Photos by Deb Gau Members of the Broadmoor Valley Resident Association say conditions at Marshall’s only mobile home park have gotten worse over the past two years. Resident Deb Ertl said there are a number of abandoned trailers with unlocked doors, broken windows and other hazards.

MARSHALL — Residents of the city’s only mobile home park are once again speaking out against conditions like bad roads and dilapidated empty units.

Broadmoor Valley residents and community advocates were on the corner of Main Street and College Drive on Thursday, carrying signs and photos of potholes and a vacant mobile home that caught fire in June.

Residents are also asking the city of Marshall to enforce ordinances to fix the roads in the park, and do something about uninhabitable mobile homes.

“There’s other issues that are also a big concern when it comes to safety,” said Jesus “Chuy” Hernandez, of the Broadmoor Valley Resident Association. “Things haven’t changed. They’ve gotten worse.”

At Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting, Marshall City Attorney Dennis Simpson said there may be legal actions the city can take to enforce road or safety issues at the park located at Saratoga Street and Highway 23. The plan is for the council to meet in closed session July 27 to discuss options.

Broadmoor Valley residents have been organizing for better conditions at the mobile home park over the past few years. The Broadmoor Valley Resident Association was formed in 2018. The group has addressed the city council and held events like a community cleanup and a Walk For Dignity, highlighting conditions in the park. In 2019, the association met with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who also toured Broadmoor Valley.

“Basically how this whole movement started was, we were really concerned about our streets in the park being so bad, and not being able to have the school bus service go into the park,” Hernandez said. “I’ve lived there for the last 21 years, and I’ve seen that park deteriorate through these years without anyone doing anything to fix it.”

It was difficult for the Resident Association to meet in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said resident Deb Ertl. However, residents are speaking out again. In addition to bringing their case to the city council, they held a protest at the same time as Thursday’s ribbon cutting for Marshall City Hall.

Resident Association members and other Marshall residents told city council members about the conditions at Broadmoor Valley. Tom Hey of Southwest Coaches said he had tried working with Marshall Public Schools and the mobile home park about safely transporting children to school.

“We were at one time going in there to pick up students, and the condition of the roads had deteriorated to the point where it was unsafe,” Hey said. “If you’ve ever been out in there, the potholes are horrible and they’re getting worse. They fill them in for a little bit and then they come right back in.”

However, Hey said the response from Broadmoor Valley was that buses were no longer allowed on the property.

Some families living in the park have started sending their children to Lynd Public School, because Lynd will pick students up at their homes in a school van, Hernandez said.

Ertl said residents had safety concerns as well. She said there were 14 uninhabitable vacant mobile homes at Broadmoor Valley, as well as six in “questionable” condition.

“They often remain unlocked, with broken windows, skirting, doors and decks,” Ertl said. The abandoned mobile homes are a risk for attracting animals, as well as for fire.

On June 4, the Marshall Fire Department put out a fire at an empty mobile home on Spruce Lane. Marshall Fire Chief Quentin Brunsvold said the fire was investigated by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

“They did determine that to be an electrical fire,” Brunsvold said. “Everything came back to basically non-code compliant outlets on the outside of the property that most likely shorted out.”

Brunsvold said the fire department was also called to an illegal burn site at Broadmoor Valley last week.

“We found this burn pit that was full of mattresses” and other material, Brunsvold said. He said he’s directed park residents to call 911 if they see illegal burning in the future, and the property owner would receive a bill.

Marshall City Engineer Jason Anderson said Broadmoor Valley is permitted through the Minnesota Department of Health, and Southwest Health and Human Services works with inspecting the park and handling livability complaints. Meanwhile, the city works more with code complaints, he said.

Anderson said the city has had correspondence with Broadmoor Valley’s owner Paul Schierholz, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. However, Anderson said they have not gotten a lot of response or action.

“You usually get short-term action. A hole gets filled in, and then a hole reappears,” Anderson said.

Ertl said Marshall has city ordinances saying private streets must be maintained in a passable condition, and graded the same as public streets. Broadmoor Valley residents were calling on the city to enforce those ordinances, she said.

“All we ever hear is, ‘That’s private land,'” Ertl said. “We’ve been asking for help from the city since 2018, and the problem has been going on far longer.”

“Please, it’s time to help us out. We pay city taxes, too,” she said.

“I’m frustrated. I really am,” said council member Craig Schafer. “I wonder, what other pressures, what other avenues can we take, and where is the break point on it? . . . I’d really like to see the city support these other options.”

“The issue is, how can we enforce the ordinance without having other consequences,” Mayor Bob Byrnes said. Council members were concerned about the possibility of having residents lose their housing if the city stepped up enforcement.

Simpson said it’s possible for the city to issue an order to Schierholz to remove or repair substandard structures on his property. It’s the same course of action that eventually led to the demolition of the former Marshall hotel building, Simpson said. But it could mean going to court.

City staff and council members said they plan to hold a closed-session meeting on July 27 to discuss possible legal action on the matter.

“There’s public works issues, in terms of the street and the infrastructure, there’s public safety issues in terms of fire . . . there’s legal issues in terms of the level of enforcement the city can do,” Byrnes said. “Ultimately, we want to see all those things come together to really address this.”