At 9 a.m. today multiple agencies did an announced inspection of the Lake Mill Lodge at the corner of Lake and Mill streets.
The City of Reno Community Safety and Services Team (CSAST) conducted the inspection with a team comprised of City of Reno agencies from Code Enforcement, Business Licensing, Reno Police, Reno Fire and the Building Department. The Washoe County Health Department and the State of Nevada Parole and Probation also helped with the inspection.
Reno Code Enforcement Manager Alex Woodley said that the Lake Mill Lodge passed the inspection, but there were a number of problems that needed to be addressed.
Of the 123 rooms inspected, only five passed inspection. Problems found in the other 118 rooms, which did not pass a complete inspection, included missing faucets, lose toilets, stopped up plumbing and smoke detector issues.
Some of the rooms also had no heat, cockroaches, bed bugs and other unsanitary conditions, according to the City of Reno. The Washoe County Health Department closed two rooms temporarily because of unhealthy conditions.
Five individuals who had active warrants for their arrest were discovered by Reno Police and arrested.
Upon completion of the Lake Mill Lodge compliance check, a small group of the CSAST performed a ‘spot’ check at the Wonder Lodge located at 430 Lake Street. (This is the same owner as the Lake Mill Lodge.) The Wonder Lodge property has 63 rooms. The main problem found was an inoperable elevator. Only five rooms were inspected with only minor issues found.
Lake Mill Lodge has had historic problems. Eleven were arrested there in 2007 in a similar code-enforcement sweep, after two people were killed at or near the property.
“We have problems with meth users in this area,” said a police sergeant at the time. “This low-budget motel attracts that problem, and we are working hard with its management to clean it up.”
A man was stabbed there in July of 2013. There was an officer involved shooting there in July of 2012 after police responded to a report of an assault. There was a stabbing in October of this year. And in February of 2007, KOLO 8 reported that, “Reno police statistics show there have been 1,900 calls for service since July of 2005.”
Also at that time, there were 58 assault and battery reports and multiple incidences of shots fired.
