DeKalb County closed on the Evergreen Village mobile home park on Friday. The next step is to move people out of more than 100 homes there. The park is prone to frequent flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave DeKalb County a multi-million dollar grant to buy the park and make it a permanent open space. Consultants have now met with more than half of the occupants to determine the value of the homes.
County Planning Director Paul Miller says the timeline to re-locate residents is moving more slowly than expected because the grant money must come from the state of Illinois.
"Every time the county incurs a cost associated with this project, we have to send in a request prior to spending those funds. The state has to cut those funds before we have the money, and that's what takes a long time."
Miller says each request can take 4-6 weeks to process.
More appraisal meetings with residents will be held this month. Closings on the mobile homes could take place in late July. Miller says the county is making every effort to re-locate families with young children before the start of the new school year.
"We continue to work diligently on this very complicated project to try to make it successful, to try to make it as easy as possible for these residents, understanding that it's disruptive and they're not really getting an option. The park is going to close."
Rent is not expected to change under county ownership.
