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Port Richey Tears Down Condemned Trailer Park

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST

Workers tear down condemned trailers at the old Moonlight Bay Mobile Home Park in Port Richey on Thursday.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: October 10, 2008

Updated:

PORT RICHEY - People who live near the former Moonlight Bay Mobile Home Park say they put up with a lot of unpleasantness for a long time.

The collection of dilapidated, legally uninhabitable trailers at the corner of Grand Boulevard and River Gulf Road had long been a hive for transients, drug dealing and prostitution, not to mention becoming more and more of a potential health hazard and an unquestionable eyesore.

Most recently, the trailer park had been the site of fires that bore all the earmarks of arson.

So when they woke Thursday to loud clanging and shattering glass, the reaction was "What now?"

When they came out to see what was happening, their fear turned to joy. They saw workmen removing hazardous building materials from the homes.

All morning long people who live and work in the area stopped to watch. Most had big grins on their faces as the workmen stripped the mobile homes.

They were smiling again when the heavy machinery moved in to smash the empty shells and haul away the debris.

Most of the happy spectators didn't want to give their names, but they were all happy to make the same pronouncement: "Thank goodness. It's about time."

Jana McLaughlin couldn't stop to watch, but she was as happy as anyone to see the demolition. She has had to pass the park twice a day to get to the bus stop.

"Sometimes there are bums walking in and out," she said.

A few had spoken to her, and they had even been friendly, McLaughlin said. But she knew the sorts of things that were happening in those rundown trailers, and it made her uncomfortable every time she went by.

City officials have also been frustrated that a potentially prime location has been allowed to be a blemish on the community for as long as anyone can remember. When the demolition men moved in Thursday, it was the culmination of efforts that have been going on most of this year to fix the situation once and for all.

"Up until about a year, year and a half ago, there were still people living in these trailers," Port Richey Building Official Ed Winch said. "Trailers were falling apart, floors coming out of them.

One by one, the city declared the mobile homes unfit for human habitation. The first condemnation notices went out in April.

City officials also checked with county records and found that the owner of the property, an entity called Port Richey Mobile Home Park Inc., had allowed the property to fall into foreclosure.

The city had made offers to buy the property over the years. Community Redevelopment Authority guidelines allow for the purchase of waterfront property for the purpose of redevelopment. On that basis, the property could be purchased with CRA funds.

But the owner's asking price was always too high. With a foreclosure sale looming, however, the city might be able to get a price it could afford.

The foreclosure sale was scheduled for the same day Tropical Storm Fay blew through, which caused another delay. The sale was rescheduled for Wednesday. City Attorney Michael Brannigan was at the meeting, ready to buy the property on behalf of the city.

The asking price, however was a still a little too high for the city to handle.

With no other bidders, mortgage holder Bayview Loan Services LLC retained ownership for the mortgage price of $597,000.

Had the property been sold in foreclosure, the city would have been stuck with the bill for demolition work. With that issue out of the way, the door was opened for the city to go through with demolition.

And city officials wasted no time, quickly lining up the contractors to start work the next day.

"We weren't going to wait," Reade said, "There's a severe health issue out there."

Doug Sanford, operation manager for Lutz-based Cross Construction Services, said Thursday this isn't a particularly big job, but it would still take a few days to clear the lot.

"You have to remove any asbestos," Sanford explained. This wouldn't be a problem with newer mobile homes, but older models - even those with linoleum floor tiles - can contain cancer-causing asbestos that can be released into the air when the material is broken up.

Much of the concrete and metal from the site will be recycled and the rest of the nontoxic debris will wind up in a landfill, Sanford said.

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