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Miller leads Green Acres makeover
Published Thursday, July 3, 2008
Photo by Trisha Marczak
Bob and Cathy Miller remove a window of an abandoned trailer at Green Acres trailer park in Fergus Falls. The two are among a group of residents working to clean up the neighborhood.
It all begin on the night of May 1 when an abandoned trailer in the Green Acres Trailer Park was set on fire. It was at that point that residents of the Green Acres community knew something had to be done.
“We want to get this trailer park looking nice again,” said Cathy Miller, who has lived in Green Acres for the past 12 years.
When Miller sat down with her husband, Bob, and some neighbors, they had their eyes set on eight abandoned trailers that they planned to demolish.
“One way or another, we’re going to get them down,” Cathy said.
So far, the group has removed five trailers. And they do it all in a very organized, specfic manner.
First, it’s the windows, Cathy said. Then they go to work inside, pulling apart cupboards and loading what’s left into a trailer parked outside next to structure. The walls follow. Cathy, her husband and close friend, Trevor Wahl, remove the paneled walls and bag insulation.
Once they’ve stripped the trailer of all its support, they round up three more of their neighbors and on the count of three...they push it over.
“Every time it goes down, I go, ‘Timber!’,” Cathy said. “We just have fun doing it.”
After a few high fives and a few good laughs, the crew puts any miscellaneous debris in the hauling trailer with the rest. That’s where neighbors Arlen and Clarice Grewe come in. The Grewes hook the trailer to the back of their truck and head off to the landfill.
Any leftover appliances or furniture are taken to the scrapyard.
Luckily, Cathy said, the landlord foots the bill for all items hauled out of Green Acres.
With only three more trailers to go, the demolition crew is starting to brainstorm ideas on how to best use the leftover vacant lots.
The most popular idea among the crew is the construction of a fenced in play area for local kids.
“We want to get them out of the street,” Cathy said.
The crew is expecting to have all eight trailers down by the end of August. They’ll probably take a break after that, but Cathy said they are considering helping out other trailer parks with similar issues with abandoned trailers.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by Brandon (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 2:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's good to see people getting together to make the place look nice :)
Posted by Sumwun (anonymous) on July 6, 2008 at 8:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
God knows Green Acres needs an overhaul. It'd be nice for the decent folks out there to have a better looking neighborhood. Maybe next they can work on getting the drug users out of there to complete the project. I feel bad for the people there that work hard to keep their property looking nice.
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