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Road department helps remove debris from mobile home park |
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Tuesday, 02 September 2008 |
Government aids Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park
Saline County Road Department crews were busy Friday cleaning up the damage left by the April 3 tornado when it hit Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park.
The mobile home park is in Benton, but because the city doesn’t have the manpower to complete such a task, Mayor Rick Holland said he requested help from County Judge Lanny Fite.
Government entities can’t simply go onto private property after a devastating event such as the tornado and clean up.
“It’s a long, drawn-out process anytime you have a city working on private property,” Holland said Friday, surveying the clean-up sites. When the mess is in your backyard, five months can seem like a long time, the mayor noted.
Holland said crews were authorized to clean up seven sites where debris remained from destroyed mobile homes.
The mobile home park was the hardest hit area when three tornadoes blew through Saline County the evening of April 3. Holland said he knew shortly after surveying the damage that the area would need help from the city, noting that people may not have had insurance or the means to clean up the property themselves.
“This was a health and safety issue for the city of Benton,” Holland said. “We went through the process we have outlined with our city code violations, and the residents were notified. We took the resolution to the City Council and they approved it.”
Brent Houston, city attorney, said in a July 18 letter to Fite that the city had complied with law and was allowed to proceed with removing the remaining debris at the mobile home park.
The city has a contract with the county, and Holland expects the work to cost approximately $15,000. The city will then be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the mayor said.
“I want to thank the judge and all these guys out here for providing not only equipment and knowledge, but also the manpower,” Holland said.
Mark Westbrook, county road superintendent, said he expected his men to fill six trucks with around 40 loads of trash and debris. All items were taken to the county landfill in Bauxite.
In another storm-damage matter, Holland said appraisals have been received on properties of Misty Circle in Benton. The area suffered extensive flood damage during the April storms.
Officials have said the houses on the street should never have been developed because the area is in a flood plane. Current flood plane standards were established in 1982. The neighborhood was developed in the mid-1970s.
Holland said the city is coordinating with the Central Arkansas Development and Planning District on the matter to obtain a grant to begin the process of dealing with that property. He noted some of the residents already have vacated the flood-prone properties.
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