For the second time in as many weeks, much of the Anderson City Council's regular meeting time was spent discussing the badly deteriorating and unsightly conditions at River Cove Mobile Home Park.

At least a dozen of the park's adjoining property owners attended the Tuesday, Sept. 2, meeting along with their attorney Susan S. Hinz of Redding.

Property owner Michele Elam of Anderson also attended the meeting, although she was without legal representation.

Prior to the meeting's regular 7 p.m. start, council members met in closed session for 30 minutes to discuss pending legal action, ostensibly to be filed by the mobile home park's aggrieved neighbors.

At the unanimous direction of the council at its Aug. 19 meeting, city staff members from nearly every department as well as the independent Anderson Fire Protection District, conducted site visits and found numerous health and safety code conditions that could be deemed a hazard.

In one such instance, Fire Chief Joe Piccinini said his code inspectors found television wiring and a series of household-grade extension cords to be providing power to an outdoor porch light.

"This scares me," council member Keith Webster said even before Piccinini completed his report. "Somebody could die down there. I don't think any of us would like to see that happen.

Piccinini went on to describe several other safety hazards, including an RV whose front wheels were removed and the entire front end was resting on temporary jacks supported by aging boards that were clearly deteriorating.

When asked whether she cared to comment on any of the findings, Elam declined stating she wanted "to be the last one to speak."

Hinz, however, did not pass up her chance to speak.

"This is a park that needs immediate attention. Mrs. Elam, I am not directing these statements against you personally," the attorney said, turning to look squarely at the property owner sitting just a few feet from the podium.

"Yeah, this mobile home park is ugly. And my clients know that ugly is not a crime," Hinz continued. "What is a crime, however, is that you have substandard structures in the park, and these structures were deemed substandard by the Anderson City Council more than two years ago."

"You have an outstanding abatement order. You also have a signed, written contract with the property owner who agreed back in 2006 to fix things up," Hinz continued.

"Now, my clients did not come to see me because they want to elect me prom queen. They came to see me because they want action," she stated flatly.

"This has to be done, and it has to be done now!" Hinz said emphatically. "My clients, I think, are up to here with this matter," she said as she touched the top of her forehead.

During the next 40 minutes, council members and city staffers discussed whether the city should declare incompetent the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which legally has jurisdiction over mobile home parks.

If such action was taken, Anderson would assume responsibility for all site permits and construction within the city's three mobile home parks.

Hinz said the city of Red Bluff took that course of action several years ago and now has some of the region's most attractive mobile home parks. She even offered her services in brokering a deal with the state agency and Anderson.

In an exclusive interview following the council meeting, Mrs. Elam said she has made arrangements to spend nearly $125,000 on cleaning up the mobile home park's electrical, trash and sewage issues.

Ultimately, however, she intends to turn the nearly five acres of prime riverfront property adjacent to the still-under-construction North Street/Airport Road bridge into a planned development of 70-76 townhouses or condominiums.

Plans for such a development are being drawn up, she said, by John Sharrah, a retired partner in the planning firm of Sharrah, Dunlap and Sawyer.