Court order demands repairs

Sito Negron

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

Government officials and the residents and operators of the troubled Sky-Vue Mobile Park are grappling with how to deal with what a court order called conditions that are "injurious to the public health."

The court order, issued Friday in response to a Clark County Health District request, tells the owners to make immediate repairs or face a shutdown. The health district will be in court Tuesday to review whether enough has been done to keep the place open.

The Friday order, which came after a Las Vegas Sun investigation was published last week, prompted a visit by a team of top Las Vegas city officials over the weekend to explain to Sky-Vue residents what was happening, and to give them the option of taking vouchers for up to five days at a Budget Suites while their homes are being repaired.

Over the weekend, residents at Sky-Vue had mixed opinions about what was happening.

Reginald Newlin, 33, said "this is a blessing, to see the city take care of us." He left the park Friday night.

Richard Decampa, who did not leave, noted the official response by the inspection agencies and the city, assessed the claims and counter-claims by residents and the operators as to how the situation got so bad, and said, "Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else, but what about the human factor? Look at what's happening here."

Decampa said the park, at 15 W. Owens along the "homeless corridor," did need repairs, but he questioned whether authorities were doing the right thing by forcing people to leave their homes while repairs were ongoing. He also wondered what would happen if people's homes weren't repaired before their vouchers, good for five days, ran out.

Las Vegas Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell, who was at Sky-Vue Friday night, said authorities simply cannot allow people to live in a situation that is unhealthy.

"The reality is there are health and safety standards for the community," she said, as one resident questioned her about the city's response. She also said the city was working to find transitional housing for residents whose trailers aren't ready for them after five days.

The health district's application for the Friday court order asserted that raw sewage is leaking from multiple sewer lines, and pooling under and adjacent to occupied trailers. It also states that electricity to most units is obtained through extension cords, "which are not meant to be the source of primary power to a residence."

Many of the cords lay on "bare wet ground, creating risks of both electrocution and fire," according to the application, which also notes that electrical panels are unprotected.

Finally, it states that water to all the mobile homes is supplied with garden hoses, with many "submerged in the (pooled) sewage." If the hose is ruptured -- "even with a pinhole," states the application -- when the water is turned on, sewage will be pulled into the potable water supply.

In addition to those assertions in the health district's application for a court order, the trailers in the park -- some rented and others owned by their occupants, who lease the space from the park operators -- are in generally poor condition, with many having problems ranging from holes in the floors and ceilings to damaged doors and windows.

About 80 residents took the city's offer and spent the weekend in Budget Suites.

Beth Jones, who called health and safety inspectors about the park, was one of the people who went to Budget Suites. Half-joking, she said, "they're never going to get me out of this suite."

David Dimarco, one of the park operators, said authorities were "overreacting," and that he and his wife, Sandi Dimarco, are trying hard to get the park repaired.

Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, whose district contains the Sky-Vue, was at the park Friday and Saturday.

He said he realized that the city would not be able to do everything everybody wanted, but it was taking steps to help.

"To some it (the city's actions) won't make a difference," Weekly said. "But to someone there, their life might really change."

He said he talked to David and Sandi Dimarco, the operators of the park, on Saturday, and "I was so angry with them for the first 10 minutes."

But, said Weekly, "they were there and they were actually really trying to make an effort to really try to repair things and bring things up to par. They need a lot of assistance and they need help."

It's going to take awhile to untangle where things went wrong and how the park was able to get as bad as it is without any authorities or the owners stepping in before now, Weekly said.

"We need to dig through some of that because the city should never have let it get to that point," Weekly said.

The park has been operating without a business license since October and has been under orders to install fire hydrants and make other safety improvements for more than 18 months. Multiple inspections by the city since August, and more recently, by the state of Nevada and the Clark County Board of Health, noted faulty wiring, blocked exits, broken windows, and leaking sewer pipes and water lines, the Sun investigation found.

It wasn't until the last several weeks that the agencies began to develop a coordinated response. Officials pointed to the nature of the inspection process -- in which different departments enforce different types of codes -- and the lack of manpower as factors that allowed Sky-Vue to deteriorate.

Decampa said dealing with the situation would not be easy for anyone.

"It's a failure of management, the owners, and the judicial and social system," Decampa said. "I mostly blame the system around here."