SCHOFIELD, WI (WSAU) — Residents of the Northern Mobile Home Park in Schofield have until August 1st to vacate the property after the city council voted 7-0 to pull the complex’s operating license on Monday.
The vote comes after another inspection of the property in January revealed that slow progress had been made on cleaning up numerous violations at the complex, ranging from basics like lawns not being mowed to missing railings on a porch to major electric and sewer utility violations.
“You might not think a lack of a railing is a big deal, but it is,” said City Attorney Lee Turonie. “These are legitimate safety concerns and it’s not just to the residents but emergency personnel need to know that they can safely enter these buildings as well. That’s why you have codes” he added.
Some violations were also public safety concerns regarding utility connections. “They were just open air exposed, which is very dangerous. You can’t have contamination of public supplies such as water.”
Attorneys for the complex argued that there had been progress made on the list of violations and plans for major improvements such as driveway repairs were already in place for this summer. Additionally they tried to argue that the city had not provided sufficient notice to the residents that owned their homes of the violations for their unit. However Turonie said management at the complex was also provided with the list and had a responsibility to notify their residents. “The fact that they never told anyone else is another indication of very poor management that was going on. They both have obligations.”
Schofield Mayor Kregg Hoehn said the city plans to give residents ample time to move out before the license for the park is canceled. And while they can’t give the residents financial aid to move due to restrictions on using public funds for private gain, they will provide help in other ways. “We have come up with a list of trailer parks that are accepting trailers if they can get theirs there. We will hopefully come up with a list of rentals in the Schofield area as well.”
Turonie says the timing of the decision came from the fact that those in the city hadn’t noticed much improvement in the complex since last July when the first vote to pull the license occurred. Since then two re-inspections have occurred with little change in the results. “The third inspection in January confirmed that we still had nothing going on.”
Those who testified Monday in support of the park said they have never felt unsafe or like the park had been kept in poor condition. The previous manger, Wayne Warren, testified that he felt there was some miscommunication with the city over which codes applied to mobile or manufactured homes. Additionally he said at times he was frustrated over how the park’s ownership in California was handling the funding for the remolding, adding that there was also a disconnect over what repairs could be done in the winter months and which ones needed to wait for better weather.
