MACON, Ga. — UPDATE: Macon-Bibb County has released a statement regarding the decision to postpone the hearing to a later date. The full text is below:
Macon-Bibb County issued a summons in October 2018 to the Crystal Lake Apartments ownership for a court appearance because of the length of time since the original citations were issued and the lack of progress in fixing the issues. Based on what we know, we strongly disagree with decision to push the court date back even further, and our Attorney strongly argued against this decision.
The violations to be reviewed in Court today were only a portion of what the ownership has been cited for in the past 16 to 17 months, and do not include any of the citations we will be issuing following the inspections that were initiated by the recent evacuations and reports of unsafe conditions.
Also, the new Court date of March 22 is after the scheduled day the water will be shut off if the Macon Water Authority bill is not paid.
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The owner of Macon’s Crystal Lake Apartments appeared in court on Friday morning.
It's been a month of trouble for many people living at Crystal Lake Apartments with evacuations and evictions.
Owner Steve Firestone and his lawyers planned to discuss violations the complex have had dating back years.
But the judge on the case said they might be able to settle the matter out of court and postponed the hearing until March 22.
We've told you about issues almost all month as water and electrical problems plagued Crystal Lake's mid and high-rise units until the county decided to evacuate the people living there.
According to Firestone, only 7 of the 47 evicted units in the high-rise were up to date on the rent.