County checks out bedbugs

Terri Williams, an official for the San Bernardino County Department of Environmental Health Services, said county officials are working on the bedbug problem at The Meridians.

The Meridians are a cluster of apartments in Westside San Bernardino near the crossing of Foothill Boulevard and Meridian Avenue. Many of the apartments have been foreclosed upon and are boarded up, but tenants at the buildings that are still in operation have complained of a recent infestation of bedbugs.

"Our role in this doesn't go away until we're 100 percent free of bedbugs," said Williams, who oversees her department's vector control operations.

County staffers investigated the apartments Monday, she said.

Williams said the blood-sucking insects are not a threat to spread disease ("We don't want to create a panic," she said) but she also doesn't want tenants to immediately move to new apartments. There's also concern that someone moving could carry the bugs to another location.

The county has sent notices of violation to landlords. She could not immediately recall those landlords' named during a telephone interview today.

Tuesday, landlord Gilbert Badillo Sr. said he was aware of the problem and was working to exterminate the bedbugs, but expressed frustration that some tenants refused to allow exterminators into their apartments. He maintained that such recalcitrant tenants effectively gave the bugs a safe haven to breed and return to units that have been visited by exterminators.

Tuesday, several residents told me that they had serious problems with bedbugs. Tenants pointed to scars showing where they have been bitten by the insects.

San Bernardino Economic Development Agency officials want to purchase the Meridians. EDA staffers want to demolish the buildings to make way for new construction. City officials have said the apartments are a focal point for crime.