"I don't get angry that fast but I'm frustrated and disappointed that's what I am," Ora Johnson said.Ora Johnson and her husband Jesse have a lot in common. They're both 73 years old, visually impaired and tired of living in an apartment without a working air conditioning unit."It's been since June 27 and that is a long time when you don't have air," Johnson said.In an effort to get some answers, we confronted management at Sandpiper apartments about this issue. At the time, the woman who hid her face with a balloon, didn't have much to say.Ronda Robinson: "We've heard about Mrs. Ora and Jesse Johnson. You know it's like 90 degrees outside. It's really unacceptable for them to have to wait so long. Can you explain why it has taken so long?"Apartment manager: "No but they are working on it now."The manager then went in the office and locked the door.Ronda Robinson: It's going to be fixed today? Alright because they have been waiting since so we'll be back."As we were leaving the property, another resident flagged us down.

Jasmine Stewart is pregnant and said she's been living without AC for three weeks."It's hot and I have a 5-year-old and they haven't come out and done anything," Stewart said.Stewart has even started a petition to address the issue. my ac unit fan wont turn onSo far, nine names are on the list."ac and heater wont turn on in carI went around and knocked on people's doors just to try to see what was going on," Stewart said.moving your ac unitWe once again reached out to Sandpiper apartments about these additional concerns.Management responded with an email saying, "The Johnson's unit has been repaired. Ms. Stewart's unit is in the process of being repaired. We now have the right people in place to take care of these matters. All units are being addressed."

Stewart says if her unit is not repaired, as soon as she finds another place she is moving out."I don't think it's right for anyone to live like this," Stewart said.In the meantime, Mrs. Johnson's apartment has begun to cool off."I just don't understand why she would leave us in a sweat box for so long," Johnson said."You all can come out and help people solve problems that they can't solve. You guys come out one time and the do what they have said they would do for a month," Johnson added.Do you need the Call For Action team?Ronda Robinson is On Your Side, investigating consumer issues with help from the WBRC FOX6 Call for Action team. The Call for Action team is a team of volunteers that work to help people resolve disputes with companies.Do you have a problem with a business?--Trained volunteers take phone calls from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday - Friday at 205-583-4321.--You can submit your complaint online at any time day or night. Click here to submit your complaint through a desktop computer.

You can also reach Ronda on Facebook and Twitter.Copyright 2016 WBRC. Coleman AC unit problems There are currently 3 users online.As Kanawha County continued Monday to close schools due to air conditioning and power failures, county Superintendent Ron Duerring said the county has old AC systems and not enough money to replace them or make major upgrades. On Friday, schools officials closed seven schools, including four of the county’s eight high schools, due to AC and power failures, meaning about one in 10 Kanawha public schools were closed that day. Four of the county’s schools were closed Monday due to similar issues. When asked why AC problems seem to be a recurring annual theme in Kanawha, Duerring said the district spent $23 million several years ago to upgrade many of its AC systems, including some of the systems that were in the worst shape. But he noted the district has 68 schools. “Many of those systems out there are still very old, and there’s just not enough money to cover putting all new systems in and getting them where they need to be,” he said Monday.

In May, Kanawha’s school board approved a budget for this school and fiscal year that slashed repair and maintenance funding by $300,000 compared to last fiscal year, though Duerring said such a cut would never reduce work on AC systems. Unlike many counties in West Virginia — about 20 out of 55 as of last fiscal year — Kanawha doesn’t have a 100 percent excess property tax levy. The current Kanawha excess levy provides the school system an extra roughly $44.2 million annually through the 2018-19 school year above what the regular levy provides. A 100 percent excess levy would’ve provided Kanawha an extra $22.8 million in this fiscal year alone. The district sought a 100 percent levy in 2013, but three out of four Kanawha residents who cast ballots voted against it. “I think that’s something that the board will have to have some discussion about,” Duerring said when asked whether the issues indicate that another levy increase should be pursued. “And certainly that could be something they might want to talk about in the future, but that’s something I won’t comment at this time on.”

Duerring said the individual schools that were closed won’t have to make up those days.The district announced Sunday that Pratt Elementary and South Charleston High would be closed Monday due to no AC. South Charleston High was the only one of the seven schools closed Friday that stayed closed Monday. Elk Elementary Center, which is near Coonskin Park, was closed Monday due to no power, and the district announced Monday morning that Midland Trail Elementary, in Diamond, would be dismissing at 10:30 due to no AC.Kanawha school system maintenance director Terry Hollandsworth said the plan is to reopen all four schools Tuesday. “[At] South Charleston High School, the chiller for the new wing, we’re having some kind of crazy control problem, the chiller cuts on, cuts off,” Hollandsworth said. He said the AC manufacturer, Trane, had its workers work on the unit all weekend, but as of about 8:30 Sunday night it still wasn’t running. Yet on Monday morning, Hollandsworth said a press of the reset button made it operate just fine.

He said Trane will go through the unit to make sure it’s OK. At Pratt Elementary, a chiller turned itself off over the weekend, and there will be portable AC units at the school Tuesday, Hollandsworth said. He said the district missed the fact that the energy management computer program at Midland Trail Elementary had set the temperature there at 82 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 72, and the chiller couldn’t cool the building fast enough to open Monday. The chiller should be able to cool the building by Tuesday, but window AC units are being brought in to ensure the structure is cool. Vines grew into a transformer at Elk Elementary Center and caused it to trip, Hollandsworth said, and an Appalachian Power tree crew was working Monday to fix the problem. When asked whether anything connected the fact that seven schools closed Friday, Hollandsworth said “it just happened.” When asked whether a lack of funding or workers is behind the school system’s recurring air conditioning issues, he said: “I can assure that our board and our management team will do whatever we need to make sure that our children are taken care of for heating and cooling — for anything really.”

“Our board is dedicated to making sure I have the tools and resources I need to get it done.” The Kanawha schools closed Friday were Ben Franklin Career Center, Capital High, George Washington High, Grandview Elementary, South Charleston Middle, South Charleston High and St. Albans High. Though those were the only ones closed, other public schools in the county reported AC issues.Jerry Comer, principal of Overbrook Elementary in Charleston’s South Hills area, said the district fixed the AC problem in a fourth-grade classroom Friday. Heather Hill, a secretary at Nitro Elementary, said the school made a request Monday for the district to fix minor cooling issues in two rooms. Hollandsworth said the AC system at Capital High, one of the schools that closed Friday, was working fine Monday, but said the system was bringing in the outside humidity. He said temperature readings were about 75 degrees on the first floor, and 78 degrees in some classrooms on the second. Much maintenance work this summer had been focused on the schools damaged in the late-June flooding.

Two schools, Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary, were so damaged the district isn’t planning to ever reopen them, and the district had to get two other flood-damaged schools, Bridge Elementary and Elkview Middle, fixed up to temporarily house the displaced Hoover and Clendenin Elementary students. Crews continued as late as the week before school started Aug. 8 to repair air conditioning units at some Kanawha schools, but Hollandsworth had said parts of some schools would still be without air conditioning at the start of the school year.“We continued to work on air-conditioning systems, while it did impact our time spent on preventive maintenance,” Hollandsworth had written in an email to the Gazette-Mail. “We did continue with repairs. There will be some rooms without AC in some of the schools. But whole schools will not be without AC.”Duerring said Monday that the attention to the flooded schools was one factor in the recent AC failures. “There was a lot to do with the flood situation so you really have to prioritize,” he said, “and that was a priority to get schools open and ready in that area given what had happened.”