City crews were scheduled to shut off water service Tuesday to two of Kewanee’s three trailer parks.

City Clerk Kasey Mitchell confirmed Monday that water to the trailer parks on Lake Street and Cole Street would be shut off Tuesday.

The City Council for months has been seeking to collect several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of unpaid bills for water service to the park residents. 

In the meantime, the council wanted current water bills from the parks to be paid, as efforts to collect at least some of the past-due bills continue.

The council has been reluctant to shut off water at the parks because some of the parks’ residents have been paying their bills. 

Council members earlier this year were heartened by the news that a new receiver has been appointed to run the trailer parks. A bank in Sugar Grove, Ill., holds a mortgage on the parks and directs the receiver on how to distribute funds.

Mitchell said bank officials apparently haven’t been releasing money to the receiver to pay the water bills.

The city was merely asking the receiver to pay the current water bills, not the large backlog of unpaid bills.

“We were just asking them to stay current,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said Project NOW officials have agreed to work with people still living in the two trailer parks to find other places to live.

There were no plans to shut off water at the former Reecy’s trailer park on West Sixth Street, she said.