No Air Conditioning Reported At Harmon Cove Towers

SECAUCUS, NJ — The residents of Harmon Cove Towers say they're sweltering, and the air conditioning hasn't been working inside some of the individual units.

For several years now, the Towers has not had air conditioning in the hallways of the buildings. But this summer, the air conditioning units in the individual apartments stopped working as well, many residents say.

"(The air conditioning) hasn't worked in the hallways for years and it hasn't worked in the units since the beginning of the summer," said Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli.

Gonnelli said he "told" the board — or the members elected to represent the Harmon Cove Towers Condominium Association — to order individual air conditioning units, and that so far they've ordered about 90. Residents can call down to the front desk and ask to get a portable AC unit.

"But the problem is they're not always giving them to the people who request them. They are telling them they don't need them," said Gonnelli. "We've having another meeting about this next week."

Gonnelli said he also requested the Board have a meeting with all the Tower owners and tenants, and explain to them the situation. He said he wants that meeting to happen next week.

"I want this story to be heard because we are suffering," Linda Lopez, a tenant in Tower 3, told The Jersey Journal, which first reported the story. Lopez said her air conditioning works sporadically. When repairs are made, they don't last.

Jennifer Alexander, an attorney who represents the Harmon Cove Towers Condominium Association, emailed The Jersey Journal and said the board is "actively making repairs to the cooling system on a daily basis" while the (condo) board has been working with the association's engineer to replace the cooling towers "as soon as possible."

Gonnelli was clearly not pleased.

"These repairs should have been made years ago," he told Patch on Thursday.

This is hardly the first time problems have been reported at Harmon Cove Towers: In April of this year, Patch reported how many of the tower's smoke alarms did not go off after a devastating three-alarm fire destroyed one of the units.

Most significantly, the fire alarms failed to go off on the fourth floor, the floor where the fire started on the evening of Monday, April 30. That prevented the fire doors on each additional floor from closing, and enabled smoke to travel up the entire length of the tower.

Many residents did not even know to evacuate until Secaucus firefighters ran up and down smoke-filled hallways, pounding on doors and telling people to leave.

Related: Alarms Did Not Go Off In Harmon Cove Tower Fire, Residents Say

Top photo by Carly Baldwin/Patch