Trash Piling Up at Mobile Home Park That Will Close - FOX 42: Omaha News, Sports and Weather; kptm.com |

Franque Thompson

COUNCIL BLUFFS (KPTM)- Two months to find a new place to live is all the residents of Wooded Lake Mobile Park have left.  Now trash collectors say they haven't been paid in over a month.  So the garbage is beginning to pile high.  Now the Council Bluffs Health Department is taking action—saying they're dealing with trash that hasn't been picked up and talking to the park's owners about paying the late bill.  But the trash company isn't the only contractor saying park owners aren't paying up.

"I feel like the rest of the people do that's getting thrown out," said Rod Carlson of Carlson Landscape.

He takes care of the lawn, trees and storm damage at Wooded Lake.  The small payments he says he barely gets to cut some of the debt owed to his company just isn't enough.

"It hurts the business, I got to pay bills and I don't get paid either.  I basically lost a second job," said Carlson.

The property manager at Wooded Lake asked to be unknown but said the property is just too old to maintain.  There's a bigger issue than just trash and landscaping.  He said sewage pipes have been used well beyond their limits.  That's one issue the septic company has had to deal with.

"It's not something where we've cut off the work.  Because even if it is two more months, these people still need to have their water, and their sewer, and their utilities working and a place to live," said Chad Hancock of Council Bluffs Septic and Pumping.

Hancock says outstanding invoices owed to his company date back to July 2011.

"And then to still come down like yesterday and do work that we know we're not going to get paid for, for possibly a few years or who knows," said Hancock.

But neither residents nor the contractors blame the property manager. They blame the owner.

"Because nobody answers the phone, we don't know anything.  We're left in the dark," said Carlson.

Fox 42 has tried multiple times to contact the property owner, with no response.  The owner's lawyer sent a statement saying age and condition is being considered in the closing.  Residents say they're meeting this weekend to create a plan to stay.  They're also debating hiring a lawyer.