News 12 at 11 o'clock, October 9, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga.---The Augusta License and Inspection Department is taking charge and making sure that repairs get done for the residents living at the Hi Port Regency Apartments. The repairs will help ensure they have better living conditions.

News 12 first broke the story of the unlivable conditions at Hi Port Regency a month ago. For months, requests for repairs had fallen on deaf ears. Now changes are coming for the better.

On Thursday the Augusta Building Code Inspection Department met with the management and owner of Hi Port Regency. The outcome is this:

-- All tenants in condemned buildings will be relocated to a renovated unit
-- No eviction notices will be enforced
-- Inspectors will walk through all of the units to see what repairs need to be done in the non-condemned buildings
-- The building code enforcement office will oversee all contractors
for the project to make sure a reasonable timeline is "followed"
-- The work will be done at the expense of the Hi Port Regency owner.

The Augusta License and Inspection Department says they were just as shocked to learn about the conditions these folks were living in as the rest of us, and that's why they acted as quickly as possible. From Commissioner Calvin Holland to the code enforcement inspectors, the goal was to get the repairs done and to get them done right.