Landlord's Failure To Clear Open Electric Code Violations Leads To Power Shutoff; Failure To Bring Premises Into Compliance May Lead To Closure Of Wisconsin Mobile Home Park, Forcing Lot-Leasing Homeowners To Abandon Their Residences

In Superior, Wisconsin, the Superior Telegram reports:

• Some homeowners in the Downtown Mobile Home Park on North 12th Street face uncertainty after the city served notice June 30 the electricity to their homes would be shut off later this month; others are making plans to move on.
  
  The city secured a warrant to turn off the power to the mobile homes at 8 a.m. July 25 after years of battling the park owner to correct electric code violations.
  
  While some repairs have been made by the owner, Brian Androski, city officials say he failed to act on violations with the electrical infrastructure going to residents’ homes.
  
  “It’s life safety issues out there … electrical issues mainly,” said Jason Serck, economic development, port and planning director. “It’s bare wires. It’s leaning pedestals. It’s electrocution type of stuff.”
  
  However, Androski said the leaning pedestals are just a normal function of standing in clay soil.
  
  “We live in clay country,” Androski said. “Once somebody has a leak or it gets kind of damp, the pedestal, they will eventually start to lean. We take and straighten them back up in the spring and pound them down real tight again and it’s back to normal.”
  
  Caught in the middle
  
  “I’m just so frazzled, I don’t know what to do,” said Kathy Mains, a six-year Downtown Mobile Home Park resident who cares for a disabled veteran, Henry Niemann. “It’s home, but it’s not no more … Where are you going to go that’s going to be handicap accessible for him?
  
  He has two dogs. I’m just packing and hoping for the best.”
  
  Mains said they may move in with her son until they can figure it out, but she’s worried what will happen to the home Niemann owns, built in 1978 and older than some mobile home parks will accept.
  
  Residents were notified June 30 that the power would be cut to their homes July 25, at which time they could no longer live there.
  
  “Just give us more time,” said David Sickler, 62, who lives in a 1968 mobile home owned by his sister. “It’s just a mess … It’s a scary proposition to have someone say you have to leave your house.”
  
  He said he knows he can’t stay. He needs electricity because a lung condition requires him to be on oxygen, and he needs air conditioning to cope with hot weather.
  
  “The worst thing is this has been going on for six years, and this is the first we hear about it, 26 days before you decide to close the park up,” Sickler said. “And there are people worse off than me.”
  
  ***
  The city noted code violations going back to 2010. It wasn’t until 2013 and 2014 when the city started in earnest to address the problems at the mobile home park. In June 2014, the city issued orders to correct electrical issues, according to city officials.

For more, see Homeowners forced out.

For follow-up story, see Lights to stay on at Downtown Mobile Home Park:

• Residents of the Downtown Mobile Home Park received official word Friday that the lights will remain on Monday.
  
  The city is hand-delivering and mailing notices to residents to let them know a warrant issued to cut the electrical power Monday won’t be executed after all.
  
  “Downtown Mobile Home Park owner Brian Androski has entered into a contract with Benson Electric to make repairs to the electrical system necessary to bring the park into compliance with electrical code as ordered by the city of Superior Building Inspection Division,” the notice signed by Building Inspector Peter Kruit states.
  
  The Downtown Mobile Home Park was slated to have the power cut at 8 a.m. Monday after the city secured a warrant, making more than 20 homes their uninhabitable under the law.
  
  Kruit said he signed off Friday on the permit for the work to proceed.