originally posted on July 5, 2016

Most of the residents of Crestview Motor Home Park in west Ames will be allowed to stay in their homes after the Story County Board of Health decided Tuesday that the owner of the park, Brant Lemer, has taken the necessary steps to avoid its closure.

Most of the residents of Crestview Motor Home Park in west Ames will be allowed to stay in their homes after the Story County Board of Health decided Tuesday that the owner of the park, Brant Lemer, has taken the necessary steps to avoid its closure.

Crestview has been under a boil advisory for drinking water since December when a water main broke. At a meeting in May, the county Board of Health gave Crestview residents 60 days to move because Lemer had failed to meet standards set by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources concerning the quality of water on the property. At the time, Lemer said he planned on lowering the amount of water hookups on the property to 14, which would take the park out from under the jurisdiction of the DNR and place it under the authority of the county and allow the park to remain open.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Lemer said he was close to reaching that number and needed to have last four tenants that kept him above the 14 hookups to be forcefully removed or evicted. Because Lemer had taken those steps, along with others that were set by the board, the park will be allowed to remain operational.

“The close order is still in effect, and we just have not basically said, you guys are out of here. We are kind of holding that, basically that’s still in our back pocket,” said board chairman John Paschen.

According to Paschen, the board allowed the park to remain open because they have been working with Lemer to increase the quality of the water for the remaining residents.

The board gave Lemer until Aug. 8 to be at or below 14 water hookups. He also has until Dec. 1 to “loop” the water system in order to create a cleaner system with constant chlorine levels that meet state requirements. Testing for safe levels and overall water quality will begin immediately and the boil advisory will not be lifted until three consecutive samples are taken that meet the desired quality standards. Those tests will be taken once per week at two different places in the park, which will be chosen by the county. If Lemer does not meet those requirements, the board still has the right to close the park.

To create a loop in the water system, some of the residents will be required to move from one area of the park to another, which could create another problem that could possibly lead to the park being closed as well. To move a trailer, the county needs to issue a tax clearance certificate that states all taxes on the home are current. Many of the current and former occupants of Crestview owe back taxes on their homes, which would need to be paid before they would be allowed to move to the area of the park that will remain on the water system. The board did not state clearly when those trailers needed to be moved or when the taxes had to be paid, but since the deadline for the water system to be looped is Dec. 1, it seems likely that all trailers would need to be a part of that system at that time as well.

As part of the board’s decision, Paschen also ordered Lemer to attend the Board of Health meetings to provide updates on his progress as the process moves forward.

“I want to make sure you know that we’re going to keep an eye on you until we’re sure that the water is safe, so we expect cooperation,” Paschen said to Lemer to end the meeting.

Lemer declined an opportunity to comment on the board’s decision following Tuesday’s meeting.