ORANGE PARK, Fla. – The town of Orange Park has voted to shut down a hotel that has had a history of crime problems.
Town leaders have been working with The Rodeway Inn hotel to clean up drug and prostitution problems for around a year. However Monday night a town council board voted the hotel hasn’t done a good enough job and will ask for a court order to shut the establishment down.
The town’s Nuisance Abatement Board asked the Rodeway Inn to make a lot of changes in September, from 24-7 security, to no longer accepting cash.
While both town leaders and the Rodeway Inn management say crime has declined and there have been some improvements, the town’s board decided it hasn’t improved enough.
“The crime problem there is ongoing, not just with drugs and prostitution and things we’ve seen over the year, but we’re talking about crime, other violations, people habitually with warrants being found at Rodeway Inn,” said Sam Garrison, town attorney.
The Rodeway Inn has been a hotspot for crime in Orange Park for years. Things got so bad that in September the hotel agreed to a plan to stop crime in the hotel by doing things like implementing security, and getting identification for all guests so that information would be readily available to law enforcement.
The Rodeway Inn attorney went back and forth with town leaders on whether the hotel has done enough to stop crime and improve public safety Monday night at the town hall meeting.
“You can rest assured we are going to fight this tooth and nail in court,” said Daniel Copeland, attorney for Rodeway Inn Hotel.
The next step is the town needs to get the circuit court to sign off on this order to shut the hotel down.
