St Andrews Terrace - Update

May 25, 2021
For Immediate Release
Contact: Cynthia Hardy
chardy@columbiahousingsc.org
(803) 254-3886 (803) 447-3770 mobile

Columbia Housing Transitioning to All-Electric Appliances in St. Andrews Terrace Apartments Changeover is Already Underway

Columbia, SC---On April 12, Columbia Housing got its first work order from one of its families at St Andrews Terrace Apartments complaining about the smell of gas. What would follow is a total of five (5) gas-related work orders between April 12th and May 11th. With each report, the fire department was notified, and Dominion Energy was called to assess the situation.

"Once we looked at the totality of the situation-the calls to the Fire Department, service calls to Dominion Energy, and the increase in work-orders submitted to our maintenance team-we knew we needed to act to keep our residents safe," says Columbia Housing CEO Ivory Mathews.

What followed was a decision to cut off the gas supply for the complex until the source of the leaks were identified and remedied.

Dominion Energy released this statement about what they found when taking a closer look. "On Saturday, May 22, our crews conducted an additional leak survey of our underground facilities in the area and detected an unrelated leak on our underground gas line upstream of the St. Andrews Terrace units. We confirmed that the detected leak had been contained within the immediate vicinity of our underground gas line and is unrelated to this incident."

The underground leak detected and repaired by Dominion was not related to any of the indoor leaks detected by the fire department in the St. Andrews Terrace units. Columbia Housing is responsible for any work inside the units to address the leaks.

Mathews says, that means her team is continuing to look at the existing infrastructure at St. Andrews Terrace to decide the best path forward. "Columbia Housing acquired this property in 1978. It is a 45-year-old property that recently underwent some comprehensive renovation to include new roofs & kitchens. There are still some infrastructure needs that we are addressing. While we know that natural gas is a very safe fuel to meet energy needs for our families-- we have decided the infrastructure at St. Andrews Terrace is best-suited for a transition to all-electric and the work is already underway," concludes Mathews.

Anticipating capital needs like this one--Mathews recently rolled out her Vision 2030--an aggressive plan to address the $250M backlog in capital needs she inherited when taking over Columbia Housing less than 2 years ago.

Vision 2030: A Public Conversation is planned June 2nd at 5:30 pm to discuss all the properties targeted for preservation, demolition, and new construction. To register click the link below--
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0sdumurDwuE9xEdMMH0oKsZTRh_AEpde2T

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