IMG_3435.JPG

Residents sit on the steps of the Agawam Motor Lodge at 23 Suffield St. The motel was inspected by town officials Tuesday amid resident complaints of bed bugs and a hypodermic needle found under a mattress.

(Laura Newberry)

AGAWAM -- Town officials met at the Agawam Motor Lodge Tuesday to inspect health and safety conditions there after a resident said he was bitten by bed bugs and found a hypodermic needle under his mattress.

Agawam Mayor Richard A. Cohen confirmed that the town's building and health inspectors, Police Chief Eric Gillis and Fire Chief Alan Sirois assessed the motel Tuesday morning, which primarily houses low-income and homeless residents, many of whom stay for extended periods of time.

The Agawam Police Department responded to the motel 184 times from Jan. 1 through the end of May, Cohen said.

"It's a lot," Cohen said of the number in an interview with MassLive Tuesday. "And it raises more than eyebrows."

Agawam Police Lt. Jennifer Blanchette said most of those calls were for domestic disputes and fights among residents, as well as a smaller percentage of drug-related incidents. A long-term resident of motor lodge, Michael Harris of Springfield, was arrested at the motel in May after police allegedly found 46 grams of crack cocaine in his pockets.

"We respond to everything and anything," Blanchette said of the police department's frequent visits to the motor lodge. "We're there several times a week, if not several times a day."

The investigation was spurred by reports received by Western Mass News last week from residents being put up at the motel after being displaced from their condemned Springfield apartments, Cohen said. A Springfield judge ordered the tenants, who had been at the motor lodge for weeks, to be moved to a cleaner place after one resident reported a bed bug infestation in his room and found what appeared to be a heroin needle under his mattress.

Samuel R. Castellano, the owner and landlord of the condemned buildings, has been cited for 75 violations due to the conditions inside the apartments he rented out on Main Street in Springfield, according to Western Mass News. Tenants reported no smoke detectors in the buildings and frequent rodent infestations.

Cohen said the town will review its findings from the inspection and formulate an action plan from there.

Patrick Toney, associate solicitor for Agawam, said the town will do what it can to alleviate the motel's problems and will "follow up to the fullest extent of the law."

Many residents have called for condemning the motel, which has been owned by Chulho Yoo of Agawam since 2000, commonwealth records show. Toney said that shutting down the hotel would be a "complex and extreme measure."

"The process is only taken after a finding that a building is unsuitable for human habitation," he said.

Cohen said he urges motor lodge residents with safety concerns to call the Agawam Health Department. The motel's more serious issues were brought to Cohen's attention through media reports, he said, and up until that point the town hadn't received any complaints.

Yoo could not be reached at the time of publication. Agawam Motor Lodge management declined to comment for the story.