Blue Island mobile home park residents uncertain over future of water service

BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (WLS) -- The future of the water service at a suburban mobile home park remains uncertain after residents found out it would be shut off due to the landlord not paying the city in full.

Forest View mobile home park resident Patricia Guzman said even though Thanksgiving is a few days away, it's hard to get into the holiday spirit.

"We're just on pins and needles," Guzman said. "We haven't slept right since this started two weeks ago."

That was when Guzman and other residents Blue Island mobile home park woke up to find red notices on their doors informing them their water would be shut off on November 20 and that it will no longer be safe to live in their houses.

"Didn't knock on anybody's door, didn't give us a forewarning," Guzman said. "Just, boom, 'your water's gonna be disconnected,' and our due date was actually today."

Residents scrambled to find out what prompted this and discovered that Forest View ignored water bill invoices for the past couple of years and owed the city $850,000.

"Here we are paying our monthly due, on time and in full, and we get a surprise of this disconnection of the water," Guzman said. "I'm like, 'wait, what happened there?'"

Residents protested, and on Friday, a temporary restraining order was issued to keep the water on for the next few weeks.

Carl Gigante is the attorney for Forest View. He said the mobile home park had been struggling the past few years because less than half off it is occupied.

"We have worked out a deal right now with the city where we're going to pay $425,000 of that bill this coming Friday," Gigante said.

A deal is in the works for another company to buy Forest View, Gigante said.

"They're prepared to invest over a million dollars into this park and upgrade it," Gigante said. "So we're anxious to close the deal."

The next court date on the matter is Dec.12. Residents hope to better understand what will happen next.