Can the Veterans Memorial Center be used by residents of the Cedar Lane trailer court during potentially lifethreatening weather?
Yes. And no. The Tracy City Council on Monday discussed options that Cedar Lane residents have with bad weather approaching. For more than a decade, the VMC has been opened for use as a storm shelter for the mobile home park community. The Tracy Police Department has opened the facility in the event that shelter is needed and this partnership will continue.
According to State law, manufactured home parks homes with 10 or more homes, licensed prior to March 1, 1988, must provide an approved shelter or evacuation plan for residents of the park in times of high winds or tornadoes.
Southwest Health and Human Services, which licenses and inspects the mobile home park, recently sent a letter to the City of Tracy, requesting a storm shelter or City-approved evacuation plan approved by the municipality.
The municipality may require the park owner to construct a shelter meeting the standards of MN Administrative Rule 1370 on the manufactured home park property if it determines that a safe place of shelter is not available within a reasonable distance from the park.
As of this week, SWHHS had not received such. The City’s deadline to submit a shelter or evacuation plan to SWHHS was May 14, otherwise, administrative action could be taken.
The park owner also has not submitted a severe weather plan for the City to review and approve, according to SWHHS.
“There hasn’t been a plan set in place, a letter of intent or a letter of ask since December 13th of 2017, Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter told the council. “I need to know whether or not you’re going to approve the plan that was set in 2017. In the end, it comes down to whether you’re going to allow this to happen at the VMC.”
The agreement allows anyone in the park would be able to use the VMC in case of bad weather. However, the VMC isn’t open 24 hours a day. Doors are open from 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
“If something happens at 2 o’clock in the morning — anybody is welcome to come to the VMC — but in my opinion, we can’t guarantee that this building is going to be open” Carpenter said. “A couple years ago, we offered current owner the chance at a state grant for a considerable amount of money for a storm shelter, and it was turned down by the owner.”
Cedar Lane doesn’t have a secure structure in place in the event of severe weather warnings, and each resident or head of household there is responsible for planning a severe weather evacuation plan of their own.
Some council members said Monday that Cedar Lane residents should have a better option other than the VMC, such as their own storm shelter rather, than having to make their way downtown — an especially challenging and potentially dangerous situation for those who don’t have a vehicle.
“Our concern is that you have to cross a busy street, cross the railroad tracks, up a couple more blocks, and we have residents who don’t have vehicles,” Carpenter said. “Now we’ve got them running to the VMC for some kind of shelter.
“All of a sudden if you have a tornado spotted by Currie and the people hear about it once it goes on the radio — then it’s halfway here — then they get in their car and drive (to the VMC) and for some reason nobody’s been able to unlock the place, then they’re sitting out there and it comes through town — who’s liable?” council member Dave Tiegs said. “It’s going to be us.”
Tiegs suggested the City let SWHHS know that it can’t guarantee anything or ensure people’s safety in the VMC because the safest place to go would be in the basement, which isn’t handicappedaccessible.
“We can’t do anything more,” he said. “We don’t want to be inhumane, but our hands are starting to get awfully tied by this. I’d rather have the police officers out trying to spot something than running into town to unlock a building for maybe somebody to show up.”
Council member Seth Schmidt said the City needs to do what it can to help get a storm shelter put in at the park.
“We’ve got to work on getting a shelter out there,” he said.
Carpenter said the City can help the park owner apply for a grant to get something built but it can’t attain that money for a private party.
The council voted to decline the VMC being a safe haven for the trailer park, or any Tracy resident, because there is no guarantee it will be open after business hours. People will still be able to seek shelter there, however, just as they have in the past.
The council passed two motions by Tiegs: 1) The VMC will be open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. during any normal business day an is open to the public as a storm shelter if needed; 2) The City will not provide any guaranteed shelter for park residents off site outside of normal business hours.
In other business from Monday…
• The council approved Fire Rural Service Contract rates through 2026. Monday’s agenda originally included rates to be set through 2041, but Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter pumped the brakes on that, wanting instead to have the fire chief make a presentation on the subject at a future meeting.
