“Something is rotten at Wagon Wheel Mobile Home Park. So say Island County Health Department officials and residents when they talk about poor septic-system management by Wagon Wheel Mobile Home Park owner Al Verbarendse. Wagon Wheel resident Glenda Spears, who along with her four foster children, lives in a modest double-wide mobile home, described the 10-acre park as Hitlerville.Certainly, the Wagon Wheel is no Shangri-La. It has an unkempt appearance, with poorly tended yards and many of its mobile homes in various states of disrepair. There is a sense, with the bulldozer that last week drove up and down its single-loop road carting cement rubble, that everything is in a process of being patched up.There appears as well to be an atmosphere of fear pervading many of the park’s residents. Unlike Spears, few residents are willing to speak out publicly about either the conditions at the park or about Verbarendse’s behavior.He’s not very nice, Spears said of her landlord.When asked whether he believes his tenants are satisfied with his management of the property – in particular, with his maintenance of existing septic systems – Verbarendse himself said: Absolutely.He labeled as fraudulent any accusations that he has cut corners or violated existing county health codes.The Island County Department of Health begs to differ. Health officers at Wednesday’s county commissioners meeting expressed concerns about the unorthodox and potentially hazardous means by which Verbarendse has routinely dealt with human waste on his 75-lot mobile home park. Concerns range from the improper installation and maintenance of septic systems to the storage of waste in 5-gallon plastic pickle buckets. The Health Department urged county commissioners to seek strong legal recourse against Verbarendse. We are asking the board to authorize the prosecuting attorney’s office to initiate a legal action against Mr. Verbarendse on behalf of the health officer, Environmental Health Director Tim Higman said in a later interview. County Health Officer Roger Case supported Higman’s concerns. He called the situation at the Wagon Wheel a health hazard for the people who live there. The main thing we’re seeking is that (Verbarendse) come into compliance with the current regulation with how he handles the sewage situation in his park, said Case. He added: We’re dealing with someone whose very callous in how he approaches the subject, and his concern for the people who live there. Higman, in explaining the potential legal action, said the alternative to us pushing hard in a lawsuit is not working. The alternative to which Higman refers is a long list of bureaucratic wrangling that has resulted in the present stalemate, with the Health Department exasperated over Verbarendse’s noncompliance with multiple health codes, and Verbarendse in turn operating the Wagon Wheel without a valid permit. In fact, Verbarendse’s permit to operate his mobile home park expired on Dec. 31, 1998. Verbarendse said he has sent in his permit fee every year since then, only to have his check refunded without a license being issued by the health department. In one instance, he claimed the county took my money and never did refund it. It’s a really bad situation for them, said Verbarendse, who opened the park in 1965. Someone in the (Health Department) office has got it in for me, and they’re going to have themselves backed up in the corner pretty quick. The problem, however, stretches further back than 1998, and it doesn’t sound like the county is the only entity backed into a corner. Health Department files from as far back as December 1968 and extending to the present give evidence of repeated complaints, violations and enforcement letters enacted against Verbarendse for multiple septic system-related violations. The chronological file, prepared by Health Department official Kathleen Parvin, carefully itemizes such infractions as improperly pumped septage, the spontaneous surfacing of septage in trailer lots and the detection of fecal coliform contamination in nearby ponding water. At one point, during the months leading up to the lapse of Verbarendse’s permit in 1998, county officials went so far as to pursue legal action against the owner to force compliance with existing codes for mobile home facilities. While Verbarendse indeed did rectify a number of the health department’s complaints over time, and the suit was never brought to completion. We got down to the point where a couple of things needed to be done, said Higman, and the dialogue just stopped. A letter dated as recently as Aug. 31 notified Verbarendse that he is in continued violation of five separate Island County codes regulating the operation of mobile home parks, and warned him, once again, that due to your unwillingness to comply … we have no choice but to request the Board of Health seek remedy through the court. While Verbarendse claimed in an interview never to have received such a letter, he was quick to respond to the county’s threat of legal action. I hate to do it, he said, but I’m going to bring in the finest Seattle attorney that I can find, and it’s going to be quite a battle. There is no validity to what they’re trying to do, he said. I have jumped through all the hoops that they have wanted me to jump through. I am totally not at fault. Spears, who is a 10-year resident of Wagon Wheel park, would appear to disagree with Verbarendse’s self-proclaimed innocence. She said she tells any prospective tenants of the park that this is not a place to have to raise children.Of primary concern for Spears is the health hazards posed by poor maintenance standards.I’m really sick to death of the water, said Spears, adding that she had to install a double filtration device just to make it potable. Still, with the water’s sulphur smell, she said she prefers not to drink (it). Spears also articulates the worries of many of the park’s habitants when she describes herself as stuck. Because Wagon Wheel residents own the mobile homes they live in – merely renting the space they occupy from Verbarendse – few can pay the price of moving out, with its expenses of excavation, hauling and relocation. Most of us are low-income, said Spears. I wouldn’t know how to go about getting out from under this if I had to. Spears said at one point not too long ago there was an effort by a handful of residents to organize and seek official redress of their grievance against Verbarendse, but that the coalition quickly fell apart. Nobody would stick together, said Spears. They’re all afraid of getting kicked out. She added that most people in low-income situations don’t know they have any rights, an observation that would seem to bear out in the lack of folks willing to go public against Verbarendse. A number of county officials, including District 2 Commissioner Mac McDowell, are sympathetic with the plight of Wagon Wheel residents, and the apparent Catch-22 of seeking severe punitive action against Verbarendse. The question of the day is: If legal action shuts down the Wagon Wheel, where will the park’s approximately 175 residents go? McDowell said the financial impact of a Wagon Wheel closure could be devastating to a family or a person residing there. A lot of people don’t have the funds to move elsewhere, said McDowell. They’d be displaced if the place was closed down. While McDowell said he fully understands the need to do something about the park’s unsanitary conditions, he suggested that it would be a mistake to bring about the unintended consequences of punishing Wagon Wheel residents with sudden homelessness. I think it’s more important that we take action against the owner in some way rather than closing it down, said McDowell. What needs to be done is to get the place cleaned up, and not put people out on the street. Case said the Health Department, for its part, has no interest whatsoever in closing down Verbarendse’s operation. That’s a very valuable asset to the community, Case said of the Wagon Wheel. He asserted that the park fulfills a housing need that in many ways is unmet in the region. All the county is asking, said Case, is that Verbarendse hire an installer and install the septic and drainfields in compliance with the county standards. Case added: I hope it happens soon. Judging from Verbarendse’s comments Thursday, a quick resolution to the dispute doesn’t appear likely. Verbarendse referred to the entire, long-drawn-out situation as a personality problem in which he has been unfairly targeted by government officials, and he said he’s prepared to go to battle over his private property rights. I guess the only way it can be resolved is that I bring a counter lawsuit against them, said Verbarendse, and that’s going to get expensive. In the meantime, it would seem that the familiar adage about stuff running downhill pertains to many of the Wagon Wheel’s residents. It’s been nasty from day one, Spears said of her 10 years in the park.But we’re still alive. “