Riverhead town officials have failed to adequately address numerous criminal and town code violation complaints at a Calverton mobile home park, according to residents who came to last night’s town board meeting to complain and demand action.
Town Supervisor Sean Walter says police and code enforcement officers have “descended” on the park over the past two years to enforce the penal law and town code, but two board members complained they hadn’t heard anything about the issues at the park until contacted by residents last month.
A hydroponic pot grower, drug sales, shots fired, a stabbing, illegal rentals and squatters dumping human waste out of windows are some of the grievances residents of the Lakewood mobile home park on River Road say have degraded the quality of life in a once-peaceful senior housing community, Lakewood residents say.
The Lakewood community has deteriorated since it was sold by longtime owner Myron MacLeod to Utah-based Kingsley Management Corp. in December 2011, according to residents.
The new corporate owners don’t enforce lease provisions requiring mobile homes to be occupied by people 55 and over, nor do they obtain Riverhead Town rental permits for homes that are not owner-occupied, former Lakewood resident Doug Rosenbrock told Riverhead Town Board members at last night’s meeting. One home, directly across from his former lot, is the scene of apparent drug activity known to Riverhead Police, Rosenbrock said during the meeting. It is rented although there is no town rental permit for the home and occupied by 10 to 15 people, Rosenbrock said.
One night in April, Rosenbrock said, he was awakened by the sound of gunshots ringing through the air after 1 a.m. Police were called but no arrests were made.
Lakewood park manager Michelle Schaefer said this morning the park is doing everything it can to enforce its rules and ensure that any home rentals comply with both park rules and town code.
“The residents weren’t following the rules,” Schaefer said. “That’s where the issue of the drug dealer came into play.” Residents are supposed to seek the park’s permission to rent and are responsible for obtaining the required town rental permits. The park is supposed to screen and approve prospective tenants.
“Unfortunately, some people bypass the rules and that’s why I have legal proceedings,” Schaefer said. She said Lakewood is currently in court with the owner and occupants of unit 15, allegedly occupied by numerous people, described by Rosenbrock during last night’s meeting.
Rosenbrock, who had lived in the park for four years, said things got so bad at Lakewood that he recently paid $25,000 to have his mobile home moved to another community, he said. Residents have filed some 30 complaints with town officials.
Resident George Bakke, owner of a home on the same street in the 108-unit, 12-acre park, said he personally filed 18 of those complaints.
The trouble for Bakke began when the elderly woman who lived in the home next to his own went to live in a nursing home, sometime in late 2011 or early 2012. Her daughter and son-in-law moved in a few months later, Bakke said in an interview. They were both younger than age 55. There was no water and no electric. They began dumping human waste out of a rear side window, facing Bakke’s own home just a few feet away.
“They drained urine onto the ground with a garden hose. They threw bags of human feces on the ground. It was disgusting,” Bakke said.
He filed repeated complaints with the Riverhead Town code enforcement office, he said. He also complained “continually” to park management and to the corporate offices in Utah.
“They were junkies,” Bakke said of his new neighbors. After they were finally evicted, near the end of July 2013, Bakke and others saw hypodermic needles strewn about the interior of the home and found needles outside as well.
When Bakke picked up a plastic trash bag left alongside the house — he was trying to clean up the area between the two homes — he was stuck with a needle that had been thrown in the bag. He had to pull it from his hand. He saved it the needle and sought testing and treatment. He is now tested for HIV every three months, he said.
The home next door sat empty, with back windows missing.
“I repeatedly called code enforcement,” he said. “I went to Town Hall and filled out papers by the stack. Nobody ever showed up.”
Bakke said he first met the Riverhead supervisor when Walter knocked on his door in November 2011, campaigning for re-election. At that time, the elderly woman still lived next door. The unit across from Rosenbrock’s had not yet been rented. MacLeod’s had not yet sold to Kingsley.
Two years later, Bakke said, Walter, again on the stump, returned to the River Road park to greet voters. It was three days before election day 2013, Bakke said.
“He asked, ‘How am I doing?’ and I said turn around and look,” Bakke said.
The trailer next door was by then vacant, with missing windows not boarded, the aluminum skirt that was once wrapped around the bottom ripped off and sold for scrap. A dead racoon inside the home stunk to high heaven, Bakke said.
The supervisor went into the house that day and saw the conditions with his own eyes, Bakke said. He told Bakke he would get code enforcement down there “right after the election,” Bakke said. He thought that was odd, Bakke said. “I thought, ‘Why not right away?'” But he waited. About two weeks later, with no action forthcoming, he called the supervisor’s office, he said.
“The next day code enforcement showed up,” Bakke said. The officer met with resistance from management to his request to have the windows boarded up, Bakke said. He posted a notice on the front door of the home stating that the home was unsafe and no one should enter, he said. The park management then boarded the windows. They removed the town notice from the front door.
A son of the elderly woman who owned the trailer signed a bill of sale to a new owner, who has been working to clean and repair the home. Carl, who would only give his first name to a reporter, was at the site yesterday afternoon and 
was among those who attended the town board meeting. The house was a wreck, he said. Filth, human excrement, needles everywhere.
There are no rental permits in effect for any of the homes in the park, though several are rented, according to Rosenbrock, Bakke and others.
The home across from Rosenbrock’s former site, occupied by numerous people, has frequent and numerous visitors who come and stay for short durations — a telltale sign of drug sales, residents believe.
Rosenbrock and Bakke say Riverhead Police have been very responsive and are actively investigating.
Bakke, feeling frustrated by the situation in Lakewood and the town’s perceived lack of action, began blogging about it in May. See blog, “Lakewood residents speak out“
He and Rosenbrock met with Walter, deputy town attorney Bill Duffy and deputy supervisor Jill Lewis on June 11. A meeting was supposed to be scheduled with park management, Rosenbrock said. The residents say they never heard anything further. Subsequent emails to the supervisor, and one sent to the entire town board, got no response, prompting residents to attend last night’s meeting.
Walter: unfair criticism’ on ‘ridiculously stupid’ blog
The town supervisor, prior to Rosenbrock taking the podium to address the board, addressed the residents.
“I want to say something because there’s a lot of unfair criticism on some ridiculously stupid blogs and there’s a gentleman sitting in the audience that I believe is writing them,” Walter said, referring to Bakke, who sat in the front row. “So I want you to know what’s going on.”
After meeting Bakke on the campaign trail in November 2011, Walter said, “We descended in there with the police force. We descended in there with code enforcement. We boarded up a house. We almost forced them to remove the house. We met with the property owners.”
“There are some things we’re going to be able to do and some things we can’t,” Walter said. “We have no control over rent. We have no control over the rules and regulations of Lakewood. Something in the Lakewood lease is not enforceable by the town. That’s enforceable by you and Lakewood,” Walter said.
“We have told them that rental permits are needed, if these are rentals. We have told them we will enforce the law in any way that we can. We’ve gone in and written tickets. We’ve put everybody on notice. There’s a lot of unnecessary criticism on the blogs.”
Rosenbrock said the deterioration of the community is part of the Utah company’s “business model” which is based on charging high monthly lot rents that senior citizens on fixed incomes can’t afford. He called it “economic eviction” and said it is a scenario that has played out at Kinglsey parks around the country.
Kingsley owns and operated 43 parks in 10 states, including three in New York: Lakewood, Riverhaven on Hubbard Avenue and Riverwoods, on Riverleigh Avenue in Riverside.
“They are creating a ghetto for you,” Rosenbrock warned.
That’s not true, Schaefer, the Lakewood park manager, said today. “We are fully cooperating with the police and the town and we are thankful to the Lakewood residents for making us aware of situations so we can correct them,” Schaefer said.
A back-and-forth between Rosenbrock and Walter last night sparked a heated interchange between the supervisor and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who said she was “disturbed” that the situation was brought to the attention of the town so long ago and the town board members didn’t hear anything about it from the supervisor — “and nothing has been done.”
Giglio said she and the other council members heard nothing about Lakewood until Rosenbrock emailed the board a few weeks ago.
“Don’t say nothing’s been done,” Walter responded.
“The police department and code enforcement have spent a tremendous amount of time in there… The town building department and police department do a termendous amount of work that the board doesn’t necessarily get briefed on,” Walter said.
“We did not find out about this until we got an email from your community two weeks ago,” Giglio told Rosenbrock.
Walter turned to face Giglio, seated at his left on the dais. “Honestly, Councilwoman Giglio, if you spent more time in town hall you would know more,” he retorted, banging his hand on the table as he spoke.
“You know what, Sean,” Giglio shot back, “I am here every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 o’clock until 4:30 in the afternoon. And we’ve had several executive sessions about possible litigation and you have never brought this to our attention – ever.”
“I do believe this has come up in executive session,” Walter said.
Councilman John Dunleavy chimed in: “This is the first I’m hearing about it.”
“These people’s lives are suffering from drug dealers and people abusing our code with the rental application permit process, and you know what? We’re doing nothing about beefing up code enforcement and going over these illegal crowded housing,” Giglio said to a round of applause.
“Just because you say something over and over again doesn’t make it true,” Walter said.
The supervisor told residents they have a responsibility to report criminal activity and code violations to the town. “We will enforce the code but we can’t do it without your help,” he said. “If you see something, say something.”
He suggested they start a neighborhood watch organization. The groups are “critical to this town, this state and this country,” Walter said. That suggestion brought heckling from the audience.
After the board moved on to the next topic, Lakewood residents filed out of the meeting room. Many gathered in the hallway expressed disbelief at the conduct of the proceedings.
“I can’t get over how stupid and rude those people were,” said one woman, referring to board members. She declined to give her name to a reporter.
Residents have taken their complaints to the N.Y. state division of housing and community renewal, which is charged with enforcing the state law provision dealing with the rights of manufactured home park tenants. They usually own their homes but rent the land from a park owner, like Kingsley.
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