Mobile home park residents battle eviction

LONE JACK, Mo. -- Residents of a mobile home park where sewer bills have gone unpaid won't have to leave yet, although this eastern Jackson County town still wants them out.

After the Summits Edge mobile home park fell $20,000 behind on its sewer bill, the city cut off sewer service to the 22 trailers there Monday. Officials ordered residents to leave by Wednesday morning to avoid sanitation problems.

Late Wednesday afternoon, however, residents and City Hall came to a tentative solution. A few tenants agreed to approach their neighbors with a proposal to install individual meters at each trailer and everyone would make water and sewer payments.

The plan did not address the $20,000 debt.

The city's order to vacate still stands, but no one would be ticketed or arrested immediately, City Attorney Paul Campo said.

"We're going to see where this proposed collective agreement leads," Campo said. "We're going to be reasonable."

Carol Filipek, an owner of the trailer park, has complained that the bills were too high and the city has been difficult to deal with.

Ed Theesfeld, who bought his trailer and moved into the park in April, said he didn't know whom to blame.

"Right now it's hard to say," Theesfeld said. "If they're sending a bill and she's not paying it, it's her."

Mayor Steve Reinking said the city had been pressuring Filipek for months to pay the sewer bill. The town is facing rising sewer rates for all residents if it doesn't collect on the debt owed by the park.

"I promise you, we're not heartless," Reinking said. "But we have other citizens here, too. We have to protect everybody."