Seminary Apartments resident Victoria Maradiaga Ramos takes the building’s newly fixed elevator on Thursday. Photo by Otis Roessler
The elevator had been broken for more than five months.
by Otis Roessler, Community News Service
After more than five months of being out of order, the elevator in the Green Mountain Seminary apartment complex in Waterbury has been fixed, the building’s owner said Thursday.
The development comes less than a week after the Waterbury Roundabout published a story detailing the frustrations of the tenants, some of whom are elderly or disabled. Fire department officials said they’d had to manually move patients down the stairwell of the three-story building. One man, an 84-year-old veteran with cancer, said he filed a complaint about the situation with the Vermont Human Rights Commission.
The building owner, Downstreet Housing & Community Development in Barre, hired Otis Elevator to fix the problem. But over the last few months, the company missed several deadlines and, as of late last week, provided no concrete timeline for when the elevator would be up and running.
On Monday, repairs were delayed once again due to technical issues. Finally, on Wednesday, July 15, Otis Elevator employee Garrick Cassavant emailed Downstreet’s Leah Sare to inform her that the elevator was back in service, according to emails obtained by the Roundabout.
“It’s nice that there’s some good news,” Downstreet’s executive director Angie Harbin told the Roundabout on Thursday.
Delays in the repair process have taken a toll on building residents. After five and a half months of living without an elevator, Victoria Maradiaga Ramos said she is hesitant to believe that the saga is over. In February, Ramos called emergency responders after a fellow tenant had gotten trapped in the elevator with her infant son.
“I don’t trust it,” Ramos said at the building on Thursday.
In Ramos’ view, the elevator is still faulty. Upon entering the elevator for a trip from the first to the ground floor, the door began to close slowly and the alarm began to ring. Ramos said that same alarm rang before the elevator initially broke. However, after exiting the elevator and trying again, it ran smoothly.
Ramos believes that without the elevator’s newfound notoriety, it might have taken longer to be repaired.
“I don’t think they would’ve fixed it,” she said.
The Seminary Apartments on Hollow Road are one of four apartment complexes owned and managed by Downstreet in Waterbury. While she said she was relieved to have the elevator repairs finally done, Harbin said she wants to avoid a similar situation at other properties in the future. She said Downstreet now is looking into funding to inspect every elevator in its portfolio. With lengthy elevator repair times and numerous buildings with just one elevator, Downstreet officials said they hope they can get in front of future malfunctions.
“I’m hoping I’ll be able to secure those [funds] within the next month,” Harbin said, explaining that this is “backup” for which her organization needs to request further grant money.
With proper analysis, Harbin said, Downstreet will be able to document any issues with its elevators and estimate the cost of preemptive maintenance and repairs.
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship, on assignment for the Waterbury Roundabout
WATERBURY — Jul 17, 2026
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