MOBILE-HOME PARK'S CONDITION A `TERRIBLE STRAIN' ON RESIDENTS.Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer LANCASTER - Desert Paradise Mobile Home Park is hardly paradise, residents say. Raw sewage seeps to the surface in yards, trash blows around the park, dead tree limbs fall onto homes and the swimming pool and laundry room A laundry room (also called a utility room) is a room where clothes are washed. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer,and often a large basin, called a laundry tub, for hand-washing delicate articles of clothing such have been shut down. ``This has been a terrible strain on all of us,'' said resident Bill Crawford
The resident park managers were away from their home in the park Wednesday afternoon and unavailable for comment. But after news media showed up at the invitation of residents, work crews arrived to work on the sewage lines, pick up trash and cut down dead trees. The state agency responsible for mobile-home parks said the park owners - who were not identified - were ordered in June to fix sewage problems and clean up trash and debris but have not done so. ``We are aware about it and we are concerned about it. We will get this park into compliance,'' said Richard Friedman, chief counsel for the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Park residents say conditions are bad in general, starting mostly after a change in ownership more than a year ago. The laundry rooms have been closed down because the machines broke and were never replaced, the shower and bathroom area next to the pool has been closed and the pool itself has been empty for more than a year since the filter pump broke. A sinkhole sinkhole or sink or doline Depression formed as underlying limestone bedrock is dissolved by groundwater. Sinkholes vary greatly in area and depth and may be very large. about four feet across appeared in a park road near where residents say a septic tank septic tank, underground sedimentation tank in which sewage is retained for a short period while it is decomposed and purified by bacterial action. The organic matter in the sewage settles to the bottom of the tank, a film forms excluding atmospheric oxygen, and began oozing oozing exudation of fluid. liquid months ago. The sewage system sewage system Collection of pipes and mains, treatment works, and discharge lines (sewers) for the wastewater of a community. Early civilizations often built drainage systems in urban areas to handle storm runoff. had been worked on about six weeks ago but continued to leak, residents said. ``We have to sit out here and smell that (stuff) and they don't do anything about it,'' Crawford said. ``My porch porch Roofed structure, usually open at front and sides, projecting from the face of a building and used to protect an entrance. If colonnaded, it may be called a portico. had sewage on it for more than a week before anyone came out and cleaned it up.'' A state official said the ultimate sanction sanction, in law and ethics, any inducement to individuals or groups to follow or refrain from following a particular course of conduct. All societies impose sanctions on their members in order to encourage approved behavior. against a mobile-home park owner is to close the park. The official said the housing agency concentrates on getting problems corrected, because closing a park puts a hardship on tenants, who usually are unable to afford to move their homes or have homes that other parks won't accept. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Desert Paradise Mobile Home Park residents Bill Crawford, Tim Beaudin and Rita Lopez, from left, point out what they say is a sewage leak. (2) The shower and bathroom area next to the mobile-home park's pool has been closed and the pool itself has been empty for more than a year since the filter pump broke, residents say. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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