City approves $600k to stop trailers falling into Donald Canal

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Hoping to keep at least eight mobile homes in the Poinciana Trailer Park from falling into a drainage ditch, Key West officials have agreed to spend almost $600,000 to fill in the area.

Eight mobile homes and one shed in the trailer park are hanging over the edge of the Donald Canal, which provides drainage between the trailer park and Solana Village, a condominium complex on the other side of the canal. Erosion to the sides of the canal has widened the ditch to the point where it has backed up to several of the mobile homes.

At least one freezer that was being stored next to the canal has already fallen in, said John Paul Castro, Key West Utilities Director.

“They’ve got some appliances and fence lines that are starting to fall in. A couple of the trailers have moved their support columns a few feet because they had started to fall into the water,” Castro said.

Despite moving those support columns, which usually are cinder blocks that serve as a foundation for the mobile homes, eight trailers are hanging over the edge of the canal, which was dug in 1966 to drain storm water out of the area. Because the canal is on a city-owned easement, taxpayers are on the hook for the repair, which will involve filling in the canal. While normally the city would ask the affected trailer owners to move their units, many are in too poor condition to be relocated, Castro said.

City commissioners voted unanimously to pay contractor Charley Toppino & Sons, Inc., $446,789 to do the installation. Another $134,620 will be paid to Contech Engineered Solutions, LLC, to purchase 400 linear feet of 72-inch diameter pipe that will provide drainage for the area. Dirt will then be put over top of the pipes, eliminating the canal entirely.

“Approval of this resolution is necessary to repair embankment erosion that is causing Poinciana Trailer Park mobile homes to collapse into the canal. This hazardous situation is endangering the safety of mobile home occupants and threating to erode backyard properties along Solana Village,” Castro wrote in an executive summary memo.

The project will take approximately six weeks to complete and depending on when the pipe is delivered, could be finished in the middle of October.

“This will prevent further erosion, which is the whole purpose of doing this,” City Manager Jim Scholl told commissioners at their Aug. 1 meeting.

Neighbors in the area have been notified of the project.

“It’s a very big concern, obviously,” said Commissioner Sam Kaufman.

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