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Mike Markberry has a tall pole with an American flag
flapping above his residence at the Applegrove Mobile Home Park. He has a
deck built over his storage shed and a big barbecue smoker conveniently
situated just outside his door. Three years ago, his friends and relatives
added a wooden wheelchair ramp so Markberry could get around after having
both legs amputated. In a few weeks, however, Markberry will leave the
trailer that has been his home for 12 years. He has no idea where
he’ll go, only that he must “quit and deliver up possession of
the premises” to his new landlord. Like the rest of the homeowners in
Applegrove, Markberry received written notice on Dec. 28 that the park had
been sold and that the new owner, Brian Jay Shirley, wants all trailers
gone by Feb. 1. “It’s not that easy to get up,” says
Markberry, a military veteran and retired cook. “I’m in a
wheelchair, I’ve got no legs
. . . it kinda bites a
little.”
Other tenants are also upset. Most of the nine
trailers remaining at Applegrove (several were destroyed by one of the
March 2006 tornadoes) are occupied by low-income owners. Their homes are
mobile in name only — every unit in Applegrove is at least a decade
old, and some, like Markberry’s, date back to the 1960s. Moving these
older modules could cause them to crumble. Furthermore, most mobile-home
parks accept only newer trailers. “You’re looking at 10 or 11 families
that are soon to be without homes,” says Amanda Adair, a 27-year-old
Mel-O-Creme worker who lives at Applegrove with her boyfriend and their
13-month-old baby. “You’ve got everything from disabled to
elderly to people living on Social Security. It’s quite a mess over
here right now. Everybody is angry and upset; nobody knows where
they’re going to go or what they’re going to do.”
The previous landlord, Tim Farley, says he sold the
property on Dec. 15 believing that the new owner, Shirley, intended to
replace the old trailers with newer models. But Applegrove residents say
that the woman who delivered the 30-day notice told them the new park owner
doesn’t plan to continue operating the property as a trailer park.
Shirley did not return messages left with several associates Tuesday
afternoon. Illinois law specifies that tenants must receive at
least 12 months’ notice before being forced to vacate a mobile-home
park when a landlord decides to cease operations. Farley, who works for the city of Springfield as
executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, has owned the
park since 1986 and says he no longer had the time or money to maintain the
property.
“I didn’t sell for any particular reason
other than it was time for me to get out because I couldn’t do all
those people right out there,” Farley says. “I sold it for less
than I paid for it 20 years ago.”
He says he had trouble collecting rent and utility
payments and had to remove three damaged trailers and a small house after
the tornado. “That’s kind of what killed me,” he says.
Applegrove resident Colt Farley’s trailer was
destroyed by the tornado, but Farley (no relation to his former landlord)
received more than $6,000 in FEMA funds and added some of his own money to
put a new roof, new floors, and new drywall in his home. Now, the
22-year-old drywall contractor says, the trailer may be worthless because
it can’t be moved.
“I wish somebody had told me this before I
spent all that money,” he says. Tim Farley says that Colt Farley was behind on his
rent but acknowledges that other tenants — such as Markberry, Adair,
and the park’s longest-term resident, handyman Greg Kile — paid
their $140-per-month lot payment plus about $60 in utilities “like
clockwork.”
“I do feel bad about Mike [Markberry].
He’s a great guy, and there’s a few other ones I feel terrible
about,” Farley says. “But I can’t carry people forever. .
. . It was just time for me to move on.”
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2007.
