TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents of Point Place are still working to recover from last month's devastating tornado.
Friday marks 30 days since an EF-2 tornado came through the north Toledo neighborhood, causing damage to many trees and buildings.
A month later there is still plenty of clean up work to do.
Local officials want to make sure residents know of resources available to them to make sure the people doing that work are legitimate contractors.
At a Friday morning news conference, elected leaders warned residents affected by last month's tornado to be aware of potential home-remodeling scammers.
"They're coming in and they're leaving real fast. And they might be that company today, but then tomorrow they're another company," said Lucas County Commissioner Lisa Sobecki.
To do any remodeling work, contractors must already be registered with the city of Toledo, and be in current compliance.
City leaders said they have already discovered dozens of crooked contractors in Point Place who had no intention of finishing the jobs they were paid to do.
"It's over 20, probably over 25, 30 in that area. Maybe even some more," said Mark Wilson, wage enforcement coordinator with the city of Toledo.
This is why city officials are urging residents who need to hire help to fix storm damage to use available resources to check out contractors.
"So that you don't have these fly-by-night businesses who come in and put real pressure on people to settle and to do work and then the next day they're gone and you don't have any recourse. So we want to make sure that we protect our citizens." Toledo City Council Member Theresa Morris said.
You can visit the city of Toledo's website and click on "homeowner's resources."
There you can see if the contractor is registered with the city, and look at the permits that contractor is obligated to pull to work on your home.
Along with visiting the city of Toledo's website, you can call 419-245-1220 for building inspection to confirm if a contractor is in compliance and has pulled permits for the work you hired them for.
Point Place resident William Greene went through this process and said he's now found a reliable contractor he plans to use again in the future.
"He said, 'I don't like the looks of this and put two layers of roofing paper over it to prevent damage," Greene said. "No charge, nothing else. And trust me, he's now in my list of people to contact."
City officials also urged residents to report scammers to the state attorney general's office.
"We are here, we're not going anywhere. We're going to see this through and we're going to watch this community thrive again," Morris said.
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