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City barks at mobile home park flooding
by Robb Fulcher
City officials fired off a letter to the owners of the Marineland mobile home park insisting that they address continued flooding during heavy rains, while a councilman charged that conditions "approaching slumlord-type" proportions have been allowed to persist.
The salvos this week and last represent the latest round in a lengthy struggle between the city and the Montana-based owners of the 60-unit park, which sits in low land at the end of Bard XXX behind the city post office.
Councilmen John Bowler and J.R. Reviczky went to the park during the heavy rains on President's Day last Monday, and found four or five mobile homes standing in two to three feet of murky water that appeared to include waste, perhaps from "local dogs," Bowler said.
"This is clearly a health and safety issue," he said.
City workers brought equipment and pumped out the water, then returned later in the week to do it again. Such pumping of residential property is not rare, but Bowler said the park's owners have been asked to take care of the problem, which came to light during the 1998 El Nino storms.
Co-owner Susan Moss, who at times has appeared before the city council on other matters, was unavailable for comment this week.
City Public Works Superintendent Mike Flaherty said his crews have spent "several hundred man-hours" pumping floodwater from the park on several occasions during El Nino and since.
He said that it could cost the park's owners more than $1,000 to buy a temporary pump and firehose for the flooding, and several thousand dollars for a permanent storm drain and pump.
City officials have tried to get the park's owners to make road repairs and build a children's play area as well.
"But flooding is the number one problem," Bowler said. He added that some problems, including inadequate utility connections, have been addressed.
Previous rounds between the city and the park's owners date to the mid-90s when foundations were built for four larger, two-story modular units without the benefit of the required city permits.
The owners had the foundations removed and asked the council for permission to build the larger units, offering to improve the drainage, make road repairs and build the play area in exchange.
Last November the council rejected the request for a second time, with some council members demanding park improvements before they would consider the request.
Along the way, city officials have offered to help organize a currently dormant attempt by some tenants to buy Marineland from the owners. The city could help tenants organize the effort and find financing, City Manager Steve Burrell said.
The tenants own their homes but rent the land underneath from the park. ER