The City Council Monday took the first step toward the city’s acquisition of Kewanee’s mobile home parks from a suburban Chicago bank.
The council approved an ordinance that accepts an offer from First Secure Community Bank to sell the city the mortgage on the mobile home parks for $150,000.
The mortgage reportedly is for more than $900,000. But city officials say the bank owes the city around half a million dollars for unpaid water bills for the mobile home park residents — even though some of the residents have been paying their water bills to the bank.
City Manager Gary Bradley said there is money in the city’s economic development fund to make the purchase.
Given that the bank’s appraisal put the value of the three mobile home parks at nearly a million dollars, Mayor Gary Moore said, “It would appear from their appraisal that we’re getting a bargain.”
After the meeting, Moore said the city’s long-range goal is to develop affordable housing at the former Reecy’s West, Reecy’e East and Southwind mobile home parks.
With an influx of new jobs expected at the cannabis grow facility being developed in the Kentville Road Industrial Park, the mayor said, the need for such housing should grow over the next few years.
City Attorney Zak Lessard told the council that passing the ordinance Monday doesn’t guarantee that the city will be able to buy the mortgage.
Lessard said it could take up to nine months to complete the foreclosure process for the mobile home parks, but he hopes to be able to accelerate matters so that the transaction can be completed sooner.
