County to begin regular checks of mobile home parks

Sito Negron

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

Clark County officials and utility company personnel will team up to begin systematically checking mobile home parks for problems relating to health and safety starting sometime next week, Ron Lynn, the county's business services director, said Thursday.

The inspections are just the latest actions to grow out of the Las Vegas city officials' closure of the Sky-Vue Mobile Park, which led to revelations by the Clark County Health District that other mobile home parks suffered from such problems as leaky sewers and shoddy wiring.

Just hours before Lynn announced the inspection plan, the owner of Sky-Vue, at 15 West Owens Ave. just north of downtown, had been in municipal court to plead not guilty to citations issued by the city of Las Vegas for doing business without a license.

David DiMarco and his wife, Sandi, had operated the Sky-Vue park of about 100 trailer homes under a temporary license until October, when the city refused to renew the license because of their failure to install a fire hydrant.

The trailer park remained open after October, and the city did not begin to issue citations for operating without a license until April 13. Sandi and David DiMarco were cited for each day of operation after that date until the city's April 30 closure of Sky-Vue. Each citation carries up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

David DiMarco also has taken responsibility for two other mobile home parks, Trailer Vegas, 3975 E. Lake Mead Blvd., and College Inn, 4615 E. Lake Mead, in the east part of the valley, wedged between Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

The county business licensing department shows the College Inn licensed to Steven Karp, although county property records show David DiMarco as the owner. The county property records indicate that Karp sold the property to DiMarco in 2002.

"The department of business license is reviewing and looking into this matter at this time," said Business License Department Director Jacqueline Holloway in a prepared statement. "If there are confirmed changes of ownership, the business license department will request the licensee come down and make the necessary changes."

David DiMarco said Thursday outside the municipal court that all of his licenses, including the Sky-Vue and College Inn licenses, are in order. The city hearing on his Sky-Vue business license citations is scheduled for July 12.

At College Inn, county officials are investigating whether a sewer pipe was installed without a license, and at Trailer Vegas they are looking into problems with the electrical wiring and sewers.

Lynn said that DiMarco had hired a licensed electrician to begin fixing the problems found at Trailer Vegas, which included frayed and exposed wires.

"They already fixed a number of violations. There was a significant number of minor ones, and they've been going through there cleaning it up now," Lynn said. "I think in a couple days they'll have all the electrical cleaned up, so there is progress being made."

The problems at College Inn and Trailer Vegas were among the items that health and safety officials were looking at when they realized the problems at mobile home parks were likely more widespread than the Sky-Vue, although most considered Sky-Vue an extreme example.

Health and safety officials already have identified a handful of other parks that need various repairs, including Shady Acres, at Main and Washington just north of downtown and about a block from Sky-Vue.

"It has given us the feeling that some of these older parks are in a state of disrepair, and I could be wrong," said Lynn. "They need a group to go through and make sure minimum safety items are being addressed."

He said the coordinated group could include members from his department, county code enforcement, the county fire department, the health district, water district and electric company.

"Given the number of parks, it's not an overnight operation, and given other demands on manpower these will have to be spaced few weeks apart," Lynn said.