By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Kansas Fire Marshal inspection reports released Wednesday indicate significant structural damage to the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine, Hays.

The reports, released after the Hays Post filed a Kansas Open Records Request, said inspectors found structural instability in the motel’s second-floor walkways.

SEE RELATED STORY: Kansas Fire Marshal orders Rodeway Inn in Hays to close

The Hays Fire Department placed a wooden support structure under one of the walkways as a temporary measure. It issued a complaint to the state fire marshal’s office on July 25.

The temporary support was still in place during the last inspection of the facility in October and a Hays Post visit to the building on Monday.

The fire marshal’s office delivered a cease and desist order to the business on Aug. 12 after several safety issues were discovered in August.

The fire marshal’s office said in an order that a structural engineer needed to access the structure and make repair recommendations.

Other problems included problems with the electrical system, smoke detectors that didn’t work and a staircase that had at least one step completely broken through.

The state inspected the facility again on Oct. 4 and found 10 rooms still occupied despite the cease and desist order. Some of these rooms were on the second floor. According to a lodging report, the owner told an inspector that employees at the shuttered motel were still trying to find places to stay.

The Hays Post could not confirm if anyone was still staying at the motel at the time of this posting.

The motel’s lodging license was said to have expired in May, according to a lodging inspection.

HKHR Hospitality, the motel’s owner, also owes $43,580 in unpaid property taxes for 2023, according to the Ellis County Treasurer’s Office. Property owners have three years to pay tax due before the property is auctioned at a tax sale.

The motel, built in 1974, is actively listed on a real estate broker’s website, Hotel Broker One, for sale at $1.2 million.

The Hays Post has been unable to identify or contact the motel’s owner. A clerk at the Ellis County Register of Deed’s Office said the signature on the motel’s deed was illegible.