Golden Lantern resident: ‘We are not trailer trash’
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
Article published on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006
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| Photo by THOMAS MICHALSKI |
| The Golden Lantern Homeowners Association is fighting to save the park. From left are Jenny Cocciardi, president; Christie Short, Laurie Cherry and Sandra Short. |
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PINELLAS PARK – The Golden Lantern Homeowners Association promised to block mobile park owner Robert Keathley’s plan to sell the property for development into a multi-million-dollar commercial and residential complex.
The roughly 20-acre facility was established in the early ’70s. Many original trailers still stand.
The Pinellas County Planning Council at its Jan. 18 meeting was to make its recommendation to the county Board of Commissioners about a zoning change that would cause the razing of the mobile home park. Keathley could not be reached for comment.
Residents would get only six months to find a new home, and many cannot afford to move.
Of the 178 residents, 103 are homeowners.
Trailer owners would get from the Florida Mobile Home Relocation Fund only $1,375 for a single wide and $2,750 for a double wide.
Most trailers cannot be moved for reasons that range from structure instability to financial hardships a move would create.
It’s estimated that relocating a trailer from the site would cost between $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the distance.
Some older units contain asbestos and leaded paint and do not meet current codes.
“We will do everything legally possible to save the park,” Jenny Cocciardi, association president, said. “We will not allow this to happen.”
Cocciardi said the units would be destroyed where they stand. Those people with mortgages will not only lose their homes, but would have to continue payments as well.
All park residents are low on the economic totem pole. They are blue collar workers existing from paycheck to paycheck.
“We are not trailer trash,” said Christie Short, the association’s secretary who, with her sister, Sandra, share a unit with one child and six dogs. “Many of us are educated and simply chose the trailer park lifestyle.”
Occupations of residents range from medical professionals to minimum wage jobs.
“We are the people who work as cashiers, painters, waiters and mechanics,” Sandra Short said.
She said mobile park residents earned an unfair reputation from watching too many television shows like Jerry Springer.
“We are not as transient a group as many believe,” Short said. “Many residents have been here since the ’70s.”
Residents pay between $335 and $350 a month for lots. The price includes water, lawn maintenance, sewer fees and garbage pickup.
A comparible home or apartment would cost about $1,000 to $1,500 per month, and all the services would be extra.
Some trailers are in rough shape. Others, however, are well-kept. Pets seem to dominate the area.
One woman owns a pair of wolf hybrids. One is a wolf-Alaskan Malamute mix and the other is a wolf-Siberian Husky mix.
“Tonka and Laquoth are wonderful pets,” she said, though admitting that one animal tends to howl at night.
Cherry said many handicapped and senior citizens would have no place to go if forced out of the trailer park.
“They live in trailers because it’s affordable,” Cherry said.
“There is a camaraderie here and we watch out for one another,” Christie Short said. “There is a humane side to all this that everyone ignores.”
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Article published on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006
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