As soon as Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson opened the door to room 4212 at the now-closed Budgetel Inn, he pulled his blazer over his nose. The stench of feces filled the hallway and could be seen smeared on the room's floor next to piles of left-behind clothes.
Room 4212 was one of several visited by the judge -- who signed a temporary order that shut down the East Ridge extended stay motel in November displacing nearly hundreds of residents -- as part of an inspection to determine whether it may reopen.
The inspection lasted 30 minutes Friday afternoon, with stops at four different rooms.
"We went around to several rooms," Patterson said for the court record. "The state pointed out what they wanted to regarding the conditions of some of the rooms. The number of rooms greatly exceeds, obviously, the number we saw today that were in the same condition. The conditions were shown to be substandard in many regards."
Those present included the motel's owner, Amish Patel, and Chattanooga attorney Christopher Clem, who is representing Budgetel.
"Mr. Clem, on behalf of Budgetel, showed at least one room that seemed much cleaner and, again, represents that there are a number of rooms that were also in decent condition," Patterson said.
He noted there were a number of structural issues, including an electrical panel and stairs that were in need of repair.
The closure came after District Attorney Coty Wamp asked Patterson to temporarily shut down the property, citing a high volume of crime there in the past few years.
A major concern was the number of calls coming from the hotel, around 1,400 to East Ridge police in the past three years.
According to court documents, many of the recent calls were related to drug use, overdoses, assaults and disorderly conduct, according to court filings. So far this year, officers have responded to eight overdose calls at the Budgetel, and two of those resulted in death, police say.
State officials showed Patterson a room in which one of those overdoses had occurred weeks before the shutdown, saying the body had been decaying for a while before someone reported a smell.
(READ MORE: Eviction of East Ridge motel residents violated constitutional rights, attorney says)
Joseph Bailey, an information technology consultant for Atlanta IT Services, said there are plans in the works to reduce the high volume of phone calls.
He said each room is equipped with a monitored smoke detector, which is uncommon for hotel rooms. When one smoke detector goes off, the fire department is called.
"At the request of the fire marshal, we changed it to where now the false alarms coming in from setting off -- what we call a local smoke detector in the room -- will no longer call the fire department," Bailey said.
Instead, the alert will be sent to the lobby manager, who will then have an opportunity to inspect the situation before calling the fire department. However, if a second alarm sounds, the fire department will be directly notified.
"When the property reopens, we'll be replacing the phone system with an NG911-compliant phone system," Bailey said.
NG911 stands for Next Generation 911 and is the newest technology for emergency services. It's internet-based and can be accessed from more communication sources like text messages and provides more information, like the real-time location of a caller, to emergency responders.
"With the new NG911, when somebody calls 911 from a room here the operator will get that floor and room number," Bailey said. "They'll also get a direct phone number to call that room back directly that will work the work for 30 minutes."
Patterson will announce his decision at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 12.
Clem said that during the hearing, he will be asking for access to the building to begin repairs.
"We're ready to go," he said, adding there are residents whose personal belongings are still at the hotel.
"We probably need a deadline for the people that are coming back to get their stuff to be done before we start cleaning," Clem said. "I'm not advocating anything other than saying that's what we're going to need to get started and we'd like to get started next week."
Contact Carmen Nesbitt at cnesbitt@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @carmen_nesbitt.