Mostly sunny. High 76F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.
The new owner of Creekside Estates mobile home park said preparing the site has been challenging.
The new owner of Creekside Estates mobile home park said preparing the site has been challenging.
KINGWOOD — Kingwood Council received an update Tuesday from the new owner of the Creekside Estates mobile home park on his progress in cleaning the site and bringing rental units to town.
Justin Stevens bought the former Rodeheaver’s Trailer Park earlier this year. Council awarded him a grant of up to $5,000, to be used at the city garbage transfer station. The intent was to help with the cleanup of the park.
Stevens thanked council for the grant, which he said has been helpful. About $3,000 has been used through the end of July, he said. About 27 loads have been dumped at the transfer station.
“It is taking a lot longer than I hoped,” Stevens said, “but slowly but surely we are making progress.”
He estimated it will be the end of the year before the park is ready to accept residents.
Once one of the old trailer sites is cleared, workers have been hand raking the site to the dirt to remove all the debris.
“There was a lot of needles and things of that nature in the trailers, so it’s been challenging, to say the least, but we are working on. I know it’s not moving along as fast as folks would hope, myself included, but we’re working diligently on it,” Stevens said.
They’ve also had problems with people dumping additional garbage at the park. And most people don’t realize that the back of the park, over the embankment, had been used as a garbage dump for years.
“So we’re getting a lot of that up out of that creek as well,” Stevens said. “There’s just a lot there.”
New water lines, new conduit for electrical service and repairs to sewer lines are underway. He’s talked with Prodigi about getting fiber to the units too. New culverts were installed to address drainage.
The power company will not allow him to reuse any of the electrical boxes in the park, Stevens said. There is a 16-week lead time to get the boxes, he said, which will further delay getting the three mobile homes he has on site now ready for leasing. The homes are duplexes, each containing two rental units. Each unit is one bedroom, one bath and will be fully furnished.
He asked for council’s understanding as he works on those homes.
“The state that they’re in right now is by no means the state that they’ll be in when we’re done,” Stevens explained. “We’ve still got to put skirting on them and decks and clean them and power wash them and get them ready. There’s a lot of work to be done on those trailers yet.”
The park is grandfathered in for 20 mobile homes. The plan is to have some units to rent and to rent some spaces to people who have their own mobile homes. Stevens said every day he’s asked when the park will be ready.
“It seems like there’s a pretty large demand for housing,” he said. Rentals seem to be few.
Recorder Bill Robertson thanked Stevens for the update and said council has worked for years on mobile home parks around town, and he was glad to hear about all that’s being done.
Councilwoman Karen Kurilko also thanked Stevens for all that he has done at the site.
“It’s been a much bigger challenge than I expected,” Stevens said.
• Agreed to have the park at Westpointe surveyed.
• Approved the bid of 3D Drilling for $34,867 to demolish the Johns Building at 144 S. Price St. Also bidding was Reclaim, whose bid was $49,888.
• Agreed to call a meeting of the Condemnation Committee to consider condemnation of 292 Pleasantdale Road and the former ceramics building on Morgantown Street, beside Brown’s Park.
• Discussed paying a bonus to city employees who choose not to sign up with the city’s health insurance plan. The city attorney has said this could be done and recommended giving the bonus as a once-a-year payment, the city clerk said.
Council first discussed the proposal as a means of increasing pay for employees without actually giving raises.
Kingwood pays about $1,080 per month for employees whose families are on the health insurance plan, while the employee pays about $56 per pay. It would be a cost savings if the employees opt out of insurance, council noted. No agreement was reached on whether to offer the bonus or how much it might be.
•Was told by Police Chief Doug Montague that the department received four laptops at no cost through the highway safety program to replace aging computers officers have in their cruisers.
Editor Kathy Plum may be reached at 304-290-4805 or at kplum@prestonnj.com.
Your comment has been submitted.
There was a problem reporting this.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription
News from around the State and World. What you need to know for today! Don't Miss it!
Find out what's happening around the state with this weekly email alert sent every Thursday evening!
Sign up to get our statewide obits delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign up to receive our daily newsletter about all things business and politics in West Virginia.
Morgantown News Delivered Each Day!
Morgantown News Delivered to Your Inbox Each Week!
Special offers from businesses around your area.
Get the latest headlines on local WVU, College and High School sports!
Get latest breaking news from around the state when it happens.
Daily News, Sports and Events from The ET.
Sign up for the only WV Government and Business newsletter delivered each week!
This week's most popular news from around the State. Don't Miss it!
Daily News, Sports and Events for Marion County.
Weekly Fairmont news emailed every Thursday evening!
Daily News, Sports and Events for Garrett County and surrounding areas.
Find out what's happening in Garrett County with this weekly email alert!
Get the Jackson Star & Herald Delivered to your email everyday!
Get the Jackson News Weekly delivered to your inbox!
Daily news from the Mineral News & Tribune delivered to your email!
Get the news for Mineral County, Keyser and Frankfort delivered to your email on Tuesdays and Fridays!
Daily News, Sports and Events for Preston County.
Weekly email alert sent every Tuesday and Friday afternoon for Preston County!
Get the River Cities Tribune & Register Delivered to your email everyday!
Get the River Cities Tribune and Register Delivered to your email less frequently!
Daily News, Sports and Events for Weston and Surrounding areas.
Sign up for local job offers sent to your inbox.
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Invalid password or account does not exist
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.
Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.