May 22, 2012
Weather

Fair

62°
Feels Like: 61 °
More Weather
Conditions at Wausau Downtown Airport, WI
Save Email Print Bookmark and Share
A A
Reporter: Liz Hayes Email

Trailer Park Residents May Lose Homes if Owner Doesn't Fix Problems

The owner of a Kronenwetter mobile home park has 60 days to address a long list of tenant complaints and health hazards or lose his license.

Six trailers in the Bouche Kronenwetter Park, located on Old Hwy 51 have already been condemned, but other trailers are on the brink of being uninhabitable too.

Kevin Laufenberg lives in trailer 17 with his girlfriend and two young sons. His trailer has many unsolved problems including black mold in the bathroom.

"It has big holes in the floor, it's really drafty, the storm windows need to be replaced, the heater needs to be fixed," he said.

His family has been shuffled between trailers, but every one has had similar hazards. Since nothing has been fixed, they haven't paid rent since September.

After mounting complaints from various tenants, the Village of Kronenwetter and Marathon County Health Department got involved.

Kronenwetter Zoning Administrator Randy Fifrick says what they found is heartbreaking.

"Our job is to protect the public health and safety of residents in the village part of that comes under when we come upon situations like this we have to respond," Fifrick said.

If Randy Bouche, who owns the park, doesn't comply with the village's list of conditions he'll lose his license and the tenants will be evicted.

But not all of the residents who live in the park are renters, some own their trailers and they say they don't have a problem with the landlord.

Jim and Elaine Brown own an updated mobile home that they've had in the park for 13 years. They just put on a new roof and planned to live there for the remainder of their lives. They rent a lot from Bouche.

"It sounds like we're out," Jim Brown said.

They don't want to leave, but it will cost them $3,500 to move their trailer elsewhere. They're hoping someone will help the tenants by taking over the park.

"We have to wait and see what's going to happen," Elaine Brown said. "It's up in the air and it's driving us crazy."

Fifrick says it's an unfortunate situation not only for those living in squalid conditions, but for the trailer owners who've kept up their property.

"There's a number of residents that maintain their homes in good condition but when we see these other violations out there and the ineptitude of the current owner and his unresponsiveness in making any improvements on basic maintenance our hands are pretty well tied," Fifrick said.

Nobody NewsChannel 7 spoke with thought Randy Bouche would get around to fixing the problems, and he couldn't be reached for comment.

Even the village hasn't had contact with the property owner.

The village will host a meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Kronenwetter Municipal Center. UW-Extension will provide information for park tenants.


Comments (0)

By posting this comment I have read and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy:
You must agree to the Terms of Service to continue.

Current Conditions

Weather

Fair

59°
Feels Like: 58 °
More Weather
Conditions at Antigo - Lang Automatic Weather Observing / Report, WI
Weather

Fair

62°
Feels Like: 61 °
More Weather
Conditions at Wausau Downtown Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 61 °
More Weather
Conditions at Clintonville Municipal Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

63°
Feels Like: 63 °
More Weather
Conditions at Baraboo Wisconsin Dells Airport, WI
Weather

Partly Cloudy

59°
Feels Like: 57 °
More Weather
Conditions at Eagle River Union Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 59 °
More Weather
Conditions at Marshfield Municipal Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 60 °
More Weather
Conditions at Medford, Taylor County Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 60 °
More Weather
Conditions at Medford, Taylor County Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

59°
Feels Like: 56 °
More Weather
Conditions at Minocqua / Woodruff, WI
Weather

Clear

61°
Feels Like: 60 °
More Weather
Conditions at Mosinee / Central Wisconsin, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 60 °
More Weather
Conditions at Phillips / Price County, WI
Weather

Fair

60°
Feels Like: 59 °
More Weather
Conditions at Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

63°
Conditions at Shawano Municipal Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

60°
Feels Like: 59 °
More Weather
Conditions at Stevens Point Municipal Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

61°
Feels Like: 60 °
More Weather
Conditions at Tomahawk Regional Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

63°
Feels Like: 62 °
More Weather
Conditions at Wisconsin Rapids, Alexander Field So. Wood County, WI
Weather

Partly Cloudy

63°
Feels Like: 61 °
More Weather
Conditions at Volk / Camp Douglas, WI
Weather

Fair

63°
Feels Like: 62 °
More Weather
Conditions at Waupaca Municipal Airport, WI
Weather

Fair

62°
Feels Like: 62 °
More Weather
Conditions at Wautoma Municipal Airport, WI

My Local TITAN - Click Radar for More Maps

NEW: Launch Interactive Weather Map

Stock indexes

  • .DJI
  • 12563.51
  • +59.03
  • 0.47%
  • .INX
  • 1327.48
  • +11.49
  • 0.87%
  • .IXIC
  • 2863.55
  • +16.34
  • 0.57%
  • NYA
  • 8151.97
  • +15.73
  • 0.19%
Enter Ticker Symbol to get quote:
Quotes updated every 15 minutes