Property owners give tenants safety tips for upcoming cold weather
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Exams are wrapping up and graduation is this weekend.
That means many college students living in off-campus housing are preparing to leave their apartments for the next few weeks.
But there are some things they need to do before they head home.
“We constantly have to go through the apartments and check up on things,” Robert Camp said.
Large numbers of students heading back home for the holidays means many apartments and rental houses will be empty for a few weeks.
But before residents go, there are some things they need to tend to.
The time of year means that extremely low temperatures are a possibility.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill owns several properties in the city.
She said some simple safety measures can prevent bigger problems.
“Leave a little bit of the water running, leaving their cabinets open for example,” Spruill said. “If the temperatures drop which often it does during the holidays then that heat from the house can be in there and to not turn the heat off, leave the heat on about 50 say. Something that would at least keep the warmth going inside the apartment.”
Robert Camp is part of family-owned apartment complexes in the well-known Cotton District.
He said most of his tenants are college students and are planning to go back home to see their friends and families, and they’re putting out the word for what needs to be done before they leave.
“College kids they’re going to want to go home, go hang out with friends and things like that,” Camp said. “You are going to find some responsible ones that do pay attention to what we are sending out and do it. But, there are a lot of people that it is not on the top of their list to want to have to follow the instructions so it’s part of it. It’s what we anticipate, we expect.”
Spruill said the safety measures are a good idea for anyone leaving their apartments for the holidays.
“It’s just a precaution because it creates a problem for the next door neighbor, it creates a problem for us in order to clean it up,” Spruill said. “It creates a problem for them whatever they may have left in there while they were gone. So there’s those kind of things that make a difference for them, for us and, for the people that are near them.”
Those notices telling residents how to prepare their apartments have already gone out at several properties.
