WINSLOW $ An apartment building at 16 Clinton Avenue will be condemned today if a problem with raw sewage flooding the basement is not rectified, Fire Chief David LaFountain said.

Code Enforcement Officer Frank Stankevitz has put the building's owner on notice to fix problems by today or the tenants will have to move out and the building will posted, LaFountain said Wednesday night.

"There's 1 1/2 feet of sewage in the basement," he said. "He (owner) has to get it fixed tonight or at 8 a.m. he'll (Stankevitz) be closing it for health reasons."

Attempts to reach the building's owner Wednesday night were not successful. The town also apparently was having trouble reaching him.

"Frank tried calling him and didn't get him and basically, talked to his girlfriend who said she'd get the message to him," LaFountain said.

The very large, old yellow apartment building is located on the left before the top of the hill as one travels up Clinton Avenue from the Ticonic Bridge that spans the Kennebec River between Waterville and Winslow.

A public works official two or three weeks ago reported the sewage problem and Stankevitz sent the building owner a letter to fix it, LaFountain said.

"The town hasn't heard anything since," he said.

At the apartment house Wednesday night, tenants were cold, as there was no heat or hot water in the building, they said. Outside temperatures were in the single digits.

The raw sewage in the basement caused a strong stench of feces to permeate the apartments.

Some tenants would not talk on the record because they did not want the landlord to know they had complained, they said.

Some tenants have babies.

Melissa Rodrigue, 19, said she was temporarily staying with a relative in one of the apartments. She said the landlord knew there was no heat or hot water but had not done anything to fix it.

Asked why there is no heat, she said, "The furnace is messed up."

Rodrigue's relative has a 15-month-old baby and she said she is worried for his health because the smell of the sewage is so strong.

"The baby's room smells like poop and it's not from diapers," she said.

Tenants said there are four apartments in the building and only three are occupied. They estimated about 10 people live in the building.

The wooden, three-story building's top floor was condemned and is unoccupied because of a fire that occurred there, LaFountain said.

Amy Calder $ 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com