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Bedbug infestations suck away tax dollars
CLEVELAND -- First, federal prosecutors say they found corrupt officials sucking money out of a Cleveland halfway house for inmates. Now residents at the house say they're under attack again, except that this time, it's bedbugs at the Cuyahoga Re-Entry Agency.
"I got attacked the first night," said resident Harry Story. "You're laying there and, all of a sudden, they're running across you and they start biting."
And he says he has proof: a bottle full of bedbugs.
"I caught them this morning on my pillow," Story said.
Cuyahoga Re-Entry Agency used to be known as Alternatives Agency. That's until its former director pleaded guilty to paying for Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and County Auditor Frank Russo to fly to Las Vegas, in return for additional funding.
Alternatives Agency also paid another figure in the ongoing corruption probe, J. Kevin Kelley, about $200,000 over six years to do little, if any, work.
Now, the bugs got so bad that residents have twice called for an ambulance.
"You're calling 9-1-1 for an ambulance?" a dispatcher said, on an Oct. 10 recording obtained by Channel 3 News.
"He's been bitten by bedbugs and he thinks they've laid eggs in his head," a woman from the halfway house replied.
The blood-sucking insects have cost taxpayers a bundle.
The agency has already spent $14,000 trying to eliminate the pesky critters, and it plans to spend another $50,000 on new metal beds to replace the old wood ones were the bugs live and breed.
"We've practically had a pesticide guy as part of our staff," said Cuyahoga Re-Entry Agency Executive Director Thomas Griveas.
Bedbugs can be found all over Northeast Ohio and the state. Nearly a hundred complaints this year, coming from places like the Comfort Inn in Cleveland and the Chesterfield Apartments downtown.
About 70 percent of the hotels in the Columbus area have dealt with bedbug infestations.
"It's happened more slowly here but we're starting to see it," said Cleveland Public Health Department Director Matt Carroll. He said the city expects complaints to triple, especially at hotels, apartments and college dorms.
Author: Tom Meyer
© 2009 WKYC-TV
"I got attacked the first night," said resident Harry Story. "You're laying there and, all of a sudden, they're running across you and they start biting."
And he says he has proof: a bottle full of bedbugs.
"I caught them this morning on my pillow," Story said.
Cuyahoga Re-Entry Agency used to be known as Alternatives Agency. That's until its former director pleaded guilty to paying for Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and County Auditor Frank Russo to fly to Las Vegas, in return for additional funding.
Alternatives Agency also paid another figure in the ongoing corruption probe, J. Kevin Kelley, about $200,000 over six years to do little, if any, work.
Now, the bugs got so bad that residents have twice called for an ambulance.
"You're calling 9-1-1 for an ambulance?" a dispatcher said, on an Oct. 10 recording obtained by Channel 3 News.
"He's been bitten by bedbugs and he thinks they've laid eggs in his head," a woman from the halfway house replied.
The blood-sucking insects have cost taxpayers a bundle.
The agency has already spent $14,000 trying to eliminate the pesky critters, and it plans to spend another $50,000 on new metal beds to replace the old wood ones were the bugs live and breed.
"We've practically had a pesticide guy as part of our staff," said Cuyahoga Re-Entry Agency Executive Director Thomas Griveas.
Bedbugs can be found all over Northeast Ohio and the state. Nearly a hundred complaints this year, coming from places like the Comfort Inn in Cleveland and the Chesterfield Apartments downtown.
About 70 percent of the hotels in the Columbus area have dealt with bedbug infestations.
"It's happened more slowly here but we're starting to see it," said Cleveland Public Health Department Director Matt Carroll. He said the city expects complaints to triple, especially at hotels, apartments and college dorms.
Author: Tom Meyer
© 2009 WKYC-TV
posted by MBusta # 12:53 PM 
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