[Vision2020] This disaster has been set for Latah County in April 2018

[Moscow Cares]

How ‘bout it, Moscow . . .

“Life's persistent and most urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Courtesy of today’s (October 19, 2017) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Our View: This disaster has been set for Latah County in April 2018

By Lee Rozen, for the editorial board
Some disasters develop suddenly. Forest fires spread after a lightning strike. A hurricane arrives right on the heels of the previous one. Gunshots ring out. Cars crash.

Some take longer.

Such is the case with the Syringa Mobile Home Park. It has been creeping up on this community for years, if not decades. And the climax is still months away in April 2018, when the park will be closed.

Yet, for the 150 residents in 43 households on Robinson Park Road a little east of Moscow - most of whom might not be living there if they could afford better - it's still a disaster, the likelihood of being homeless.

Given the expense of repairing the deteriorating sewage lagoons, continuing Syringa as a private, for-profit mobile home park is not economically feasible, according to a status report filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by Syringa's absentee owner Magar E. Magar, whose neglect of the park is well documented.

County officials met Monday to see what could be done.

Even if a buyer is found for the property, it's unlikely it could remain a mobile home park without extensive, expensive repairs to its water and sewage systems. Its mobile units are too old to move. And there's nowhere to move them to.

In the meantime, there are not many empty rental units in Moscow, says Steve Bonnar of Sojourners' Alliance, which works with the homeless locally.

Some will be available in January with the end of fall semester at the University of Idaho. But on paper, at least, some residents of Syringa, because of credit or legal issues in their past, would still raise the eyebrows of potential landlords

How will the community respond? This will be a test of county government. Syringa residents are already calling the county asking where they should go for help.

County Treasurer Lois Reed told the commissioners, "It's going to be a difficult thing for the whole county. I don't see where a lot of us are going to be unscathed in this."

All those institutions here who see themselves as looking out for those less fortunate in life - churches, civic groups and various nonprofits - need to consider whether and how they can help.

With this much notice, we should be able to avoid disaster. The county must lead.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” - Unknown

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