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Eagles Manor heats up as negotiations drag through summer

Residents at the Eagles Manor retirement living facility are trapped by real estate negotiations in an overheating building.

The air conditioning has been broken this summer, they said, causing rooms to overheat during the hottest months of the year. July temperatures in Havre reached 103 degrees fahrenheit, Weather Underground reported.

A member of the Eagles Manor Resident Council spoke about the temperatures in the building with the Havre Daily News Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

"The people on the south side of the building," the council member said, "the sun beats down on them all day. Their (rooms) are like 80 degrees in the morning and then it just builds."

The heat is most stressful for residents who are in their 90s or have breathing conditions, the member added.

"It's when it's day after day that it really gets bad," the member said, adding that this week has been difficult. "By about the third day you're really feeling it."

Montana law includes language that covers this type of situation.

"A landlord shall maintain in good and safe working order and condition all ... air conditioning," Montana Code Annotated 2017, 70-24-303 (e), states.

The problem, the council member said, is that the Eagles Manor is in the middle of a sale. Since the board that manages it is trying to sell the property, they do not want to assume the expense for making repairs.

The city of Havre approved in June loaning $125,000 to the company buying the property, Affiliated Developers Inc., to make repairs but Affiliated Developers will not assume the loan until the bank approves the sale of the building.

Mayor Tim Solomon said Affiliated Developers had not yet co-signed or accepted the loan.

"It's just kind of stuck in the middle," the Eagles Manor resident council member said. "What they've told us is it's not going to happen this year, the air conditioning isn't going to happen.

"If it doesn't sell in time there'll be no heat this winter," the council member said, adding that the air conditioning and the heat are tied together.

The council member said that, originally, residents thought they would find some solution for the air conditioning, but by now "it seems like there is no answer."

Residents reported that Ron Harmon, owner of Big Equipment in Havre, donated some air conditioners to the building this summer. The units were installed in the common areas on the top three floors of Eagles Manor.

Harmon said he knew the management was looking into solutions to combat the heat while the building waited for new ownership.

"But meanwhile," he said, "people there are suffering, and I think it's the community's responsibility to help out."

The council member said they appreciated those air conditioners but did not consider them to be a long-term solution.

Affiliated Developers confirmed Wednesday that the company is still in negotiations with the bank and the current owners to purchase the property.

"It's either going to happen or not by the end of the week," Affiliated Developers' Executive Director Kirk Bruce said Wednesday.

"We're trying like crazy to preserve (Eagles Manor) for sure," he added. "We've been approved for the funding to repair the elevators and the air conditioning."

Bruce told the Havre Daily News in June that Affiliated Developers planned to do substantial rehabilitation, and intended to spend $35,000-$45,000 per unit.

The terms of the loan require it to be used for jobs including repairing and upgrading the elevator, replacing heat pumps and making other small repairs and must be repaid in two to three years.

Bruce said Wednesday that he would be available for comment by the end of the week about the sale outcome of Eagles Manor.

 

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