>at its Tuesday meeting <\/span>for <\/span>drainage updates along <\/span>North <\/span>7<\/span>th<\/span> Street<\/span> <\/span>in downtown Opelika<\/span>. The updates are expected to<\/span> help alleviate flood<\/span>ing<\/span> problems along 1<\/span>st<\/span> <\/span>Avenue<\/span>. <\/span>Flooding in the area has <\/span>negatively <\/span>a<\/span>ffected several local business<\/span>es<\/span> in recent years<\/span>.<\/span> The bid was awarded to South <\/span>D<\/span>ade Air Conditioning<\/span> (SDAC) <\/span>for <\/span>$<\/span>874<\/span>,962<\/span>.83<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Niag<\/span>a<\/span>ra <\/span>B<\/span>ottling<\/span> <\/span>is planning <\/span>a <\/span>$<\/span>20 million<\/span> <\/span>addition to its plant<\/span> at <\/span>2710 Andrews Road<\/span> <\/span>in the North<\/span>e<\/span>ast Industrial <\/span>Park in Opelika. <\/span>While not mu<\/span>c<\/span>h is known at this point, <\/span>Niag<\/span>a<\/span>ra is expected to acquire new property and machinery for the project and create 18 new jobs<\/span>.<\/span> The addition is expected to be completed by June 1<\/span>, 2026.<\/span> Total capital investment in the project comes to <\/span>$20,100,000.00<\/span>. <\/span>On Tuesday, t<\/span>he<\/span> Opelika<\/span> <\/span>C<\/span>ity <\/span>C<\/span>ouncil approved <\/span>several <\/span>tax abatements and tax exceptions for Niagra <\/span>to <\/span>bring this addition to its plant. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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The<\/span> city is moving forward with plans to improve Pepperell Parkway between <\/span>Commerce Drive and Lowndes St<\/span>reet<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Changes<\/span> will include resurfacing, <\/span>adding sidewalks<\/span>,<\/span> and implementing <\/span>traffic signal improvements. <\/span><\/span>The city council<\/span> a<\/span>lso <\/span>approved an agreement with CDG <\/span>Engineering and Associates <\/span>for the construction, engineering<\/span>, <\/span>and inspection needed on the project<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Additionally, the council approved<\/span> a contract with <\/span>Sain Associates, Inc.<\/span> to <\/span>improve the timing o<\/span>f<\/span> several<\/span> traffic lights <\/span>along Gateway Drive, a<\/span>s well as<\/span> <\/span>at the intersection of <\/span>2nd Avenue and North 3rd Stree<\/span>t. <\/span>The city will pay Sain<\/span> $36,000<\/span> for the project. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Opelika C<\/span>ity <\/span>C<\/span>ouncil approved a<\/span> d<\/span>owntown street closure <\/span><\/span>for <\/span>the <\/span>National Night Out to be held Oct. 1, 2024<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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A <\/span>downtown street<\/span> closure was <\/span>also <\/span>approved for the Alabama Institute<\/span> for<\/span> Deaf and Blind<\/span> <\/span>to hold a 5k in downtown<\/span> <\/span>Opelika on <\/span>Oct. 19, 2024.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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The Opelika City Council has tabled a vote until Oct 1 that could potentially revoke the business license of the Springwood Hotel, located at 1002 Columbus Parkway in Opelika, for multiple alleged health and safety violations. The tabled vote decision came after an hours-long public hearing at the city\u2019s Sept 3, 2024 council meeting.  During the meeting, Opelika City Building Official, Jeff Kappelman said Springwood Hotel had \u201chorrific conditions\u201d in all four of its buildings. Kappelman alleged the hotel had electrical code violations, fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}