Paradise wants to clean up the town

The community of Paradise doesn’t have a bona fide town government or its own law enforcement, but a group of residents decided something needed to be done to clean up their home and to do so invited an assortment of county officials – commissioners, county attorney, law enforcement, county sanitarian, and the fire district chief – to help them achieve that goal.

The residents created a group called the Paradise Action Committee last year and made a pact in an effort to help clean up some of the trashy places around the community, especially a mobile home directly across the street from the United Methodist Church clubhouse, a building commonly used for community meetings. Residents wrote letters to county officials, but had no luck. The group drafted a mission statement last year and even put together a petition to “Clean up Paradise” signed by 48 community members, just over a third of the overall Paradise population, asking for the county to take some type of action. Because nothing was done, they sent invitations to county officials to come to Paradise, see the problem for themselves and listen to their grievances.

“We don’t have a city cop or a city council, so we depend on the county to do something,” said Don Stamm, a committee member who helped to create the Paradise Action Committee last September.

The committee began its campaign by writing the county attorney’s office, then Bob Zimmerman, in April 2018. Zimmerman responded with a letter to the homeowner, Gregory Coley, who lives in a mobile home, but was renting space next to his home to a family that had a fifth wheel trailer and a pickup camper. Zimmerman’s letter stated that he was “illegally operating either a trailer court or a campground on your property,” in violation Department of Environmental Quality statutes. He was ordered to remove all mobile homes, except his own, along with any trailers from the property.

Committee member Brett Barber said at the meeting that the same letter the committee sent to the County Attorney's Office also went to the Sheriff’s Office, the county commissioners, the sanitarian, and Child Protective Services. Barber, who lives a short distance from the Coley residence, said the problem is not only an eyesore, but it impacts property values.

Stamm was certain that Zimmerman’s correspondence to Coley would rectify the situation, but nothing was done, which led to the meeting. Sheriff Tom Rummel, who attended last week’s meeting, said he had not seen the Zimmerman letter and was not aware of the situation. Shawn Sorenson, the county sanitarian, who was present at the meeting, said he had been at the site. Sorenson said he talked with the parcel owner with regard to claims of refuse, wastewater, and multiple living units, which he said are environmental and public health issues and spoke with various people at the site. Sorenson said it’s an open investigation and could not discuss it more.

Paradise Action Committee members at the meeting included Jim and Judy Hawley and Rick Jones. Randy Robinson of Paradise was also present. County officials at the meeting included Naomi Leisz, who took over as County Attorney in January, Commissioners Tony Cox, Carol Brooker and Glen Magera, as well as Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District Chief James Russell, and Deputies Eric Elliott and Lanny Hensley.

The group talked about a couple of problem residences, including that they believe there is an illegal drug problem in the community, but the hour-long discussion mostly centered around the Coley renters. “The property in question is quite simply a mess, with broken down vehicles crammed full of junk, and garbage strewn all over the property,” Brett Barber told the group. According to the committee, the renters, which they sometimes referred to as “squatters,” are a father, mother, and two children. Janice Barber told the group the two young children do not attend school and Child Protective Services has been there more than once. They told county representatives that they believed the property not only looks bad, but is a health hazard to the community.

Stamm thinks the bulk of the problem lies not with Coley, who he believes is being taken advantage of, but the renters, who have accumulated piles of trash around their vehicles and the mobile home, including sofas, chairs and a stack of old mattresses, which Janice Barber, Brett’s wife, said are infested with bugs. “Bed bugs don’t stay in beds,” said Barber. “They get into your carpet, they get into your furniture. And those people are going into communities and stores and bed bugs will jump from them to you, and then you take them with you,” she told the group.

Jim Hawley said portions of the town are a big mess. “We just want to take our town back,” he said. Stamm asked about a county cleanup ordinance similar to what Thompson Falls and Plains created, but Brooker said it’s been brought up previously with “great resistance.”

Committee members said the renters are also blocking part of the alley, which means snowplows can’t get through, nor could emergency medical services vehicles. Russell said that if a fire truck can’t get down an alleyway to attack a fire, which could mean the difference of saving or losing a home.

Rummel said he plans to get with Sorenson and Leisz to see what can legally be done in the Coley situation. Elliott plans to meet with the Paradise Action Committee on a regular basis to help set up a crime watch in the community, a program that Hensley said is working well on the county’s west end. Elliott said that information from residents about suspicious vehicles, including license plate numbers, should be recorded and passed onto to law enforcement officer.

“We are encouraged because everyone seemed to agree that steps can be taken to resolve our immediate problem, the junk and illegal trailer on Coley’s property,” said Stamm.

“However, we are relying on the county attorney to follow through on Zimmerman’s letter. When she does that, the sheriff’s department can enforce the law,” he added. “We intend to put pressure on her to get this done.”