A fifth incidence of bed bugs since December has closed the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Senior Center for the rest of this week, city officials said Tuesday.
A city press release said senior center staff immediately began removing people from the building at Church and Water streets on Monday after being alerted about 9:30 a.m. that bed bugs had been reported in the facility. Seniors who use the facility were further advised that the center would remain closed until further notice.
Center staff also notified the Inter-County Public Transportation Authority and other agencies about the infestation and the center’s closing “because they have to be made aware that people using these systems have been in the Senior Center,” the release stated.
A pest control company also was contacted and its staff performed an inspection and then sprayed affected areas in the building on Tuesday.
Center staff were advised not to touch anything for the remainder of Tuesday, but starting Wednesday, staff started removing furniture from the building’s affected areas and disposed of it, the release said.
Staff also have been instructed to steam-clean all surfaces, including floors and any remaining furniture. A professional steam-cleaning company is scheduled to begin spraying in the building on Thursday, the release said.
The center will be closed for the rest of the week to accomplish the cleaning, but staff plan to reopen it on Monday at 8 a.m.
According to the release, this week’s infestation is the fifth bed bugs incident at the Senior Center since December. Each time, the bed bugs have been “tracked to a specific individual and location” in the center, the release said.
“Staff (are) working with an outside organization to assist this individual with the conditions that are likely contributing to this problem,” the release said.
In a follow-up email to questions from The Daily Advance, Stacy Williams, superintendent of the senior center and special events, said two of the recent incidents with bed bugs involved the discovery of a dead bug “which calls for different action than instances” where live bed bugs are discovered.
“Even with the two instances of finding a dead bug, the Center still utilized extermination for the area(s), just in an abundance of caution,” she said. “With those two times, treatment was performed either after hours or by shutting the Center down a few hours early....”
Williams said the center previously has been closed when live bed bugs were discovered, but that this week’s discovery of live bugs was “the most severe.”
“With the live bugs, we require inspection and then treatment, and follow all instructions from the professionals,” she said.
Asked if the center has considered not allowing back in the person identified as bringing in the bed bugs, she said the center wants to try other measures first. For example, the center’s policies were changed to ban any outside bags or belongings from being brought inside the center.
While the center has identified the person staff believe is responsible for the bed bug incidents, “the outcome has unfortunately not changed,” Williams said. She reiterated that the center is working with a community support agency to help the person but also noted that the person “will have to do their part as well.”
Asked if the center can ban someone from entering for hygiene reasons, Williams said the center considers the recent bed bug infestations more a safety issue than one of hygiene. She added that the “safety and wellbeing of our seniors” is the center’s priority.
“The Senior Center is available to all our seniors, and while it is always the last resort to ban someone from a City building, we may remove privileges from individuals whose actions present a danger to others and/or the Senior Center environment,” Williams said. “Again, such measures are only used when all other avenues and options for correcting the problem have been exhausted.”
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