On New Year’s Eve, the calls continued, punctuating the end of a year filled with more than 100 runs to a Franklin motel the sheriff is calling a nuisance.
Deputies from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a disturbance at the Hilltop Motel, south of Franklin. An employee of the motel told police a couple was fighting, and a pipe in the room where they were staying had been damaged. Police arrived and saw the woman walk outside her room nude several times and urinate in the motel’s hallway.
She was arrested and the couple could face criminal mischief charges for the damaged pipe.
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Just hours before 2020 began, that incident is an illustration of the ongoing concerns law enforcement officers have had with the motel on the far southern part of the county. The motel has been the site of methamphetamine labs and a series of complaints regarding mold and plumbing issues filed with the Johnson County Health Department.
County officials and motel leaders are on a mission to clean up the property, a place of lodging for folks traveling up and down U.S. 31 through the county. The number of law enforcement calls has prompted Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess to ask county officials to consider an ordinance similar to what the City of Greenwood recently passed which would help the county regulate hotels and motels in its jurisdiction.
“It is just becoming a big issue and it is something I’m looking at,” Burgess said. “I can’t keep going down there for the types of calls I am.”
In 2019, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office responded to 130 service calls to the property. Calls ran the gamut from disturbances, welfare checks, drug overdoses, domestic disputes, batteries and warrants. “Hilltop Motel” seems to flash across the dispatch log every few days, Burgess said.
Andy Patel, a motel manager, said one little boy called 911 eight times in one night because he claimed his phone was stolen and he believes that the amount of calls are the result of people who are visiting paid guests at the motel and are not actually staying at the property.
In 2018, motel owners were put on notice to clean up the property by the Johnson County Health Department after an Indiana State Police investigation found the property was used as a methamphetamine lab twice in 2017, according to county documents.
Two motel rooms that were seized as meth labs are yet to be cleared and have been condemned until they are deemed uncontaminated, said Amber Terhune, health educator at the Johnson County Department of Health.
Room 22 was condemned in October 2009, and room 3 was condemned in January 2011, she said.
Hilltop Motel sits near the south side of the county, on a roughly 10-mile stretch of U.S. 31 between Franklin and Edinburgh on land dotted by farms, three other locally owned motels, the small community of Amity and a furniture shop where a 32-foot-tall rocking chair entices motorists to stop and take photos.
The property has a Franklin address, but is actually about five miles south of the city. The yellow, red trimmed motel is in the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office’s jurisdiction, but Edinburgh police sometimes respond to calls too, Burgess said. About 80% of the people who stay at the motel rent rooms for $35 to $50 a night for a week at a time, Patel said.
The Johnson County Health Department does not routinely inspect the motel, as motels and hotels in general are not part of the mandated inspection schedule the department maintains, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department.
But several people have filed formal complaints with the health department regarding conditions at the motel. One filed in January 2018 claimed that the motel had leaky pipes, exposed wiring and no hot water, according to county documents.
A manager told health department officials at the time that pipes had frozen in a section of the motel, they had called plumbers and other guests had access to hot water in another part of the motel. A complaint in July 2018 claimed that some toilets could not be flushed and some rooms, again, did not have hot water. The manager fixed those issues, documents said.
The most recent complaint was in August 2019 when a woman reported mold around the bathtub and air conditioner. The manager said he would work on the issue, according to county documents.
Motel leaders seem committed to improving the property, Swearingen said. Complaints of issues have reduced since leadership changed, she said.
“We have had less complaints,” she said. “They are trying.”
Burgess met with motel leaders earlier this week to help address concerns regarding the property. Patel was open to the changes Burgess is proposing, and Burgess educated him on what the motel’s rights are regarding people staying at the motel, Burgess said.
“He was very receptive to the things we want to do,” Burgess said. “He knows his avenues now and just has to exercise them.”
The motel has installed cameras all over the property, and Patel said he gives law enforcement access to any tapes they need at any time. He is also willing to open any room at any time — day or night — to law enforcement if there is a problem.
Most of the problems Burgess cited are caused by people visiting the people who are staying at the motel, Patel said.
Now, Patel says he will be more diligent with visitors, including asking for identification and limiting the number of visitors who are welcome on the property, Patel said.
Nearly all the issues that have involved law enforcement stemmed from motel guests and visitors, Patel said.
“It is not for the motel and it is for personal reasons,” he said. “I have nothing to do with it.”
Working on ways to curb how often law enforcement officers are called to such properties has been on Burgess’s mind since he took office last year, he said.
Now, he is working with county officials in hopes of establishing an ordinance that would be similar to what the City of Greenwood passed last fall.
Greenwood’s ordinance requires that all places of lodging have a city license, and outlines procedures for probation and revoking the license for those that have a high number of calls for police, fire, code and health department violations.
How each of those lodging leaders curb the number of calls to their properties is up to each manager, but officials proposed maintaining guests lists, which would include the names of guests they would not allow to stay at any of the hotels or motels throughout the city, according to Daily Journal archives.
The goal with Greenwood’s ordinance was to minimize the number of calls to hotels and motels for crime, code and health department violations.
The sheriff’s office will continue to respond to Hilltop when a call comes in, but when sheriff’s deputies go to the property, they are pulled away from other important work, Burgess said.
“It pulls my officers from other portions of Johnson County,” he said. “We have to do what is right for the people.”
