Days Inn’s Water Shut Off – February 1, 2011
Kevin L. Hoover
Eye Editor
VALLEY WEST – With Days Inn refusing to pay more than $174,000 in back debt or even communicate with the City about its overdue tax and utility bills, the City of Arcata cut off the troubled motel’s water on Monday.
Said a City of Arcata press release, “This action was necessary to protect the City from taking on more of a growing unpaid debt from Silver Creek Hospitality aka Penta Hospitality, which over the majority of the past two years has owed the City of Arcata for unpaid municipal water and sewer services, as well as Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) the hotel was required by law to collect for the City.
Arcata City Manager Randy Mendosa stated: “Over the course of the past two years our City staff has made great efforts in trying to work with the owners of Silver Creek Hospitality/aka Penta Hospitality, in attempts to keep the Arcata Days Inn open. However after repeated notices they simply stopped paying for utility fees and TOT that has accumulated since June of 2010.”
The City had hoped to avoid rendering the motel uninhabitable with a water cutoff, as it poses health and safety issues for guests. The motel’s management and owners were given advance notice of the impending water shutoff, Mendosa said, including a two-week warning, a Friday notice (including the standard doorhanger residents receive) and a last-minute Monday morning reminder.
Mendosa said the City wanted to give the motel time to let its weekend guests check out before turning off the water. “I really hated to do it, but we had no choice,” Mendosa said. “We’re not a bank and we can’t keep floating them.”
The City had previously received a Certificate of Tax Lein against the motel, but it was ignored and the debt kept piling up.
The Arcata Days Inn is owned and operated by San Jose-based Silver Creek Hospitality LLC, aka Penta Hospitality. None of the company’s listed contacts have ever returned phone calls from the Eye.
