A valiant effort was made, but it was too little, too late for the OYO Hotel.

On Tuesday, Bradford City Health Officer John Peterson upheld the suspension of the rooming license of the OYO, which had been suspended Oct. 19 due to hundreds of code violations. He implored Ashok Bhatt, regional manager for Millstone Investment which owns the property, not to stop with the efforts underway to correct the plethora of problems.

“It’s evident Mr. Bhatt has made significant progress,” Peterson said. “I do believe that given the progress achieved it will be possible for the license to be reinstated” in the near future.

Following the hearing, city administrator Chris Lucco said he would meet with solicitor Mark Hollenbeck to “determine where we go from here.” There was no word on when residents might have to vacate the property.

On Monday and Tuesday, health director Mike Cleveland and property maintenance officers Brandon Plowman and Travis Crawford went back to the OYO for a reinspection, to determine what sort of progress had been made in the few days since the last hearing.

At the hearing, where Bhatt participated by phone and his representative Julie Tipton was present, Cleveland gave a report of the most recent findings. He noted there had been significant cleaning, smoke detectors had been installed, windows were installed, and issues with emergency doors being blocked have been corrected. However, he said, far too many code violations still exist to have anyone continue to live in the building.

“It still remains a life safety hazard,” he said. The problems with the electrical, heating, plumbing and sanitation may be nearly impossible to correct.

“There was a lack of significant progress on electrical issues,” Cleveland said, explaining live wires are still hanging loose over water.

“A temperature reading taken indoors in a common area was 59 degrees. Outside it was 45 degrees,” he said. Code mandates a temperature of at least 68 degrees indoors. “There continues to be a lack of appropriate hot water to every room.

“Fire code violations still abound,” Cleveland continued. The fire doors need push bars and the doors themselves don’t seal completely and aren’t weather-tight. The fire escape, formerly held in place with a ratchet strap, is now held in place with a chain and a piece of metal.

“There is clear deterioration of the fire escape,” he said. “Attempts have been made to secure the structure to the building by unqualified persons. The fire escape has areas where the walking surface is damaged or missing.

“There are interior fire doors missing or not maintained. Sanitation remains poor despite efforts to clean,” he continued. A contract is being negotiated with Millstone and an exterminator, but the severe infestation of bedbugs and cockroaches remains.

Some occupants have said they will not allow the exterminator in their residences. On Tuesday, the building had a strong odor of natural gas, Cleveland said.

Property maintenance officers Plowman and Crawford were called to the stand to confirm Cleveland’s testimony.

Bhatt was given a chance to speak as well. “We have corrected by now more than 160 violations including the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

“The fire escape, my maintenance guy did it,” he said. He added that cameras are being purchased to be installed by the fire doors as soon as possible, and push bars are as well.

“We have a good effort to prove we are on the way to making (the building) on the safe side,” Bhatt said.

Tipton said people were working on Tuesday, going room to room to replace electrical outlets before they address the loose wires in areas outside of residences. “We figured the living quarters are the more important areas to work on, seeing as how those are a detriment to their safety,” she said.

“We are also going to start a weekly inspection of rooms to make sure they are in repair,” she added. “We are going to make sure (residents are cleaning their rooms) or they are going to be evicted.”

After hearing the testimony, Peterson took a five-minute recess to read over the evidence before rendering his decision.