This year’s white Christmas proved problematic. From frozen, bursting pipes to snow-covered complexes to a lack of heat and water, our teams across the company faced a challenge over the holiday weekend. But in true Connor Group fashion, our people stepped up in a big way, relentlessly working to make repairs and delivering exceptional customer service.
As the cleanup continues, Loop caught up with associates company-wide who sacrificed their holiday plans to help our residents.
Louisville
It was anything but a silent night at Paddock at Eastpoint as pipes busted in 11 different buildings. A total of 132 units flooded between Friday and Christmas day. As the e-phone rang, our team, under the leadership of partner Kim Whitesell and region head Kristen Rutledge responded.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a hurricane or an ice storm. We’re going to help each other,” Kristen said. “These people have been at this property, sleeping here overnight on fire watch. Their biggest concern is how they can help each other.”
As hardware stores closed for the holidays, our team rushed to gather supplies for plumbing and HVAC repairs.
“Instead of Christmas presents, I was buying sequencers and snap discs,” Kim said. Her daughter and transaction lead Dakota Hoffman answered the e-phone while visiting for the holiday.
John Lifford, Kelley Udvare, Mike Lanning, Mike Jones, Dylan Kline, Brittany Thompson and Jaken Noell worked around the clock before reinforcements from Nashville and other Louisville properties arrived. They added extra reinforcements with partner and senior regional service trainer Rob Murray and lead tech Josh Lloyd arriving Monday.
“It’s a testament to Kristen’s leadership. She picked up the phone, and people want to come and help,” Kim said.
Atlanta
At 1660 Peachtree fire suppression lines broke, and the shut-off valve froze, flooding an entire building. Turn tech Steven Salazar started six weeks ago and was on call.
“I can’t describe how thankful I am to have him and see how All In he truly is,” general manager Kelly Lawrence said. “He responded to five buildings with sprinkler lines busted and more than 200 calls to the e-phone.”
Lead tech Willie Edmonds jumped in his car in Virginia and drove to Atlanta on Christmas to assist. Partner and regional service trainer Carl Williams left Charlotte at midnight and arrived at 1660 early Monday morning, ready to tackle clean up.
With the water shut off for nearly 24 hours, Kelly and her team provided residents with drinking water and worked around the clock to update residents, document damage, and work on repairs.
“In Atlanta, you never expect to deal with an entire sprinkler system going down. Even though people lost their whole apartments, they were very thankful we were on-site and doing everything we could to take care of them on a holiday.”
Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham
Twenty units flooded at Greenway at Mallard Creek in Charlotte due to broken sprinkler lines, but proactive work by our team helped save the property from additional damages.
“James Rabon was super proactive and cut the water immediately, saving three buildings,” manager Ashley Debnam said. “The residents came into the leasing office to thank him.”
Manager Lyndsey Knopf and tech Von Davis pulled up carpet on Christmas and dried out flooded units. Mike Dawkins, Greg Chambers and Jon Peay also assisted with the aftermath.
In Raleigh-Durham, the Bradford team cleared 10 flooded units on Christmas Eve until 1 a.m. Partners Kia Fenty and Brittney Merritt joined manager India Smith, manager in training Nick Hammer and turn tech Earl Hunt to extract water.
“The thing that’s really cool to see and makes me proud of the people we work with, we just did it,” Kia said. “It’s our culture. We were laughing and making the best of it.”
Across town at Trinity, one pipe burst, flooding seven different units. Partner Erica McLoughlin called on Brad Wells and Chris Underwood, who quickly extracted the water. Erica volunteered for 28 hours of fire watch so her team could spend part of the holiday with their families.
Dayton, Cincinnati
At Hunters Chase, winter weather caused six pipes to burst, two of which happened Christmas Eve night into Christmas morning. Impacted resident Melissa Carver raved about the help she received from lead tech Harrison Moore and partner Paul Leber in a Google review. “They were both very professional and very pleasant, despite having to deal with such a mess on Christmas night!”
It was a true team effort as crews traveled and joined forces at Somerset, Arbors of Anderson, Wellington, Austin Springs and Dovetree. From clearing complexes in the cold to frozen pipes to flooded apartments, there was no shortage of work to tackle.
Thanks to techs Jacob Hausfeld, Noah Richter, Jon Gehring, Chris Fortier, Isaak Claudio, Mason Fraley, Cody Youngblood, Josh Martin, Chris Jemo, Gavin Perone, Zach McCarty and partner Dave Peacock, our Cincinnati and Dayton residents were in good hands. They worked tirelessly, putting our residents ahead of their own holiday celebrations – working 30 – 40 hours from Friday to Monday.
“They were soaked head to toe and kept pushing through the cold to make sure our residents were safe,” general manager Amy Hoffard said.
Columbus
Our Columbus crews were met with the same challenges at Estates at New Albany and at District at Linworth and delivered with the same tenacity. Lead tech Rob Locke worked through the night with Rob Murray to extract water while Jeremy Sprankle worked on heat calls. General manager Joe Stephens suited up in maintenance clothes to work side-by-side with his team. Even turn tech Hannah Roberts‘ boyfriend helped as she worked late into the night on Christmas Eve and Christmas.
“It was a total team effort,” partner and regional service trainer Tad Hunter said. “We brought a can-do mindset and got the job done. It’s just water; we can handle this.”
Denver
In Denver, Gardens at Cherry Creek saw busted pipes and a broken boiler that left the property without heat or hot water for several hours. Twenty-six units flooded.
Lead techs Dave Perkins and Caleb Kresge led the efforts along with the assistance of turn tech Aaron Lichti and service trainees Matthew Heimlich and Daniel Colon. Partner and regional manager and sales trainer Jessica Clark worked tirelessly to coordinate the response to help our residents.
Manager in training Mari Quiroz left Christmas dinner to help on-site, while manager Caiti Kopp grabbed equipment from Alas to assist with water extraction.
“These are our residents, and at the end of the day, we did what we had to do,” Mari said.
Minneapolis
Three properties in Minnesota had water lines burst. The Quinn experienced two line breaks in two different buildings on Christmas day. Partner Amanda Barnes joined forces with lead tech David Gonzales to extract water.
The day after Christmas, water lines burst at both NEON and City Walk. Regional head Cody Shank praised his teams, including senior lead tech Aidan Cunha, manager in training Coli Riopelle and turn tech Ben Salmon for their positive attitudes.
“Our team brought the right mindset at every property,” Cody said. “Their positive attitudes made all the difference.”
CSO
The cold temperatures caused a pipe to burst at the hangar on Christmas Day as well. In addition to supporting our properties, partner Rodney Johnson spent the holiday helping coordinate the repair at CSO with chief mechanic Ted Stephenson.
Associates across the central office helped coordinate travel, hotel rooms for associates, displaced residents, supplies and vendors – a true team effort.
A huge thanks to every associate who stepped up over the holidays to help. People Count!