Bedbugs close CCAC Downtown
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Community College of Allegheny County has canceled all classes in its Downtown center for the rest of the week to deal with a bedbug problem.
The classrooms are on the 11th floor of 625 Stanwix St., above a 10-story garage and directly beneath the Allegheny County Housing Authority's main offices.
The building also has an adjoining tower with 11 floors of apartments that rent for $900 to $2,500 per month. Those residences, which run from the 14th to the 25th floor, do not have any common surfaces with the CCAC part of the building, building manager Krystal Jordan said.
The apartments also have a separate entrance and elevator, she said, so it's unlikely the bugs would migrate to or from the apartments. Still, she said, some tenants who heard about the bugs had been calling to express concern.
CCAC spokeswoman Cassandra Hough said the bedbugs were found at the end of last week. Classes were canceled in that room, she said, and a trained dog was brought in on Sunday to pinpoint areas of concern.
Ms. Jordan said she was not made aware of the problem until Monday. She said she offered to bring in exterminators right away, but the college declined. On Tuesday the college accepted the offer, she said, and the exterminator was to begin working last night with dogs sniffing the entire floor and beyond, if necessary.
Guillermo Cole, spokesman for the Allegheny County Health Department, said the department would send an investigator today to determine the source of the problem.
"It could be isolated or it could be coming from other floors," he said. "Bedbugs can move up and down and side to side. They conceivably could have migrated from another unit, but not necessarily."
It's important to get to the source, he said, so the problem does not reoccur.
First Published October 13, 2010 12:00 am
