Park owner owes $32K water bill
30 tenants forced to use portable toilets

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Residents of the Desert Rose Mobile Park on the eastern side of town know what it is like to go without water.

The 30 tenants who live in the park had their water turned off on Wednesday and city officials on Friday said it won't be turned on again until the owner of the park pays the $32,000 she owes in past utility arrears.

City Clerk Patricia Holland said the city normally allows people with large arrears to set up a payment plan, which would allow the city to turn the water back on.

In this case, however, she said the owner of the park, Betta Duncan, has made and broken so many promises to the city about paying the arrears that the city had no choice but to require her to pay the bill in full.

Attempts to get hold of Duncan were unsuccessful as the message on the telephone number listed for her in the phone book said the line had been disconnected.

Lalora Charles, who is on the park's single water system, said Duncan has been in touch with the tenants and most are sympathetic to her problems.

Duncan told the tenants that her financial problems were caused by an accountant who she hired who reportedly absconded with much of her funds, leaving her unable to pay her bill to the city.

"When she was handling the books herself, we never had any problems with the city," she said, adding that she felt the current situation was not Duncan's fault.

Holland said many of the mobile home parks and apartment complexs operate out of a single meter and the owner pays the bill, assessing a monthly fee to all of the tenants.

The dispute, she said, goes back 14 to 16 months.

If that's the case, said Charles, why did the city wait so long to turn off the water. Most people who don't pay their water bill see their water turned off with two or three months.

Holland said the city has been trying to work out an agreement for the past several months and did turn off the water briefly in February because of nonpayment but turned in on again when Duncan agreed to bring in some money to pay off a portion of the bill.

But she failed to show up and the city has been forced to turn off the water again.

Charles said one possible solution to this is for the city to put meters at each of the trailers so that the tenants would pay their bill directly to the city.

But Holland said the city is not responsible for installing the meters. That's the owner's responsibility and to do this would cost Duncan about $18,000.

Port-A-Potties have been put up in the trailer park and residents have begun hauling water for bathing and food preparation.

"I don't mind hauling water until this is resolved," Charles said, but some residents are reportedly looking for trailer spaces in other parts of Gallup.

"I don't have any intention of moving," Charles said. "There's a fire station next to here and I feel safe."

Holland said tenants have been calling up city officials but there's really nothing the city can do about the situation now but require the full payment before the water service is turned back on.

"Both the tenants and us are caught in the middle," she said.