MEXICO – Owners of two trailer parks in Mexico will have to meet with town officials to clear up outstanding issues before selectmen will vote to OK their license renewals.

Following a lengthy public hearing Wednesday night, the board unanimously OK’d license renewals for the following:

• Steward Young, doing business as Young’s Trailer Park on Backkingdom Road;

• Eugene Waugh, doing business as Waugh’s Trailer Park;

• Brian and Laurie Frost, doing business as Oak Street Mobile Home Park; and

• Nu Realty Inc., doing business as Riverside Mobile Home Park on Route 2.

They tabled to their next meeting discussion on applications for:

• Patrick Jones, doing business as Jones Court Trailer Park at Orchard Street and Chase Avenue; and

• Brandy Pond Development LLC, doing business as Highland Mobile Home Park on Pine Street.

Regarding the Jones park, selectmen weren’t sure what Jones meant when he marked on the application that he has 19 units and 19 proposed units. Code Enforcement Officer Dave Errington said Jones had not gone before planners to get approval for 19 proposed units. He advised the board to get clarification from Jones.

Reached Friday afternoon by phone, Jones said he bought a corner lot that used to be part of the trailer park property and would like to add additional units. However, he said he wouldn’t without first going through Mexico’s planning board process.

Regarding the Highland park, however, selectmen got an earful from fire Chief Gary Wentzell, a few Mexico residents in the audience, and Errington about concerns with several of the park’s 41 trailers.

“There are a lot of problems out there right now,” Errington said.

Wentzell said Brandy Pond Development bought the park on March 30, 2007. Then, reading from a list of police responses to the park, he said that from Jan. 1 through June 1, 2007, there were eight complaints. But by year’s-end there were 83, which is 57 more than all of 2006. The complaints range from reported domestic violence to attempted rape.

“I’ve been there a few times and (tenants) are falling through floors and closets that are all rotted out,” Wentzell said. “They’re leasing trailers with the option to buy, but people can’t afford to buy them, and yet they’re subletting them out.”

Allyn Parker of Livermore, manager for the park, said by phone Friday That the problems involved a single mobile home and a single occupant, and those problems were corrected.

Regarding the police complaints most came from a single tenant who has since left the park, Parker said.

Wentzell said he contacted health officer Louise Arsenault, who examined some of the trailers and gave the owner a deadline to fix the problems.

Parker said he also contacted Arsenault to report the health problems with the home.

“They’re missing smoke detectors. … and there are a lot of code violations. The wiring system in the park won’t handle (the electrical load), so they’re forever blowing panels out. I don’t want to see this renewed with all these issues going on,” Wentzell said.

Parker said the missing smoke detectors were a result of cigarette smokers dismantling the devices because they frequently went off when occupants were smoking.

Regarding the high frequency of police complaints, Parker said the majority of complaints came from one tenant who was feuding with a neighbor. He resolved that problem.

“We’ve gotten rid of her,” he said of the person who was evicted.

Neither the owner nor manager of the Highland park was at Wednesday night’s meeting.

Without naming him, Wentzell said Parker contacted him by phone recently and said all of the problems would be corrected.

Even though it’s the occupants responsibility to maintain the trailers they are buying or have bought, “We’ve gone back a number of times and fixed problems,” Parker said Friday.

Town Manager John Madigan advised selectmen that they needed to beef up the town’s ordinances to properly and legally deal with problems involving trailer parks.

“I’ve got issues, too,” Madigan said. “Since they’ve taken over, they’ve been renting to a lot of people who have no jobs. … They’re overcharging for a trailer. In Oxford County, rent for a two-bedroom place is $430 a month, but they’re charging $550 a month and the people are expected to pay for their own oil, propane and electricity. … It’s quite an operation and traditionally, not what these trailer parks have done.”

“I’d like to see it put on hold until they clean it up,” Wentzell said of the license renewal.

Madigan said the town can’t arbitrarily deny issuing a license without rock-solid grounds. He advised the board to table the matter until selectmen could meet with owners of the parks in two weeks. Selectmen unanimously agreed.