Pace Paw Print

After a fire between houses 21 and 22 forced the residents of each unit to move out at the beginning of Oct, the students moved back in on Oct 13, and each have mixed reviews.

"It was clearly visible that there was still work to be done," said resident of Townhouse 22, Tommy Prugno. "The main problem was electrical. All the lighting fixtures were exposed, along with cable wires. Also, we don't have a shade in the room. This made it impossible to sleep when the sun rose. It was like the housing department did not even check to see the condition of our house before they said we could move back."

Prugno said he and his housemates have had to go through maintenance separately for further repairs. "They [maintenance] made a mess and did not even clean up after themselves. In our room, we left and did not clean up after them because we want to show the housing department how ridiculous this situation has been for us. There is still sheet rock in our room," he said.

Prugno's Bose speakers, Bluetooth headset, Nike sneakers, and area rugs were all damaged, and he is now going through the process to receive reimbursement, one that he finds to be very confusing.

According to Frank P. McDonald, the Associate Vice President for General Services, the students must first go through their parents' homeowner's insurance policy and see if their personal belongings will be covered. If not, McDonald said a "decision will be made regarding the reimbursement by the University."

McDonald said that students must also fill out an Incident Report, and then file a claim with Pace.

"It is very unclear, we were given the forms but they did not tell us where to file them," Prugno said. "Also, we have to go through our parents' homeowner's insurance, which does not make sense to me."

On the other hand, the residents of Townhouse 22 are far more pleased with the situation.

Senior James Lentz of Townhouse 22 lost his iPod, some clothes, and shoes to the water damage. "It was a little difficult at first [filling out the forms]. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm pretty sure that most everything will be covered," he said.

Lentz and his roommate Tom Heller are very happy with both the condition of their house and their room. "It's really nice," said Lentz, whose room was affected the most from water damage. "The walls still smelled a little like smoke, but we have a new carpet and they fixed the ceiling." Firefighters had to cut a hole in the ceiling above Lentz's bed in order to access the attic's crawlspace during the fire.

"They did a great job," said Heller. "There was a little smoke musk on the clothes, but past that everything was great. Thanks to whoever did a great job," he said.

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