SCHOFIELD, WI (WSAU) — The Schofield City Council has given owners of the Hidden Lakes Estates Mobile Home Park, formerly known as the Northern Mobile Home Park, a final 30-day extension to come into full compliance with requests made as part of the conditions of their operating license.
That was the result of a nearly 45-minute discussion as part of Tuesday’s regular council meeting. Mayor Kregg Hoehn made it clear that this will be the last extension for managers of the park. “The Council was ready to stop it already, but we are going to give them one more shot.”
City Attorney Shane VanderWaal outlined a list of four conditions that the Council placed on the license back in November, including the submission of an updated site plan for the park that would be submitted to first responders along with an updated county health inspection. Those items have been cleared by the park and the city.
The last sticking point revolves around updated electrical and sewer inspections that were to be conducted by Wausau building inspectors in December, but miscommunication between the inspectors and park management occurred right before the holidays, and the inspections were never completed.
The primary concern of the council was some units which had extension cords running out of them. Park managers explained that in some cases those power heat blankets under the mobile homes designed to keep utility pipes from freezing in the winter.
Alder Dan Vergin questioned the safety of the cords by asking what it would take for one to catch fire and burn a unit to the ground, stating that older mobile homes can be destroyed in as few as seven minutes. He went on to question the owner’s commitment to the safety of their residents by allowing such problems to linger.
Mayor Hoehn added that the safety of the residents remains the city’s top priority.
“The bigger issues have not been complied with. With those, we have had a lack of communication as to when we could get to them. The safety of our citizens is number one, we need to make sure that holds true and fix those problems.”
During the meeting, Hoehn brought up the possibility of creating a trailer park committee or task force to ensure clear communication between the city and the park on safety matters. He’s not sure if he will follow through with that, but he is going to take it on himself to make sure the line is clear by organizing weekly walk-throughs of the park with management and city public works director Mark Thout.
“We are going above and beyond what we need to do, or what most communities would be doing,” added Hoehn.
As it stands the park continues to operate without a license, and both the Council and Mayor made it clear that non-compliance at the February meeting would not be tolerated. “If they get everything done the way they are supposed to, even though we gave them an extra 60-days to do it, the council would then have the ability to grant the license. If they don’t get it done, they would have the ability to start procedures of removal.”
Park managers declined to comment on the extension following Tuesday’s meeting. The matter will now be decided during the February 12th council meeting.
