Owners of Iris Motel taking steps to re-open the facility

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News

Owners of the Iris Motel on West Washington Street in Mt. Pleasant are working on needed improvements to reacquire a hotel/motel license and re-open the 40-unit facility, according to Jack Swarm, city building and zoning director.

Even though two people are still living in the structure, the motel was basically shut down Feb. 15, 2017, by Swarm and the Lee County Health Department, which enforces the hotel/motel code in southeast Iowa.

?We (Swarm and the Lee County Health Department) did a complete inspection of the entire place on Feb. 15 and found imminent dangers to the health and safety of individuals,? said Swarm. ?We found them (dangers) before but not to the extent of closing the entire motel.?

Prior to that point, several rooms had been closed, Swarm said. ?We found electrical and sewer problems (on Feb. 15) and issued an order to vacate due to a fire hazard.?

The order also was given two days before the Iris?s hotel/motel license expired. The license actually expired on Dec. 17, 2016, but hotels and motels are given 60 days to renew it following the expiration date. The owners of the Iris ? Solid Investments of Minnetonka, Minn. ? did try to renew it, but the request was made after the 60-day window closed.

Despite the issuance of the order to vacate, Swarm said several people have remained living in the motel. Swarm said the police department would need a court order to evict the remaining residents.

Swarm said officials had been keeping an eye on the 65-year-old motel since the last spring when they received complaints from school officials and other residents that children of tenants at the Iris were coming to school ?dirty? and the unsanitary living conditions at the motel.

?We handled the individual complaints and sometimes coordinated our efforts with the Department of Human Services (DHS),? reflected Swarm. ?We closed some rooms because either they were dirty or there were other building code violations.?

From that point on, officials conducted some random inspections. Eventually, the city filed a complaint with the Lee County Health Department.

?Through inspections, we found that people had been staying there for a long time (one ?guest? had been living there for over 20 years) and not checking in and out (which is required by the state hotel and motel code),? Swarm said. Other violations of the state code included the lack of documented maid service and the lack of cleanliness.

Swarm said Solid Investments has been working on renovating the motel since late February. ?Steps are being taken to remodel and conform to the city building code and the state hotel and motel code. Some of the improvements have eliminated the fire hazards. The imminent danger order has been lifted, but not the order to vacate.?

Solid Investments, Swarm said, plans to reopen the facility as a motel but says he has no idea when the improvements will be completed.

?We really felt like it (Iris) was an imminent danger to people and firefighters in the event of a fire,? the city building and zoning administrator stated. ?We put a lot of thought into it. We didn?t want to run anybody out of their home, but we felt obligated to do it (issue the order to vacate) because of the hazards.?