Deplorable. Filthy. Disgusting. Needles, bedbugs and vermin.

There have been a lot of words used to describe the conditions at the Country Barn Motel and Campground on Broad Street in Nashua. None of them are words a business owner wants attached to their venture or residents want used to describe an establishment in their city, especially on national TV. But it’s hard to argue with any of them after watching the Sept. 8 episode of "Hotel Impossible" on the Travel Channel. The place is gross.

While there’s not a tourism office on earth looking for that kind of press, hopefully there are some positive points that can come from the reality show’s visit to Nashua.

Aldermen-at-Large Brian McCarthy and Jim Donchess and Ward 9 Alderman Ken Siegel are champing at the bit to determine whether there are any health or building code violations at the motel and, if not, whether the city needs to update its ordinances so facilities in such poor condition don’t skate through inspections.

"What are the conditions? Are there violations? And if there are deplorable conditions that do not violate the codes, then we should update them, improve them and strengthen them," Donchess said.

For the uninitiated, the "Motel Impossible" episode earlier this month documented some pretty awful conditions, including rooms so infested with bedbugs that a bedbug-sniffing dog brought in by host Anthony Melchiorri was unnecessary because the dog’s handler could see evidence of them just by looking around.

In the 253 days between the first of the year and Friday, Nashua police had visited the motel 118 times, according to Deputy Chief Denis Linehan. That averages out to one visit nearly every other day, for offenses ranging from drug overdoses and heroin sales to three alleged sexual assaults.

The criticisms went on from there, from stained and dirty mattresses to discarded syringes and grounds that don’t seem to have been maintained for years.

Owners Dan Gagnon and his cousins, brothers Tom and the late Tim Lavoie, invited producers to the motel looking for help. We’ve watched the episode and, to their credit, Gagnon and Tom Lavoie seemed genuine in their desire to improve and were up-front with The Telegraph about their struggle to eliminate bedbugs from the rooms and cabins. (Tim Lavoie walked off the show early in the episode and didn’t return. He died in a motorcycle crash shortly after the show was filmed in April.)

But clearly things need to change beyond renovating a few rooms – the owners say they’ve done three rooms in the months since the show was filmed – and raking up a metric ton of dead leaves. It doesn’t take a genius of city planning to understand Nashua can’t wait to be told of such conditions by third-tier reality television shows. The situation should never have reached this point.

To be sure, there are other businesses and temporary residential buildings in the city that should be included in any renewed enforcement efforts aldermen seem to be interested in pursuing, including 23 Temple St.

And that’s all to the good. Aldermen would be wise to continue to dog this issue and not let it wither on the vine once the hubbub of the show dies down. City residents deserve better, and the people who – for one reason or another – find themselves at the Country Barn Motel or similar places certainly deserve safer and healthier.