By Andrea Gregory

An elevator in a Somerville senior home failed a past-due inspection this week. The building run by the Somerville Housing Authority was not even put on the list of elevators to be inspected until after the expectation expired. There is a 90-day timeframe to correct the problems, but some tenants of the 53-resident home worry about the lift.

The elevator broke down last week at 27 College Ave. also known as Ciampa Manor. Inside the broken elevator were a three-month expired inspection sticker and an 85-year-old woman.

The voice of an elderly woman came from the elevator. It was a cry help, but not much could be done. Pat McLaughlin said she spent about 20 minutes trapped behind mettle doors. It felt like forever.

“I was screaming. I just kept thinking that this was not how I wanted to go,” she said “I’m here 21 years, and that never happened.”

According to the Department of Public Safety, elevators such as the one overseen by the Housing Authority need to be inspected annually under Massachusetts law. Beth McLaughlin, chief of staff for the department, said even though the state performs the inspections, an application and $400 fee need to be submitted to the state agency before the state will issue its stamp of approval. Once the application is in, the state schedules a date for the inspection, she said.

“It is not the Department of Public Safety’s responsibility,” she said.

According to the state, it received an application for the elevator inspection on Feb. 8. The application was sent in by Associated Elevators, contracted to take care of all of the Somerville Housing Authority’s elevators. Elevators that fail to keep up with the inspection process in a timely manner risk being shut down by the state. On Monday, the elevator failed inspection. It was cited for three problems.

“They are not life threatening issues,” said Todd Grossman, deputy general council for the Department of Public Safety.

Grossman said the call-cancellation switch is not working and there are a few problems involving the lights.  Although the problems were not severe enough for the elevator to be shut down on the spot, Grossman warns that the commissioner of public safety is good about taking elevators out of commission if repair work is not completed in the allowed time.

With a 90-day countdown underway, South Yarmouth-based Associated Elevator seems confident it can fix the building’s elevator and have it running under state standards by the next time inspectors come to the property.

“They are pretty minimal items. They will be completed,” said Meredith Baker, president of Associated Elevator.

Baker disputes the date that the state claims it received the application. She said her company requested an inspection on Jan. 30. However, the state’s inspection sticker expired on Jan. 4.

Baker said you cannot always rely on what is posted in the elevator to be correct. She said once they were aware it was past due, they started the process. She also said that the state still took quite awhile before coming to the property.

“The state just doesn’t have enough people in there,” she said.

Baker said her company began servicing the elevator in 2006, after the last inspection. Her company is under contract for the next two years and said now that the elevator’s inspection schedule is now in her company’s system.

Paul Mackey, deputy director of the Somerville Housing Authority, said he first learned about it after a tenant of the building complained to Board of Health in January. The elevator company was called on Jan. 23. Mackey said the company assured the housing authority a gap in the inspection process will not happen again.

Under the contract, the Somerville Housing Authority does not assume the reasonability of ensuring elevator inspections are up to date. On the day the elevator broke down, Mackey said it had recently been serviced. He said the last time it broke down was a little over a year ago.

“Truly, elevators are the worst thing to maintain,” said Mackey.

Mackey said all of the other elevators in housing authority buildings are up to date with their inspections.