City to spend $100,000 more on mobile park

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday voted to spend an additional $100,000 on expenses related to last week's closing of the Sky-Vue Mobile Home Park, bringing the city's total spending on the closure to $140,000.

But city officials want the money, used to move residents out of the condemned park and to cover some related expenses, paid back.

After approving the allocation by a 6-0 vote, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman asked City Attorney Brad Jerbic to file a lawsuit against the owners of the park at 15 Owens Ave., near Las Vegas Boulevard, to collect not only the money approved for assistance but also the $56,000 it has cost the city in employee wages to oversee the park's closure and relocation of residents.

Jerbic said a lawsuit is being put together against Sky-Vue's owners, the DiMarco family. The family members have said the city has ignored their efforts to clean up the trailer park and to correct health and safety violations.

Last month the city deemed conditions at the park to be life-threatening after health and safety inspectors found leaking sewer pipes, an unsanitary water supply, faulty wiring and lack of a fire hydrant toward the back of the park. After spending several days helping residents relocate, the city closed the park last Friday.

The city's earlier $40,000 allocation was used to help Sky-Vue residents stay at area motels while park owners were supposed to fix sewer and water problems at the nearly 50-year-old facility. The city overspent that amount -- spending a total of $50,400 -- and needed the additional funds Wednesday to pay another $61,900 to move the noncondemned mobile homes to other parks at about $5,500 a pop.

The money would also be used for security, storage and other necessary costs. Currently, the city says it is paying $5,292 a week for on-site security to prevent looting and $320 a month for four storage sheds to store property that residents could not immediately take with them to their new homes.

The remaining $27,600 will be set aside for other costs, including kenneling the displaced residents' pets or for money spent by Nevada Social Services that has yet to be billed to the city for reimbursement.

City Neighborhood Services Director Orlando Sanchez said operators of older mobile home parks such as Shady Acres apparently learned from the Sky-Vue crisis, noting that cleanup operations got underway before the city could inspect.

"You have to remember this is private property and you expect owners should be responsible," Sanchez said outside of the meeting.

Sanchez said, because of Sky-Vue, state, county and municipal agencies have learned to work more closely together, cooperation that in the future should help problems like Sky-Vue from getting so out of hand.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly expressed concerns that the city is "opening a Pandora's Box" by going after other parks unless it first puts in place a specific plan to address dilapidated rental homes.

Goodman said people such as those in Sky-Vue were "trapped" because they were poor, and that it is up to government to help such people. He further recommended the city consider passing an ordinance that would jail slum lords or force them to reside for six months in one of their rental units.

To date, 84 Sky-Vue residents have been relocated, seven are in the process of being relocated to permanent housing, eight signed up for help from the city but have not followed through for assistance and 13 have had no contact with the city, Sanchez said.