City officials help restore heat to Germantown residents

GERMANTOWN (WPVI) -- Action News is happy to report the heat has been restored to residents at Hamill Mill Apartments after our report Thursday night.

It got the attention of some officials who took decisive action to remedy the situation. A matter that posed a serious danger to residents in light of the bitter cold.

"This is such a blessing," said Zeiona Geraod, resident.

Action News spoke with grateful residents Friday night as a PGW crew arrived to restore gas heat to the four-story apartment building in the 200 block of East Church Lane.

"That's great, yeah that's super. I'm gonna go in here and see if it's on right now," said Ricky Connors, resident.

As we reported Thursday night, PGW says it shut off the gas to the building back in April after the owner consistently failed to pay for gas.

The outstanding bill reached almost $60,000. The 20 residents who live in the building were able to get by until it got bitterly cold Thursday night. They reached to us for help.

"My stove, I had my stove on," said Geraod when we asked how she was keeping warm.

PHA subsidizes the rent money paid primarily for seniors with disabilities. After Councilwoman Cindy Bass saw our report, she reached out to negotiate a deal between PHA, PGW and the building's owner, Emanuel Freeman, to get the gas turned back on.

"We're just grateful. We wanna thank PGW for turning the heat back on, and we just know that tonight, our seniors will not be left out in the cold," said Bass (D-Philadelphia). "And it's very important, on any given day, this could be one of us."

And residents were indeed very grateful.

"Yeah, this is awesome, this is awesome," said Geraod.

After several hours of work by PGW, the heat has been restored, and residents are warm again.