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Business & Tech

Coach Mobile Home Park Changes Ownership

Residents wary of making improvements after a series of problems.

Residents of the Coach Mobile Home Court in northern Arnold had complained of storm sewer backups, lack of street lights, rundown properties and an assortment of needed repairs, but Arnold City Councilman Cricky Lang said it was unpaid taxes and loan payments that prompted Jefferson County authorities to auction the 140-unit property on the steps of the county courthouse in Hillsboro on May 2.

Lang, whose Ward 1 precinct includes the mobile home park, said Truman Bank submitted the lone bid of $2.9 million to purchase the property.

“There have been problems there for quite some time,” Lang said. “Residents complained to the city, but we could only address health issues because it’s a private park.”

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Lang said former owner Joe Leibold owed back taxes and failed to make loan payments on the property. 

Leibold could not be reached for comment. 

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Wendy Cassidy, 43, who has lived in the park since 2006, said lack of maintenance and scrapped plans to remove the mobile homes and turn the property into an apartment complex left residents wary.

Her neighbor, Tom Hawkins, 56, who has lived in the park since 2003, said the maintenance problems and rumored redevelopment made him hesitant to make upgrades to his property, or even plant a garden.

“They’ve been letting all of the properties go,” he said. 

Lang said Birkshire Management is currently running the park and is making repairs and removing dilapidated mobile homes from the property.

Some of the repairs completed or under way include cutting back brush on the property, repairing storm sewers and street lights and adding decorative lighting in the front of the park.

“There aren’t going to be the problems there that there were before,” Lang said. “They’re getting it up to par and good for the community. It’s a feasible place for people to live, and I think it’s going to be a lot nicer for everyone that is there and for the newcomers.”

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