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They're happy with their lot

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published August 6, 2006

SEMINOLE - Tom Waters is a rarity among mobile home owners; he's happy with the treatment he has received from the developer who wants to raze the park he lives in.

"I'm not bitter," Waters said Thursday. "I'm thankful at the way people have treated us."

Waters and his wife, Cookie, who are both disabled, moved to Bayview Mobile Home Park five years ago after they were thrown out of a park in Pinellas Park to make room for a Home Depot.

Home Depot, he said, gave the park owner plenty of money, but they never saw any of it.

That's in sharp contrast to the way he has been treated since developer John Loder bought Bayview and the adjoining Bay Pines Mobile Home Park. Loder's people, especially Stacey Hansen who's overseeing Bayview, have "gone overboard" to help him, Waters said.

Loder's people paid the Waterses $1,500 for their trailer and gave them another, better trailer that can be moved to an RV park. Waters paid $350 two years ago for the trailer he lives in now. He had lived in another Bayview trailer for the three years before that. He paid $3,000 for that one.

Waters thinks one reason he has been treated so well is his attitude. When dealing with Loder's people, he remains professional and understands the buyout is "just business" and that Loder's employees "have a job to do," he said. Other people, he said, have acted "like buttheads."

And that makes no sense, Waters said, because Bayview mobile home owners have known for a year that the park was going to go under.

"If you know the engine in your car is about to blow up, you're going to do one of two things: You're going to get another car or get another engine. That's what's happened," Waters said.

He added that Loder's team is not only paying people, they're helping them find a new place to live.

That was certainly the theme of a home-finders' fair held Thursday morning at Bay Pines Mobile Home Park.

Loder hired Resident Relocation Services to put on the fair and help displaced residents find a new place to live. For two hours, representatives of the county and other agencies handed out fliers and advice to those who asked about low-income housing, rental subsidies, low- or no-interest loans, and other programs that could help them find housing.

Vendors joined them, including representatives of other mobile home communities, mobile home movers and mobile home sellers. There also were lists of area apartments for people to pick up.

It's unclear how successful the fair, the second held at Bay Pines, was.

Linda Dunham, who represented Resident Relocation, said that 100 homeowners already have moved out of Bay Pines. But it's unclear, she said, how many of those were helped by the information provided by her company.

Many Bay Pines homeowners have been reluctant to accept any hand of peace from Loder, saying the offers have been minimal and mandated by law. The offerings, they have said, do not compensate for the losses.

Many have placed signs on their trailers that have variations of the "not for sale" message. The homeowners association filed a lawsuit trying to stop the park's redevelopment, but a judge dismissed it in late July on a technicality. The judge gave the association 10 days after his order is signed to file an amended lawsuit.

The fair itself did not seem to attract a large crowd, although people wandered through most of the morning. And at least one couple left unhappy.

Lesley Parks said she expected to be told about possible solutions.

Just going up to tables and picking up information was not very helpful, Parks said, adding that she did not know what questions to ask the available representatives.

Parks and her husband are New Jersey residents who have used their Bay Pines home to vacation here.

They recently installed a new roof, heater and tie downs on the trailer they purchased in 1974, she said. Those upgrades cost $5,000.

"We spent a lot of money and a few months later we get a letter (saying) you're out," Parks said. "I think it's just greed."

The Parkses visit Pinellas County because they want to get away from the "concrete walls of the city" in New Jersey, where there are no open spaces and the quality of life is poor because of that.

Now, she said, Pinellas seems headed down the same road. Soon, she said, there will be no green space left, just wall-to-wall houses.

[Last modified August 5, 2006, 19:36:31]