DESERT SUN (Palm Springs, California)

April 22, 2008

Duroville overseers recommend park stays open

US attorney's office wants Thermal park shuttered in the next 120 days

By Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun

A court-appointed study group assigned to oversee Duroville recommended the dilapidated mobile home park in Thermal remain open under federal supervision.

The study group’s recommendation has been sealed pending next week’s hearing when U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson is expected to make a ruling.

“Rather than simply further delay the inevitable closure, the United States believes the best approach is to issue an order of closure now, providing the current tenants certainty and sufficient time to arrange to vacate the premises during the summer, when tenancy of Duroville is at its low point,” the brief states.

The U.S. attorneys favor shuttering the park within 120 days.

“There should be an orderly plan for the closure of the park, one that’s reasonable and adequate, and 120 days isn’t adequate,” said Denys Arcuri, spokesman for Riverside County Supervisor Roy Wilson, who represents the east valley.

“Our position is that in an attempt to make life better for these people we shouldn’t make it worse.”

Duro’s attorney, Scott Zundel, and Chairman Raymond Torres did not return a phone call to their cell phones seeking comment.

The Bureau of Indians Affairs wants the park located on the Torres-Martinez reservation shuttered because of ongoing health and safety risks that include open, raw sewage.

Nicknamed “Duroville” after its owner Harvey Duro – the park has grabbed headlines for numerous fires including a blaze that evacuated 120 people.

The park emerged in 1999 after a county crackdown on more than 200 illegal trailer parks following the electrocution death of a 14-year-old Mecca boy. Fearing eviction, many fled onto Indian land, where county building and safety codes have not applied.

Depending on the season, an estimated 2,000 to 6,000 predominantly migrant farmworkers and their children live in squalor in dilapidated mobile homes 14 miles southeast of Indian Wells.

County officials estimate an immediate shutdown would create mass homelessness and an economic disaster that could cost taxpayers $40 million or more.