The demolition of a flood damaged mobile home park in Bellevue is facing possible delays. City officials had hoped to start tearing down Paradise Lakes by midsummer, but recent heavy rains could change that plan.
"The rainwater has brought it back up to the front door," Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike tells 6 News. Hike says FEMA will be able to reimburse the city the more than one-million-dollar cost for demolishing the mobile homes.
"That’s what we’re counting on, so the city shouldn’t be out the money in the long run.” The city plans to put a lien on the property for the cost of the work. “We don’t want the contaminated properties down there just festering. It looks bad for the city — it’s not good for people’s health,” Hike says.
He says they will start pumping the water as quickly and safely as they can into the swollen Missouri River to see if they can move it out of the area.
“Mother Nature rules here,’ City Administrator Jim Ristow tells 6 News. “I wish we had a way to control Mother Nature, but I guess it’s pray we don’t get anymore rain.”
Ristow says this is a battle they expect to wage for quite a while. "We're hearing that Gavins Point is going to continue to release record amounts of water, so we’re probably going to be stuck with this all summer,”
(Photo: 6 News)