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SPENCER, Iowa — The owner of a Spencer mobile home park and a resident of the park have gone to court seeking an injunction against the City of Spencer amid an ongoing dispute over conditions at the park and the disruption of electrical service. 

Bill Caskey, the owner of a mobile home park at 317 W. 18th St., Spencer, and Margaret George, a resident of the park, filed a petition for injunction against the city in Iowa District Court on July 14. The plaintiffs seek to have the city restore electrical service at the park, which was shut off last week, and to stop the city from demanding park residents vacate. 

A hearing in the case is set for 9:30 a.m. Aug. 2 at the Clay County Courthouse in Spencer. 

The dispute began on June 9, according to the petition and supplementary materials, when "lightning or some other source" took out electricity to two mobile homes in the park, which subsequently tripped the disconnect on a transformer and ultimately caused 12 mobile homes to lose power. 

Caskey called an electrician, who was able to restore power to 10 of the trailers and, after spending about eight hours working in the mobile home park, established temporary power connections to the other two mobile homes, according to the petition.

Not long after the temporary fix was put in place, City of Spencer staff, while "on a routine drive by" the mobile home park, noticed what were described as improper power hookups, with the power lines hanging too low, according to a letter sent by the city on June 21. (The city staffers' trip to the park was described by Caskey's petition as a "non-routine inspection".) 

A conversation with the electrician revealed that the lines being used were insufficient for the power load they were carrying, according to a city staff report on the situation.

The city asked Spencer Municipal Utilities to cut the power and informed Caskey of changes that needed to be made, according to the letter. 

City staff also observed "numerous additional hazardous issues" at the park, including leaking or broken sewer lines and places where previous sewage contamination was evident, and "substandard" structures. 

"Numerous units show signs of damage and dilapidation. Some have evidence of patchwork repair or alterations to fix issues. Modification to windows, doors, siding, and skirting is prevalent. In some cases windows are missing, doors are sealed, or inaccessible," Spencer city staff said in their report. 

The report included photos taken of various sights around the mobile home park, including a seriously damaged mobile home with a large group of appliances on the ground nearby, a spot on the ground where sewage had evidently contaminated the soil, a unit where one end was repaired with a tarp held up with concrete blocks, mobile homes where windows had been boarded up (a hazard in the case of an emergency), units with compromised or inadequate siding or insulation, various large items including an old tractor, vending machines, washing machines and other debris strewn about the park, and various other issues. These violated city code, according to the report. 

In the petition, Caskey, who has owned the 66-year-old mobile home park since 2013, said the city warned him that if the lapses in city code were not addressed in two weeks, residents would be told to vacate. He considered the timeline unrealistic, particularly in regards to the electrical and sewer work the city sought. 

"The extensive list that was provided to me included work that not only would be costly but would be impossible to complete within fourteen days due to the lack of availability of a licensed electrician and other contractors in the current economy of which demand has affected," the petition said. 

The city on July 5 pushed back the deadline, warning residents via letters that power at the mobile home park would be cut on July 12.

Meanwhile, on July 7, Caskey and his attorney, Jill Davis, met with Spencer Planning Director Alek Schulz, City Manager Dan Gifford and City Attorney Donald Hemphill.

Schulz, Gifford and Hemphill provided Caskey an "alternate" list of things that needed to be done around the park, according to the petition, emphasizing the electrical work and with an understanding that the other issues be attended to at a later date but "in an ongoing manner." 

The following day, the Spencer City Council held a special meeting regarding the situation at the park, with the wiring issues once again being the primary concern. Caskey was not made aware of the meeting, according to the petition, but he did attend with Lane Schindler, the electrician who'd done the repair work. An agreement was reached at the meeting that Schindler would size and map wiring at the park, and an inspection was planned for July 11. 

On July 11, the day that the inspection was to be done, city representatives asked that the circuit-breaker boxes of each mobile home be inspected, a task which Caskey had not understood to be part of the process, according to the petition. This process took Schindler several hours, according to the petition. When it was completed, the city representatives were displeased that the sizing and mapping of the wiring hadn't been completed. 

Schindler asked for more time to complete this job, and Schulz agreed to postpone the deadline to 10 a.m. July 12. 

"A few minutes after 10 a.m. I received phone calls from the tenants informing me that the electrical service had been shut off," Caskey said in the petition. 

An amended petition filed Monday claimed Schindler had completed the work sought by the city and that Schulz, who was supposed to meet Schindler in the park, did not show up. 

Fourteen mobile homes occupied by around 30 people -- some of whom have medical issues requiring access to electricity or air conditioning -- still did not have electricity, according to the amended petition, which made note of the July heat. 

"As of the date of this Petition, there has been no electrical service to the Park and residents remain in their mobile homes utilizing candles, flashlights and generators. Many of the residents of the park have no other means to find housing in the immediate future," the petition said. 

Courtroom gavel and law books

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Courtroom gavel and law books

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