NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WVEC) -- It's an old building, but it's creating new concerns in Newport News now that it's being demolished.
The old Wynnwood Plaza Hotel on Jefferson Avenue is coming down, and it's causing problems for people who live and work in the area, like Kenny Wright.
Wright and his wife live behind what's left of the hotel. He said dust from the demolition is covering his home, cars, and everything else in his backyard.
“There's a nuclear cloud of dust that's covered everything, and you can't even be outside,” Wright said. “I don't know what's in it. I'm just worried about the health risks.”
Wright fears for many of the elderly people who live in his neighborhood.
“You're not just trashing my house, you're trashing the whole neighborhood,” Wright said.
Tray-Von Jackson works at a barbershop next door to the hotel. While he's happy the building is coming down, he agrees it's a mess.
“It's been dusty, the wind's been blowing, they’re trying to get it together, but I just wish they'd hurry up,” Jackson said.
The city’s Codes Compliance director Harold Roach said the contractor has been spraying the debris down trying to minimize the problem.
The owners of the hotel hired a contractor to tear down the building after codes compliance cited the property, in August 2016, as unsafe for several reasons.
Roach said there was quite a bit of damage inside the building.
The building’s been vandalized, a fire started inside not too long ago, and this past winter there was a water leak associated with a pipe freezing.
Wright is still not pleased with how construction crews are handling the job.
“They told us to go inside and shut the windows. They said someone will come out in three days, but we'll be choked to death by then,” Wright said. “Wake the hell up, and get a fire hose to knock the dust down.”
Right now, there is no word on what's going to replace the old hotel.
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