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As of April 27, only 58 of the 521 residents at Candlewood Mobile Home Park in Mahomet had signed a lease from Kodiak Property Management, LLC.

For Candlewood residents, the problem appears to be threefold: some residents have not received a lease agreement from the management group; others have received different drafts of the agreement over the last month; then, for others, the terms and conditions within the lease are troublesome.

For Kodiak, its plate has been full with working on the necessary requirements for the mobile home park to pass the Illinois Public Health Department inspection on May 3. Passing the inspection would give Kodiak the necessary licensure to operate Candlewood.

“Each year the State of Illinois inspects manufactured home communities ahead of issuing the property’s license for the upcoming year, which occurred last month in March,” Josh Weiss from the firm 10 to 1 Public Relations said. “The report received by the State of Illinois cites resident homes along with their homesites that have not been properly maintained by their owners. Within the report, violations include removing bulk trash items including mattresses, old couches, trash, tires, animal feces, appliances, personal belongings, and many other unsightly things. In addition, the report requests the removal of abandoned resident vehicles and clearly displaying home numbers, all of which are necessary for resident safety.”

Other IDPH violations included a missing lid on an electric meter, a sewer riser not in use, downed tree limbs, electrical wiring issues, ditch drainage, and abandoned homes.

On behalf of Kodiak, Weiss wrote that the group is waiting on the “legal process” to remove the abandoned homes.

“There’s a legal process that is slowing things down- but not for lack of desire on our part to resolve the issue,” he wrote. “The previous community owner did not provide us with the titles for the abandoned homes. As a result, we must file for each of the abandoned home titles, which we have done, but the process averages six months.  Once the title is granted, we will be able to apply for a permit to abolish the home – which we intend to do as quickly as legally possible.”

Residents at Candlewood have struggled since Candlewood MHC, LLC. purchased the 108-acre property from Parkhill Enterprises for $15.6 million in Sept. 2022. With aging, and in some cases, failing infrastructure throughout the subdivision, a few residents were hopeful the new owners would take care of long-standing issues like street maintenance and adequate lighting, abandoned homes, weathered playground equipment, pool and the community clubhouse. Instead, they were told community improvements would come on the backs of rent increases.

Kodiak maintains that Candlewood is poised to become its flagship community.

When asked about whether or not the group had its vision set on turning over the property, making it something other than a mobile home community, Weiss responded, “no.”

“We are engaging an engineering group to assist in improving roads, infrastructure, pool, clubhouse, adding a fitness center, as well as a newly remodeled front office. A new playground is also in process.”

The rent increase Candlewood residents will begin paying in May is how those improvements will be funded.

Rent for a lot at Candlewood, not including rent or mortgage payment for a home, will increase from $340/month to $525/month, a 54-percent increase over last year.

Former owner Bud Parkhill increase rent by $50/month in 2023 before selling the land.

Leading up to the end of April, many Candlewood residents were unsure about what was actually about to happen. Some tenants received a lease for rent at $340/month for the following 24 months while other received a lease that showed their rent to be at $525.

The confusion deepened when some residents only saw a $340 payment for May 2023 in the Kodiak payment portal. That is until April 27, when Kodiak required them to pay an additional $185 by May 1.

No matter what monthly amount was part of the agreement, the document stated that Candlewood residents can expect a 7-percent rent increase in 2024, 2025 and 2026. By 2026, lot rent in Candlewood would be about $643/month.

The residents of Candlewood are among millions of mobile home residents who began renting from a mom-and-pop establishment that sold to an investment group that then jacks up rent prices in order to increase the property value.

“The general trend is for owners to increase rent and decrease maintenance to maximize profits,” Patrick McHugh with MHAction said. “Many residents are evicted or self-evict, allowing owners to rent out the property at a higher value.”

So far in 2023, 14 residents have voluntarily left Candlewood, while another five were evicted and two others passed away. Eleven new residents have moved to Candlewood since Jan., and  Kodiak expects another four after May 1.

Candlewood residents, like many other mobile home residents nationwide who own mobile homes and rent land, feel trapped. For starters, some who live in mobile home communities are on fixed incomes, whether it be because of age or disability. On top of limit resources, a mobile home, especially an aged mobile home, isn’t a pick-up-and-go situation as the name “mobile” might suggest.

Mobile homeowners are often left with limited options for the investment in their homes. They could sell in a process that requires first right of refusal to the landlord or move the home, which can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000.

Candlewood homeowners who want to sell their home have one of two options. They can use Kodiak Property Management, which will charge a 10-percent fee, or they can sell the home themselves, pending new-owner approval by Kodiak.

If the homeowner wants to move their mobile home, Kodiak has also included a $1,000 deposit fee on top of the original land deposit fee. Within the lease, Kodiak also retains the authority to approve the home removal.

‘It’s a community rule, not a State law,” Kodiak said. “When removing a home, residents are required to be bonded and insured. If they damage the pad or leave stuff requiring cleanup after the home is removed or abandoned, they will be charged.  If a resident doesn’t want to be charged a damage or clean-up fee, do not damage the lot or require someone else to clean up after them.”

That isn’t the only verbiage that concerns residents, though.

Residents have received communication with very vague terms like “Park standards”, “Rules and Regulations” and “satisfactory to the Park Owner” without outlining what many of those expectations might be.

As one of Mahomet’s oldest subdivisions, about a quarter of the mobile homes in Candlewood have metal siding. And under the former ownership, tenants were allowed to place sheds on the land they rented. Now, those standards have changed, and tenants are required to make changes.

“Many of the sheds are in violation of State laws regarding height or encroach on other lots,” Weiss said on behalf of Kodiak. “Others are simply unsightly and not up to community rules and standards.  Not only do we want our community to be safe, but aesthetically pleasing for all residents to enjoy.

“When all residents take pride in homeownership, the value of the community will rise. Kodiak wants to partner with all residents to fulfill the vision of becoming a 5-star property. As it stands today, if residents continue to violate these rules, the community will remain a 2-star.”

Other past practices are also no longer permitted on the Candlewood property.

According to the lease, tenants are only allowed to have two cars in their lot, with no street parking available. Some residents in Candlewood are left wondering where their additional vehicles are to go as Kodiak has designated overflow parking areas for guests rather than tenants. That parking is located at the Kodiak office, which is several blocks away from many homes.

For Candlewood residents, the list goes on including everything from guest and pet registration to requiring the title of each home.

The residents know, though, that their recourse is limited. With many on limited incomes, living paycheck to paycheck, legal fees or being able to afford the fees associated with moving are out of reach.

Going up against a giant, like Kodiak, who not only has the means to enforce their community rules, whether or not they follow the law, is impossible.

As with most situations that seem dire, Candlewood residents have looked to state lawmakers to help create boundaries for businesses like Kodiak.

They’ve hung their hopes on House Bills that would give municipalities authority over mobile home rent control; to set caps on the amount of increase tenants can see each year; to give tenants leeway on how they pay their rent; and to hold mobile home owners accountable by requiring them to account for why rent increases are happening.

As of today, these bills have either failed or been tabled for the time being.

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But the presence of nearly 230 students — roughly a quarter of the M-S High School student population, — on the field at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14 sent a simultaneous 17-minute message of solidarity as they joined nearly 1,000,000 other students nationwide who are calling for gun regulation discussion and action towards providing safe learning and work environments for students and staff.

“I felt that the community and this country needed to know that students aren’t  going to sit idly by anymore and let legislators keep making the same mistakes,” event organizer and Junior Class Student Council President Annie Taber said. “I think it is important to walk out and show the adults in charge that we have such a high volume of students who are fed up with their inaction. It’s a recognition of the inadequacy of the current legislation on guns.”

Taber joined forces with friends like Junior Class President Allie Nofziger to work with the M-S administration to hold the peaceful event.

“Being able to work with the administration to allow students to peacefully assemble to honor the victims of the Parkland (Fla.) shooting and have open discussions about what students believe gun reform and other legislative changes should be put into effect in our country was a privilege that I am so grateful we were given,” Nofziger said.

Event organizers placed 17 backpacks on the bleachers to represent the 17 students and staff who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb.14.

“It was also a goal of ours to show Parkland student survivors that even all the way here in Mahomet, we see them, we hear them and we stand with them,” Taber said.  “Making sure we did our part as students was emphasized too, making sure that people follow through with their frustrations.”

During a moment of silence, students faced the bleachers.

But students wanted to do more than just remember. They “hoped to show adults, and fellow students who may not have strong opinions about this, that we have the numbers and the commitment and the drive to actually do something about it,” Taber said.

Organizers delivered orange ribbons and contact information on how to reach elected officials to students on the field. They also gave time for their peers to talk about issues that are important to them.

Senior Laura Bane encouraged all students, who are or will soon be voting age, to cast their ballots.

“Many of the students involved in the walk-out were seniors of voting age,” Bane said. “Sometimes as a high schooler I feel that my voice can get lost in the shuffle. Through voting, I can help elect those who will fight for the legislation I feel strongly about, issues like common sense gun laws.”

“I think we teens take it upon ourselves to constantly challenge the unacceptable,” she continued. “Naturally, I think progressivism increases over time, so we’re going to seem like the most liberal age group. But I think political activism among my generation transcends party lines; conservative classmates of mine attended the walk-out today as well to voice their opinions on gun control and future safety measures they’d like to see taken in schools.”

Bane would like to see Mahomet-Seymour High School host voting drives.

“Many young people aren’t informed about how to register to vote,” she said. “A high school’s primary goal should be to create productive citizens who can contribute to society, and I believe that part of that contribution is participating in American democracy.”

Senior Lauren Gilonske also believes that voting is the best way for citizens to make real change.

For Gilonske, the walkout was also a way for students to become informed about the issues. Gilonske believes that her generation, categorized as Generation Z, is the generation that will rise up and make change.

“(We are) a catalyst for change due to our intolerance for injustice, and strong beliefs,” Gilonske said. “My generation has made a strong effort to back up these beliefs by educating not only themselves, but urging others to be educated on the facts.”

While students were on the M-S football field for various reasons, including some  who support the right to own a gun, Taber would like to see the implementation of common sense gun laws.

“Making sure that those who are unfit to carry weapons with deadly force don’t have access to them,” she said. “Making sure that weapons designed for battlefield action and to be the most effective at killing aren’t in civilian hands.”

But most of all, Taber and Nofziger want to see an open dialogue in which students are included.

“I want to see state and federal legislators reaching out to students to listen to our concerns,” Taber said. “To have our representatives take action on this and do their job of representing the public. I want to see them stand up for compromise and common sense legislation that stretches beyond party lines.”

“I do not speak for everybody who walked out, but personally I would like to see our elected officials acknowledge that the current gun laws in our country are simply not effective and start taking steps towards actual legislative change,” Nofziger said. “Some of these changes could include the banning of bump stocks, limiting high capacity magazines, national permit-to-purchase (obtaining a permit, background checks, etc., before buying), and keeping firearms out of the hands of the seriously mentally ill.”

Additional opportunities for peaceful assembly are being organized on a national level. Although Mahomet-Seymour students have not planned action yet, they would like to participate.

On March 24, 2018, March For Our Lives has organized a march in Washington, D.C., to call for school safety and gun control. Mahomet-Seymour students are also talking about visiting Springfield on April 20, the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

“I hope that this walkout has opened a dialogue for all students, regardless of their stance on gun control,” Nofziger said.  “This is a topic that we must continue to push if we want to see real changes being made and it is important that we continue having these conversations that the brave survivors of the Parkland shooting have brought to the nation’s attention.

“This walkout also served to inspire and empower students, to show them that we can do anything we set our minds to because we are the future. Our age has no bearing on the impact we can make on our community, our state, and even our country.”

The Mahomet Daily reached out to Mahomet-Seymour High School and District Administrators for comment. No comment was received.

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There’s something special about Barb Oehlschlaeger-Garvey.

Maybe it’s her soft demeanor that greets patrons at the Museum of the Grand Prairie. Maybe it’s the way she tears up as she tells the stories of local men and women who made their way toward the greater good for all. Or it could be her willingness to share chapters in American history that don’t make it into the books.

But as the workday of Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, ended, so did her 22-year employment tenure with the Champaign County Forest Preserve.

There is good news, though, Oehlschlaeger-Garvey has already submitted her volunteer application with the forest preserve, ensuring that at some point in the future, her presence will still be part of the Museum of the Grand Prairie, just as it was for the decade she spent writing grants and proposals while serving on the museum advisory committee in the 1990s.

To put Oehlschlaeger-Garvey’s time at the Museum of the Grand Prairie into perspective, it’s important to know that it opened 55 years ago, in 1968. At the time, she was still living in her hometown, Cincinnati. Garvey went on to study anthropology and art history at Indiana University before beginning her doctoral studies in art history at the University of Illinois.

In lending her time to the museum in the 1990s, while also working at the U of I, Oehlschlaeger-Garvey has been with the museum for more than half of its existence.

For Oehlschlaeger-Garvey, it was always meant to be.

She remembers building a museum of little trinkets and toy animals on her family’s table with her brother when she was 5 years old, selling tickets to her grandparents for five cents.

“I grew up in Cincinnati, and I had a real passion for Cincinnati history when I was a kid,” she said. “So I had to adapt to a new home (Champaign County) and find a new love of history here.”

In the Land of Lincoln, that is fairly easy.

“You walk down the streets that Abraham Lincoln walked down,” she said. “It’s not that hard to make it important.”

Her method of curation had to come a long way from those early days in Cincinnati, though.

When she joined the Champaign County Forest Preserve team in 2001, she was part of a movement to add a museum and education department, bridging the gap between the forest preserves and life in East Central Illinois.

“I think that’s been really, really helpful for presenting the natural and cultural history of Champaign County,” she said.

That movement went on to help inform some of the exhibits over the years.

As the Director of the Museum and Education Department, Garvey has helped develop permanent exhibits, such as “The Grand Prairie Story,” a look at how humans lived with the land from the time of the glaciers until now, and “Discovering Home,” a children’s exhibit focused on family and home in East Central Illinois.

Perhaps her favorite exhibits though, are the annual exhibits that pull a national topic into the local lens.

For example, there’s the “1968” exhibit of 2019. Garvey said that the museum group could have just focused on the history of the museum, and all it accomplished over its 50-year history. Instead, Garvey’s team decided to look at how 1968 was a “catalyst for later change,” highlighting the civil rights movement, the environment, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Vietnam War. Events throughout the year highlighted local leaders such as Candy Foster, Izona Burgess, and Stan West, who talked about how social subjects shaped life then, drawing similarities to what happens today.

The following year, the museum told the story of the women’s suffrage movement, telling the unknown stories of how advocates in Champaign County helped propel the national movement for equal rights and responsibilities as American citizens.

Women, such as Julia Burnham and Mary Busey, used their positions to start a hospital and library in Champaign and Urbana while Jane Patton owned her own property while raising her kids after being widowed.

Although the museum is closed for its winter update, they currently have a special exhibit looking at how disease has informed decisions and lifestyles in both the present and the past.

Bringing those stories to life for the Champaign County community at the Museum of the Grand Prairie serves a purpose in a world where information can appear to be polarized.

“I think the American Alliance of Museums has surveyed the public a bajillion times, and they always come up with the same answer,” she said. “Museums are one of the most trusted sources of news there is. I think there’s a reason for that, we tend to present a balanced, kind of middle-of-the-road discussion of things that have happened.”

Still, Oehlschlaeger-Garvey said, “there are voices who have been underrepresented forever. We should feel obligated to represent those underrepresented voices. But that doesn’t mean that all the good that we’ve done in the past is gone. It just means that it’s a bigger choir. We enjoy bringing in as many voices as we can.”

For Oehlschlaeger-Garvey that begins and ends with “humility.”

“I like telling other people’s stories because we’re all special,” she said. “We need to learn from other people. We should be so humbled by the things people have done so that we could be who we are.”

The multitude of perspectives begins with a variety of people on the mission-oriented storytelling team, though. Over the years, the museum staff grew to include a public programs manager, two education program specialists, a curator of collections and exhibits, and a registrar.

“Everybody sees things slightly differently, and so does our audience,” she said. “It helps to craft a voice for an exhibit that’s more universal. We (the Champaign County Forest Preserve team at large) work together on all kinds of projects. And it always makes a better product.”

Outside of special programs, it may be hard for visitors at the Museum of the Grand Prairie to see the people doing the work behind the scenes. It may be one of the things Oehlschlaeger-Garvey misses the most, though.

“It’s really evident that what they’re doing matters to them,” she said. “Not just for them, but for the greater community and for the children of the future.”

Yes, Oehlschlaeger-Garvey plans on continuing to be part of the Champaign County Forest Preserve as a volunteer in the future, but she also has some other things on her retirement docket.

She plans to spend time with her three daughters and grandchildren, who live nearby in Champaign County, east coast, and in Japan. She also plans to take trips, including one to France, just like she talked about doing with her late husband, John.

Then, “I have 1000 projects that I might do,” she said.

On that list are tasks like writing about her church’s history and unfinished tasks from her dissertation, a document she may not have touched in a while, but one her oldest daughter has not forgotten.

“She was 16 when I took this job, and after I finished my first exhibit, she said, ‘You know, mom, I didn’t know if I could be prouder of you than I was when you finished your PhD, but now I am prouder of you.’

“And then last week, when I was telling her about my goodbye party, and all the nice things people said, she said, ‘Mommy, you did it. You did everything you wanted to do.’”

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No matter what income bracket an individual falls in, access to affordable housing is paramount.

For the wealthy with disposable income, renting or purchasing a home can be fairly stress-free. But as the landscape of real estate changes nationwide to conglomerates owning homes, apartment buildings and even mobile home parks, housing options for middle- and lower-income class Americans are becoming scarce and even unaffordable.

Living in a mobile home is the only affordable option for millions of Americans.

In Mahomet, where the median home price is $239,700, according to the 2020 Census, affordable housing options are particularly limited. While more multi-family living options are being developed in Mahomet, most new options range from $1,200 to $2,000 per month. Even older properties that were once $600 to $700 per month have increased to $800 to $1,000 per month.

In 2021, lot rent at Mahomet’s Candlewood Estates was $290 per month. Today it is $340, and by April 2023, it will be $525 per month.

Residents in Candlewood have one of two options: they can rent a home from the owner (in this case Kodiak Property Management) alongside paying rent for the land the home sits on or they can rent the land from the owner and put a home they own on the property. Every month, everyone in Candlewood pays rent for either one component or both.

As one of the biggest residential developments in the Mahomet area, with around 600 lots for mobile homes on 108 acres, it’s also one of Mahomet’s oldest neighborhoods. For more than 50 years, the property was owned and managed by Candlewood Estates, a business run by Olen “Bud” Parkhill. That changed in September, 2022 when Parkhill sold the land for over $15.6 million.

For Candlewood residents, who receive communication from the property owners or pay their land/home rent, it appears that  Kodiak Property Management purchased the property from Parkhill. The platform they log into in order to pay rent is Kodiak and the line item for the fee on their bank statement is “ Kodiak Property web pmts.”

But Kodiak Property Management is only one of four entities involved in the purchase. The actual owners of the property are Crown Communities and Candlewood MHC, owned by Alexander Cabot and Heath Biddlecome, of California. Park Homes Sales is also owned by the same entities, and serves as the organization that acts as the broker for home sales should a homeowner in Candlewood choose to use their services.

This model is used nationwide as investors like Cabot and Biddlecome buy up mobile home parks across the country.

In an interview with NPR, George McCarthy, president of the nonprofit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said when investors purchase mobile home parks they increase rent “sometimes 20-, sometimes 50-, sometimes 70-percent.”

The 2021 interview highlighted how once investors raise rates and fees in a park, its value increases. With loans backed by the U.S. government with cheap interest rates, the investors will borrow against the property, using the loan to purchase another mobile home park.

“And what’s ironic about it is that one of the missions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is to help preserve affordable housing. And they’re doing exactly the opposite by helping investors come in and make the most affordable housing in the United States less affordable all the time,” McCarthy told NPR.

Crown Homes/Kodiak Property Management owns 18 mobile home parks. Besides Illinois, they are also based in Indiana, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Ohio. Alongside their most recent purchase of Candlewood Estates, Crown Communities recently won a case against the Pocasset Park Association, a group of homeowners looking to purchase the mobile home park they live in as a way to maintain local ownership.

Josh Weiss from the firm 10 to 1 Public Relations said that while the rent increase may be similar, Crown Communities looks at Candlewood as its “flagship” community.

Weiss said that while the rent increase is significant, the money will go back into Candlewood for improvements, although he was reluctant to specify what those improvements would be and when residents could expect to see them.

In an email, Weiss wrote on behalf of Kodiak Properties, “With the funds, we are committed to many community improvements and upgrades, such as roadwork, landscaping, and repairs and improvements to community amenities. All of this will help to improve curb appeal, increase safety, and will ultimately directly benefit property values. We are eager and excited for residents to see the reinvestment we are making in the community they are proud to call home.”

Some Candlewood residents who own their home are already listing their property for sale while some others are talking about uprooting their families and moving from the subdivision they call home to a more affordable location.

Another option for mobile homeowners is to move their home from one location to another where lot rent could be less expensive. The move is costly, though. It costs from $5,000 to $10,000 to move a mobile home, if the home is even movable.

Weiss also signaled that new homes would be added to vacant lots as early as May 2023. He added, “There are no plans to place new homes or replace current ones on currently occupied lots.”

Kodiak Property Management lists available homes through its website portal. Homes in other communities are listed for $80,000 to $120,000 while those in Candlewood are listed for $75,000.

Some Candlewood residents have been approached by Kodiak Property Management with “interested buyers” to purchase their home for significantly less than its value. Some have also been given paperwork that would allow Park Home Sales (also Kodiak/Crown Communities) to act as the negotiator for the seller, giving them the exclusive right to advertise and market the home. The agreement also allows them to accept an offer on the home, seemingly without any input from the homeowner on the value of the offer.

Should the home sell, Park Home Sales/Kodiak Property Management/Crown Communities would take 10 percent. Should the owner decide not to sell the home within the duration of the contract, they would be required to pay Park Home Sales, LLC. 1.5 percent of the last quoted sale price.

Weiss stated in an email interview, “Park Home Sales has the first right of refusal if a homeowner wishes to sell their home to a new buyer to move it out of the community. The purchase option is to match the sales price. There is one instance where Park Home Sales did purchase a home before it was sold and moved off-site.

“While Park Home Sales may make similar purchases in the future before a home is sold and moved off the property, it has no purchases currently in the works.”

The Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act (765 ILCS 745/24)reads:

"Sec. 24. Sale of Mobile Home. The park owner shall be enjoined and restrained from prohibiting, limiting, restricting, obstructing or in any manner interfering with the freedom of any mobile home owner to:
(a) Sell his mobile home to a purchaser of his choice, provided that the park owner shall be allowed to promulgate any general qualifications or lawful restrictions on park residents which limit or define the admission of entrants to the park. The purchaser, prior to closing, must obtain a written and signed lease;
(b) Employ or secure the services of an independent salesperson in connection with the sale of said mobile home, providing that said salesperson collects and remits all governmental taxes.
The park owner is prohibited from imposing any fee, charge or commission for the sale of a mobile home, except when a mobile home owner requests the park owner or his agent to assist in securing a purchaser for his mobile home. A commission may be accepted for such service subject only to the following conditions:
(1) That the exact amount of commission or fee shall be a percentage of the actual sales price of the mobile home; and
(2) That the maximum percentage figure for the services in the resale of the mobile home by park owner or his agent shall be set forth in writing prior to the sale.
The park owner is prohibited from requiring, upon the sale by a tenant of a mobile home to a qualified purchaser, the removal from the park of such mobile home unless the mobile home is less than 12 feet wide or is significantly deteriorated and in substantial disrepair, in which case the park owner shall bear the burden of demonstrating such fact and must, prior to sale, have given the tenant written notice thereof, and that unless first corrected, removal will be required upon sale.
(Source: P.A. 85-998.)

 

Candlewood residents had been under a boil order for 10 days in January. While that order has been lifted, some are still experiencing yellow- and brown-colored water or limited access to water.  Additionally, Candlewood residents currently do not have a lease from Kodiak Property Management.

Weiss said that Crown Communities is not a predatory company that is just looking to come in and “flip” Candlewood.

“There’s no reason you should automatically trust me and I totally respect that,” he said. “I understand that you can’t just take my word for it.

“I can tell you that straight out, they want Candlewood to become their flagship property. It’s the largest one they purchased. They really want to invest in it, really want to make it a wonderful place to be. Their intent is not to turn around and flip.”

A Look at Crown Communities, LLC.

The way Crown Communities registers its business is also a common practice for large corporations.

A 2011 Reuters article features Crown Communities’ registered business location as 1712 Pioneer Ave. in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in an article about shell corporations.

The Reuters article focuses on Wyoming Corporate Services, which Weiss said is another entity used by Crown Communities. The article asserts that Wyoming Corporate Services is a business-incorporation specialist that “can be used as ‘shell’ companies, paper entities able to hide assets.”

Wyoming, Delaware, and Nevada, all allow businesses to register within their state in ways that are often referred to as shell corporations..

The 1712 Pioneer Ave. address is not just Crown Communities’ address. Many corporations throughout the United States use it as their registered address through a $99/month membership with Opus VO, a virtual office that offers a live receptionist to answer calls, take messages, and transfer calls for businesses. Businesses who hire Opus VO also get a corporate mailing address, phone number, and fax number.

When researching the physical addresses for all four companies — Crown Communities, Kodiak Property Management, Candlewood MHC, and Park Home Sales — all of their addresses are 1712 Pioneer Ave., in Cheyenne. All four companies can also be tied to Incorp Services, which is another registered agent service.

While Weiss said Cabot and Biddlecome are partners within each of the four businesses, among others, Cabot is usually the only name on each state’s LLC paperwork, when the paperwork lists individuals. When agents are used, the registered agents, in this case, Incorp, LLC., oftentimes lists other names to keep the real owner’s identity hidden.

This is the case with Park Home Sales, in Wyoming. A search through old LLC incorporation information in Wyoming led to Madmartigan Ventures registered in 2015 and 2016, which is now known as Park Home Sales. However, in Illinois, the business is listed under Crown Home Sales, LLC.

Prior to Weiss saying Cabot and Biddlecome were partners, and during the week of not understanding the breadth of the Crown Communities organization, speculation about the connection between companies arose as it was evident the four entities were linked in Illinois, but not as clear on how they were structured in California, which is where the P.O. box for Crown Communities and Candlewood MHC is registered.

The first search for Crown Communities in California led to Heath Biddlecome. Crown Communities LLC in California is not in good standing after federal regulators charged Biddlecome, a managing partner at Crown, in 2009 with cheating investors who contributed about $10 million to a fund intended to invest in mobile home parks.

A judge for the Southern District of California’s U.S. District Court ordered Biddlecome to pay $141,818 damages to the investors of the fund he established with the investors in May 2011. The judge also determined that Biddlecome was subject to a $65,000 civil fine for those actions.

In addition, The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prohibited Biddlecome from dealing in stocks. Biddlecome was allowed to reapply for association after three years.

Further research attempting to better define Crown Communities shows that the Linkedin page for Crown Communities, states that “Crown Communities is an investment firm that acquires and preserves manufactured housing communities throughout the United States. We actively manage our portfolio properties to the highest standards and with the goal of maintaining safe, clean, and welcoming communities for our tenants as well as creating stable, long-term income for our principals and investors.”

When pressed for the connection between these companies, Weiss said Kodiak Property Management in California, is the company’s registered agent there, not Candlewood MHC. Weiss asserts that Candlewood MHC, which is owned by Comfort Capital, is a different mobile home investment firm and that Crown Communities has no affiliation with the Candlewood MHC registered in California.

All of this information is confusing. Maybe it’s supposed to be.

Yet, the outcomes for their renters are relatively simple.  These companies utilize a business model that results in thousands of low-income or fixed-income residents nationwide having to face a rent increase.

As we look at the local impact that Crown Communities is having, there are some Candlewood residents who will be able to absorb the currently communicated increase, but they know of neighbors who are not in the same situation. While new management may have been welcome in the beginning, communication with Kodiak Property Management is reported to be difficult, and some residents are having difficulty getting maintenance assistance as they await a lease.

Whether or not Kodiak Property Management will stick to its word in its vision for Candlewood remains to be seen. What we do know, though, is that its residents are already seeking financial assistance through the Mahomet Township even before the rent increase takes place. In addition, they are talking to Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance to better understand their rights provided by the Manufactured Home Owners Administration of Illinois.

Whatever happens, it seems clear that many of our neighbors and community members will be dealing with the fallout of these changes and that for many, the outlook is pretty bleak.

The post Rent hikes at Candlewood part of national trend as investors purchase mobile home parks nationwide appeared first on Dani Tietz.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In order to protect residents in the Candlewood Mobile Home Park, names will not be used in this piece. Actual conversations with residents, not just ones taken from Facebook, have taken place over the last couple weeks. This is the account of those families who needed a place to put their voice without fear of retribution from current or former owners of the subdivision. We are happy to provide that for them. 

This is the first in a three-part series about Candlewood. More information will be published in the coming days. 

If love were all humans needed to live, residents of the Candlewood Mobile Home Park in Mahomet, Ill., might be OK.

But humans need more than that.

They need an affordable place to live, no matter what their income might be. They need a home and community that are safe and secure, with access to clean and reliable water. They need to have access to work so that they can fund other basic needs for survival, like heat in the cold, light, and food.

At this moment, the likelihood that one or more of these needs will go unmet on a day-to-day basis for the residents of Candlewood is high.

And the only thing they can do about it is band together with empathy and vision for their community of about 600 homes.

It’s not something that is unusual for the 108-acre community that was developed on the east side of the Village of Mahomet in an unincorporated area.

Owned by the Parkhill family for over five decades, Candlewood was sold to Candlewood MCH, LLC. and Crown Communities, LLC, two organizations that are one and the same, in September 2022. Some residents welcomed the change in ownership, citing neglect by its former owner and manager, Bud Parkhill.

They were hopeful that new ownership would take care of the aging streets, make sure that they were plowed correctly when it snowed, fix street lights that are burnt out to help with a crime or mischievous teenagers, take care of landscaping and condemned trailers, and manage their responsibility in taking care of the water system.

“I was originally kind of excited to have an actual company that could be held accountable for not taking care of the place,” one homeowner said. “Bud (Parkhill) always seemed untouchable. He rarely listened to us if we had a complaint about not having a park or bringing in more trailers that should have been condemned. (He) told us that he wasn’t going to spend money on those things because the people here wouldn’t take care of it.

“The amenities that Kodiak (the property management group owned by Crown Communities) has proposed are necessary, and I don’t think any of that is asking for too much.  We need salted and plowed streets in the winter, an actual park for kids of all ages, street lights that function, safety patrols or cameras, better landscaping, and a maintenance staff that REALLY is available 24/7.”

“If they REALLY do the things they’ve said, it’s a step in the right direction.”

In order to fund improvement projects, Kodiak (Crown) gave a rent increase notice to Candlewood residents shortly after Christmas. That change will take place in April 2023. The mobile home park is a single-owner subdivision, as are most mobile home parks and apartment complexes. In this case, Candlewood Estates (owned by Parkhill) or Candlewood MCH/Crown Communities actually owns the land the mobile homes sit on. A resident who owns their home pays rent for the land. There are also Candlewood residents who also pay rent for their homes.

Mobile home park owners are only allowed to raise rent once a year. Parkhill raised the rent by $50 in 2022. Rent is currently $340 per month. Beginning in April 2023, rent will be $525 per month.

“It’s the huge amount that really caused a shock to people,” one homeowner said.

While a few residents in Candlewood have a lease or signed a lease at one point, maybe decades ago, many other residents say they do not currently have a lease (maybe a verbal agreement with Parkhill) and are waiting on a lease agreement from Kodiak/Crown Communities. A spokesperson from Kodiak, Josh Weiss said, “New leases for all residents are being finalized to ensure they are fully compliant with Illinois and local laws.  They will be shared with residents upon completion.”

Of the 18 mobile home communities Kodiak/Crown owns, Candlewood is the first in Illinois, according to its website.

In a phone interview, Weiss was unwilling to say what improvements would be made or give a timeline for those projects. He did say that the former owner had neglected maintenance, as has happened with other properties Kodiak/Crown has purchased.

The organization’s statement on improvements via email was: “Unfortunately, we have been faced with economic realities such as inflation, rising supply and labor costs, and soaring interest rates which are necessitating an increase in lot rent.

“While this is a large increase, it still remains very much in line with similar communities in the area.

“With the funds, we are committed to many community improvements and upgrades, such as roadwork, landscaping, and repairs and improvements to community amenities.  All of this will help to improve curb appeal, increase safety, and will ultimately directly benefit property values. We are eager and excited for residents to see the reinvestment we are making in the community they are proud to call home.”

Some residents are leery in response to the promises by Kodiak. So far they have felt threatened and unheard.

“There are so many streetlights that are out throughout the park,” one homeowner said. “They haven’t returned my call. They haven’t gotten back to me. Nothing’s been changed.

A group of 15-20 residents met at the main office to ask employees right after the New Year holiday for clarification on the rent increase and water issues so many residents are experiencing. They wanted clarification on the improvements Kodiak/Crown were planning on making but left without answers.

One homeowner recalls Kodiak continued to tell residents that they were “answering their own questions.” The homeowner left the meeting feeling confused about what the statement meant.

It is estimated that around 40 Candlewood residents are without water. Others have reported “brown water” while another resident, who may be just across the street, has access to clean water.

Weiss said Kodiak has provided Candlewood residents who are without what they are legally obligated to provide for them. Still, local churches and Mahomet residents have taken to Facebook to offer gallons of water delivered to residents. Others have started fundraising campaigns to make sure they have what they need during this difficult time.

Issues with water, especially in the winter months, are not uncommon in Candlewood. The standpipe, which brings water from the main to the home, is exposed to the elements as it runs from the ground to the home. When the Midwest experienced a hard freeze in mid-December, pipes froze, then quickly thawed prior to life-threatening temperatures sweeping through Illinois in the days before Christmas. This broke meters running to the homes.

As the water from Candlewood homes went back into the main system, it caused the water main to have pressure and contamination issues. This is why the Illinois EPA ordered a boil order for the community. As of Jan. 10, the community is still under that order.

While the Illinois Mobile Home Act clearly lays out infrastructure ownership: requiring owners to maintain the streets, garbage, and water and sewer within the park boundaries,  the issue of water main ownership has been ongoing for decades. This issue came to a head last summer when Parkhill was not re-elected to the SVPWD board. Candlewood MHC is currently in litigation with the Sangamon Valley Public Water District over ownership of the water mains within the park.

Ownership of the water main will be laid out in another article in the coming days. Still, the residents will keep having water problems until the problem is fixed by someone other than the residents. The first two weeks of January have been warm, but the threat of another freeze has residents worried.

“We can make accommodations for other drinking water while our neighbors get help. I feel terrible for them. We’ve been through it and not being able to flush your toilets or take showers, wash your dishes creates living arrangements that are ‘barely livable’… not to mention, expensive,” one homeowner said.

A set of parents with a child is rearranging their financial priorities to stock up on 5-gallon jugs of water for their home.

Like many in Candlewood, this family is on a fixed income, budgeting social security payments to cover rent, car payment, and utilities.

The 2022 social security increase helped them absorb the cost of rent, but they are not sure how to cover the additional $185/month in the upcoming year.

The issue with flooding in the park isn’t just that of usable water, it’s also causing damage to homes, both with broken pipes and those nearby. Some residents have extensive water damage throughout the interior and exterior of their homes while others watched water creep up to their homes, causing it to “bow”.

One family also pointed out the time it is taking Kodiak/Crown to remove vacant trailers from the park. They worry about exposure to black mold, among other contaminants that may be carried through the park by the wind.

Recently, for sale signs have been popping up all over Candlewood as residents are unsure of how to make it from month to month. One resident said, although the rent increase will force them to move things around, they can absorb the cost. Still, that family knows that their neighbors, particularly the elderly who live in Candlewood, have few to no options to change their financial status.

Several Candlewood residents told a story of a woman taking her life because of the rent increase she couldn’t manage.

“I see more of that happening in the future from people who have no hope of finding other suitable accommodations,” one homeowner said. “We put our lives and souls into our homes here in Candlewood. Mostly because we don’t have disposable incomes. Most out here live paycheck to paycheck and are one illness away from homelessness with the current rent increase. It’s a wake-up call for sure.”

Kodiak/Crown said they are not concerned about pricing low-income residents out of their homes, though.

The organization does have plans to put new mobile homes on vacant lots, just as they have done on other properties they own in Iowa, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio. A 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Candlewood is listed for $75,000. Homes in other communities are listed for $80,000 to $120,000.

Weiss said the placement of those homes could begin as early as May 2023.

Other local mobile home communities have lot rent with similar amenities anywhere from $330-$400 per month. If someone rents the home in addition to the lot, rent with a mobile home can increase to $800-$1,000 per month.

The homeowners we spoke to mentioned the amenities Kodiak/Crown lists on their Candlewood website: a basketball and volleyball court, a clubhouse and pool, a playground, and on-site maintenance. For starters, residents would like to see these amenities actually meet the standard of being usable.

“I don’t think that they were prepared for the community feeling of Mahomet. Maybe they were there thinking that in a lot of towns, people who live in poor neighborhoods are not taken care of as part of the community.

“I would guess, from the lack of response, that they’re probably pretty shocked that people are like standing up for this, about this.”

The post Candlewood residents come together under dire circumstances appeared first on Dani Tietz.

On Sunday night, I combed over an article about projections and capacity of enrollment at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School that would be published on Monday morning. I have been collecting data for years, looking at enrollment numbers, classroom sizes, and the number of classrooms, and then following information given to the Mahomet-Seymour community as the June 28 and Nov. 8 referendum dates approached.

With children that grew up in the Mahomet-Seymour School District, the topic was close to my heart. When my oldest daughter entered first grade at Sangamon Elementary her class had grown from 187 students in kindergarten to 201 students in first grade. By the time my middle daughter came to Sangamon, her class grew from 166 in kindergarten to 193 in first grade. And as my son’s class came to Sangamon, his class jumped from 180 in kindergarten to 202 in first grade. The girls’ graduating classes were 253 and 219, respectively. My son’s class is currently at 226 students enrolled.

In comparison, the current first-grade class has 248 students. The current senior class has 265 students and started kindergarten with 215 students.

How do I know this? Because I collect data. I am a journalist. I am recording history.

Journalism isn’t just about making sure that all of the stories get printed and all of the accolades are at the forefront. Journalism is so much more than that. Journalism’s first obligation is truth and its loyalty is to the citizens. Its job is to monitor power and its requirement is to maintain independence.

Firsthand, let me tell you that this is very hard to do.

Journalists are subject to the information presented to them, but their responsibility is to check the information presented.

In America, it has always been that the press serves as the fourth branch of government – one that is in place to serve the governed, not the governors.

In writing for the U.S. Supreme Court majority that decided in favor of the press during New York Times Co. v United States, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote, “In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.”

Not all journalists operate in this manner, though. For the most part, people in power love journalists that just come to meetings and regurgitate what is presented. And some journalists love to be loved, and so they take those talking points and run with them. They win awards with them. They get fed articles and ideas with them.

I certainly started off in the please-love-me phase.

But as I watched meeting after meeting, something seemed off. Was the public being given all the information it needs to make decisions about how to organize its life together? Or was there a piece of information here … then another piece somewhere else … and another piece somewhere else? Where is the whole picture?

This question has made me a better journalist. First, I understood that I needed to collect as much as I could to tell a whole story rather than this and that, here and there. I call this playing the long game. Second, I learned the ins and outs of investigative journalism, the art of asking questions and sending FOIA requests. Third, I knew that if I were to publish something that was outside of or more than what the community had been given, I needed to check and check and re-check my information before I published.

This brings us back to Sunday night. I sent the article off to my colleague, telling him that I know it goes against the grain, but the math is good and the public needs to know what’s happening with the referendum prior to the Nov. 8 vote. I remember thinking, “You need to take screenshots of everything under the Mahomet-Seymour Referendum and Bulldog Blueprint page because they could go in and change that information.” Then I thought, this information has been up, and talked about as the “facts” for almost a year, so why would they take it down or change it?

I watched my email inbox all day Monday after publishing. The only feedback I got was from the district architect, Damien Schlitt, who told me, “The figures that were utilized and calculated were from 2006/2007 – 2021. The average year-over-year growth during that time was 1.0%. There were 5 years with no growth or a decline in students during that window. Even if we look just since 2015 the last time enrollment dropped (2014) it’s a year-over-year average of 1.2%.”

I went back to the numbers used in the data for the article. The average growth was still 1.7%. “High growth” was still 2.9%. If growth continued at these rates, the district would still run out of space in the new junior high before the $59.4 was paid off in 20 years. It was not a statement. All it was is data that provided information that was contrary to what the district had told people. I took time to look at the numbers from all perspectives.

Schlitt said nothing about how the information about projections for planned or max capacity was incorrect. His only call for correction was the average percentage.

At that moment, I thought again about taking screenshots of the Bulldog Blueprint website. I thought, “you have those somewhere on a hard drive. And they won’t take them down.” I thought again about taking screenshots of the district website but thought, “The referendum page just went along with the Bulldog Blueprint information until about a month ago, and now they’ve updated it to exactly what they want the community to know: what are the pros and the cons (in their eyes); what are enrollment numbers; what do junior high teachers say; what is the planned and max capacity.” It was just updated in bold. When we put something in bold, we want people to concentrate on it. It’s purposeful.

In fact, the max capacity of the new building on this new site was 1,000, but I went with the max capacity on the Bulldog Blueprint site because it was more students, and that’s helpful for the Mahomet-Seymour taxpayers.

Then, on Tuesday afternoon as I’m just going about my workday, I get a message: “Your article about the referendum states the new building is designed for 900 to 1,000 students, but the referendum website states 1,100 to 1,200.  I’m sure you found the 900 to 1,000 capacity somewhere.  People seem to be commenting about the capacity being so small, but 1,100 to 1,200 is vastly different than 900 to 1,000.”

I had copied and pasted the two columns for old junior high school and new, but I didn’t have that screenshot that showed the information. So I clicked on “The Plan” and it still said 900-1,000. So I took a screenshot of that. Then I went to the Bulldog Blueprint site.  However, where there was a site yesterday, there was no longer a Bulldog Blueprint site; it was taken down.

The person I was talking to told me around 2 p.m. that the website now had updated capacity numbers under the page “The Plan.” He watched it happen. For the same amount of money, $59.4, the district now says it will provide a building that is the same square footage as I reported, “a 135,000 square foot – 140,000 square foot new two-story building to house grades 6-8” but now, that building has a capacity of between 1,100 and 1,200 students.

Well, Mahomet-Seymour community, if my reporting has done anything for you, should the referendum pass, you will get a building that is not bigger, but has more capacity. Of course, we aren’t sure how an additional 200-300 students will fit into that space. Schlitt has not been forthcoming on how many classrooms will be allocated throughout this whole process. In fact, the website now says, “**New Capacity based upon architect developed space program configured to support 1100 – 1200 students within 135,000 sf – 140,000sf- further refinement to enrollment targets and program support to be completed through extensive collaboration with district administration, building administration, teachers and staff during the design process. This capacity expansion would support an additional three “sections” of each grade 6-8 from what is needed today as well as properly support the current students being served in undersized spaces.  The project budget of $59.4M will support the capacity and programming needs of the district to allow this facility to support the district well into the future.”

Then I have questions: renovating Mahomet-Seymour Junior High to 135,000-140,000 added about 10 classrooms for a much lower dollar amount; I think it was around $20 million. How does adding room for more students not add to the cost of the project? How will the district afford additional teachers when we just heard during negotiations that the salary increases for current staff may cause the district to not hire teachers in the future? Is it safe to add more students to that space in terms of fire standards, etc.?

Did Mahomet-Seymour see its mistake in capacity after the article was published on Monday? In the middle of the night, did they say, “Yes, Dani was right and we need to do better.”?  Did anyone in the community receive notification of new and updated information allotting for this revelation? Did anyone in the community hear anything from the district? Or did they just go in and change the information without telling anyone so that the new data would potentially get the result they wanted? Did they just think, “If we change the capacity on the website, no one will be the wiser?”.

I love to think about how people get from point A to point B. Someone thought, “We’ll just do a little switcheroo and then the Mahomet Daily will look like the fool.” This is the story they’ve told in the community for ages: “The Mahomet Daily is divisive, pushes too hard, asks too many questions. Dani Tietz is just a nut with an agenda.”

The real problem for the district is that Dani Tietz just sees past the Jedi powers of gaslighting, manipulating, partial stories and data that empower developers, contractors, and real estate agents and puts the financial burden, the academic burden, and the civil burden onto the taxpayers and constituents of  Mahomet-Seymour because she’s been watching and listening and reading for a decade.

I digress.

So let’s look at capacity with planned capacity at 1,100 and max at 1,200. It certainly buys taxpayers some time in their 20-year bond commitment. At high capacity, 2.9%, a new Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School would reach planned capacity (1,100) in 2033, and max capacity (1,200) in 2036. If enrollment increases by an average 1.7%, planned capacity will be reached in 2040, three years before the $59.4 bond is paid off, and max capacity in 2046, three years after the bond is paid off.

In 2016, when the district was making plans for the Middletown Prairie Elementary addition and renovation, I sat with then-superintendent Rick Johnston and asked specific questions about the building’s capacity for community growth. I was told that the building had enough classrooms to adjust year after year to the community’s needs for each class. At only six years old, Middletown Prairie is close to being in the same boat as Lincoln Trail, busting at the seams.

In fact, Monday night, the board of education voted to approve leasing space in the building formerly known as Sangamon Elementary because they don’t have enough space for operations with the Technology Department at Middletown Prairie Elementary.

Looking at enrollment data and projections, seeing what was included in the projections and what is not even being considered (several developments that are unfinished, the Village plans for expansion and development, what may or may not happen in Champaign Unit 4 schools) is only going to leave Mahomet-Seymour taxpayers in the same boat. The data shows that whether the capacity is at 1.7% or 2.9%, even if it is at 1%, which is unlikely unless something catastrophic happens, the proposed building will reach capacity more quickly than taxpayers were told. We also know from discussion among board members and staff that a $59.4 million building does not even begin to touch capacity issues in other facilities within the district.

Why did they have to take the Bulldog Blueprint site down and change what is on the referendum page of mahometseymour.org? Because the words they said did not match the data they presented. It just took someone who wanted to take the time, to have years and years of data, to analyze that data to show that the story did not equal reality.

My loyalty has always been to the taxpayer and constituents in the way that I tell stories. My commitment has always been to dig beneath the surface of information to find the truth. I will admit that I do not have all the answers to how or why things happen the way that they do. But what I do know is that people who are represented by a taxing body deserve complete and accurate information.

They also deserve leadership that tells the truth, even when that message is hard. Leadership that proves its focus is on the kids and the community, not by the words they choose or the narrative they spin, but with the votes they take and the priorities they set.

As I was doing research on development last spring, I sat down with Village Planner Kelly Pfeifer to ask about the thousands of pages of emails I obtained through FOIA. At the end of the conversation, I explained myself in comparison to the assumption that I’m just out to get people.

I have never cared if the Mahomet-Seymour community grows. I no longer live there, but I miss the love I found in that town. I want other people to experience the goodness I found there: the great park system, the quiet of the Sangamon River, the magic of the trees in October, and the people who make the day magical with an invitation to lunch.

Honestly, if the majority of the community votes to approve $59.4 million to build a new junior high, then that’s what the community has decided.

Something, at some point, needs to be done. I have been talking about capacity for about a decade now. But I would feel terrible if I just gave you the talking points, much like I did with Middletown Prairie, without asking questions and looking deeper so that everyone has access to adequate information to make their decision without pretense.

I literally have nothing to gain from this. And the way Mahomet works, I actually have everything to lose.

So, let me be straight with you: what I have always cared about and will always care about is honesty, transparency, and priorities. I care that people get the information they deserve so that they can make informed and educated decisions about the way they choose to live their lives. I care that people are taken care of and that they have what they need and deserve as human beings. I care that governments are forward-thinking, that they live within their means, and that they provide infrastructure for their visions and goals. Over the years I have learned that community means a hundred different things to a hundred different people, but I care deeply about community.

I don’t even care if the community takes this instance into consideration. What I do hope, though, is that the community looks at the information presented in the future and says, what more is there? Am I being told everything I need at this moment? Who is telling me this information? What do they have to gain through this information? Where can I get more information? Apply this to all parts of your life.

I guess the question for me today is, what does it mean to live in a community where information is given in hopes of an outcome that will benefit a few and then taken down or changed when the data doesn’t back up the narrative? I’m not surprised by much anymore, but I am shocked that Mahomet-Seymour is this type of community.

The post Commentary: Did Mahomet-Seymour really just change the numbers? appeared first on Dani Tietz.

In a little over three weeks, the decision on the Nov. 8 ballot for $59.4 million in the Mahomet-Seymour School District referendum will be tabulated.

The district is asking voters to approve a property tax increase for the next 20 years in order to construct a 135,000-140,000 square-foot, two-story building to house approximately 900-1,000 sixth- through eighth-grade students on 38 acres that the district currently owns on the east side of the Village limits, just south of Middletown Prairie Elementary, according to the mahometseymour.org website.

The preliminary plans for the new facility were included in the $97.9 million referendum on the June 28, 2022 ballot, which failed by a margin of 3,511 (67.20%) as opposed to 1,714 (32.80%) in favor. The district believed the measure failed because the ask was too big while many constituents cited the plan did not properly address the district’s capacity issues.

Many of those concerns are still in play, even with some board members questioning how the district will address growth across the board, citing that the district probably needs to add two facilities to the picture.

Squashing all predictions from 2019 and 2021 demographic studies, the Mahomet-Seymour School District’s enrollment increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year coming into the 2022-23 school year.

Currently, district-wide enrollment stands at 3,354, a figure the school district believed would come in the 2024-25 school year, according to a revised demographic study in 2021. Included in that study was a prediction that Mahomet-Seymour Junior High would have an enrollment of approximately 813 students by the 2026-27 school year, but that is the current enrollment of the junior high.

With the planned capacity of the new junior high school slated to be between 900-1,000 students and a maximum capacity of 1,080, according to a June Bulldog Blueprint report, current enrollment is only 80 to 200 students away from space being limited once again.

Before the June 28 vote, constituents were told that the junior high school would reach planned capacity by 2033 if growth was at 1 percent per year, a figure the district established as average growth over the last 20 years.

The Mahomet Daily analyzed class enrollment data from 2012-2022 to find that the actual growth rate year-to-year is 1.7 percent, the figure the district used as a high rate of growth. There are only two years within the last decade that the rate was below 1.5 percent, one of them being in 2020 with COVID mitigations.

Using the actual average (1.7 percent), the new Mahomet-Seymour Junior High building would reach “planned” capacity within seven years from now (noting the new building would not be completed for two to three years). This means that the current kindergarten class would be in seventh grade and the current first-grade class would be in eighth grade when the building would be expected to go over planned capacity.

Bulldog Blueprint data from the June 28 referendum stated that the new junior would reach a maximum capacity of 1,080 students. Using the same model, the new Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School could reach “maximum” capacity within 17 years, three years before taxpayers would have the option to issue additional bonds or lower their property tax rate.

Knowing that class size increases by approximately 29 percent during the 13 years students spend at Mahomet-Seymour and seeing increased enrollment numbers in the elementary schools, particularly in K-2 since Middletown Prairie opened its doors in 2017, the district looked at what “high” growth would look like until 2040, near the time the bond would expire, should the referendum pass.

The district used 1.7 percent growth as their high measure, but seeing as that is actually the average growth rate, we added 70 percent to that measure to look at what a “high” growth rate would look like in Mahomet. There is no evidence that a 6.5-percent enrollment increase year-over-year would be likely, but a rate higher than 1.7-percent could be feasible.

Should this growth continue at a high rate, 2.9 percent, the new Mahomet-Seymour Junior High building would be at planned capacity by 2026 and maximum capacity by 2032. This means that this would be expected to occur when the current second-grade class would be in sixth-grade, the current third-grade class would be in seventh-grade and the current fourth-grade class would be in eighth grade.

Community leaders have cautioned about growth projections, saying it is contingent upon developer’s interest in the area. The Village of Mahomet was part of the 2019 demographic study completed by Cropper GIS. That study was updated in 2021 after projections fell short of enrollment.

The 2019 study accounted for Village growth within new developments in Thornewood, Deer Hollow, Sangamon Fields, Harvest Edge and Hunters Ridge subdivisions as well as the Solace and Middletown Apartment developments. To date, some of these developments are still not completed. Thornewood, for example, just received a nod from the Village of Mahomet for 34 additional single-family units. The final phase of Harvest Edge is still not underway, but that will bring an additional 134 lots into the market. The report also assumed that once children graduate from Mahomet-Seymour High School, guardians would elect to stay in the community rather than relocate.

Other factors not considered by the demographic study that will impact the Mahomet-Seymour School District include Vision South, Unlimited Villas, and a new subdivision along Tin Cup Road that were recently approved by the Village. As the South Mahomet Road extension is completed in 2023, Prairieside Subdivision and property east of the school district’s 70-plus acre property will have access to infrastructure including roadways, water and sewer access to begin development. The Mahomet-Seymour School District spans about 15 miles to the north and south on the west side of Champaign County and about 8 miles east and west.

Mahomet is not the only community thinking about potential growth. In a recent St. Joseph Village board meeting, a board member suggested the Village market their community as a place to move to as Champaign Unit 4 schools look at reassigning elementary students as soon as next year. When Lee Superintendent Kenny Lee was asked if he had thought about if the issue would impact Mahomet-Seymour, he said, “What we need to continue to do is to monitor what’s occurring in our surrounding districts. Anytime that there’s something that is going to affect what they’re doing in their community, it could affect enrollment. We will continue to monitor that.”

Although Mahomet-Seymour Junior High is over capacity, enrollment at Lincoln Trail has caused the elementary staff to rethink classroom space, and Middletown Prairie, which was completed in 2017, is not far behind. In an August meeting, members of the Board of Education and Lee recognized that building a junior high school may be one option to begin to address the issue.

Board members talked about how there needed to be a two-building solution, and Lee stated that down the line the district may need to think about multiple elementary schools.

Board members brought up the possibility of keeping the current Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School in commission to house the overflow of Lincoln Trail students, should the referendum pass. When Lee was asked if the district would commit to that solution, Lee said, “I certainly am not interested in making that decision in a vacuum, so to speak.

“I think that certainly that overflow has been discussed, and that’s an option. I think, what you really need to look at is depending on how much overflow is needed, is that worth the expenses of keeping an additional building open that will by that time, be a few more years older and less efficient, as compared to do you look at, let’s say…we’re talking about Lincoln Trail here if the referendum passes, do you look at moving transportation and looking at an additional Lincoln Trail? Are you looking at a temporary solution for portable something like that?

“But that’s not to say that that junior high would be off the table, either. I think that if the referendum passes, then we need to look at all options that we would have for the junior high. So there’s not been a commitment to one particular thing with that building.”

Although there was a discussion in late spring of 2022 about doing another demographic study, Lee said that, at this time, the district will continue to monitor numbers. Enrollment well beyond what the demographic study at Middletown Prairie suggested was the prompt for an additional study in 2021.

“I really think that if we’ve seen additional numbers there, we’ll need to continue to look at how we’re utilizing our space and look at all of the options that we would have,” Lee said.

The post New Junior High planned capacity between 900-1000 students, current enrollment at 813 appeared first on Dani Tietz.

Within the Village limits there are about 9,500 residents. And just outside, there are about another 6 to 7,000. There are places in Mahomet where you can look across the street to look at land not within the Village limits. Some places receive services from the Village: water, sewer, road maintenance, law enforcement, And others do not.

It was and is by design.

There was a time when Mahomet did not want to expand its borders, which in the 1960s did not look like they do today. For the Parkhill family, who owned vast acres of farmland to the north of the Village, this posed a problem with their entrepreneurial spirit. Olen “Bud” Parkhill wanted to develop the family land, but getting Village services, particularly water, and sewer, wasn’t an option.

He wasn’t powerless, though. In 1966, he (along with Harold Dorsett) decided to build the infrastructure needed for water and sewer through a non-profit, Sangamon Valley Public Water District. Through this non-taxing body, land north of what’s now I-74 was able to develop.

Its reach has been and will continue to be important. In 2021, the district expanded its boundaries through a state-approved annexation process in order to deliver a clean water source to residents whose wells and homes have been affected by the 2016 People’s Gas leak. With that expansion, SVPWD went from being able to serve residents within a 4.5 square miles radius to just over 42 square miles.

Under the current board, SVPWD is not looking to encourage new development, but rather wait until developers are ready to move forward, then provide water and sewer service to that resident or business. For the most part, the Village of Mahomet has jurisdiction over development within a 1.5-mile radius of their borders and makes the final decision on how that land is zoned.

When petitions to elect SVPWD board seats instead of having them appointed circulated and were encouraged by former board member Olen “Bud” Parkhill, and current board members Mike Melton, Bob Buchanan, and Mike Larson (now a former member), it became evident that something more might be at play. Parkhill (50 years), Melton (40 years), and Buchannan (30 years) served on the board for decades and Larson had been a board member for 12 years.

What’s more is that Parkhill had asked current board president Meghan Hennesy to serve, just as he did board member Colleen Schultz. Hennesy and Parkhill had a friendship that both parties seemed to enjoy very much. Melton even sang Hennesy’s praises as she ran for the Mahomet-Seymour School board just a few years ago. And all four men continually voted for her to be in the lead position.

But, what appeared to be overnight, the tide turned.

On the surface, it may just appear that Parkhill was sore after he was not reappointed by the Champaign County Board in 2021 when it was pointed out that he was a major developer within the Sangamon Valley Public Water District. As a few other board members were appointed by the county, the hold Parkhill had on the SVPWD board seemed to be vanishing. For years upon years, as evidenced in board notes, SVPWD board members chose who would be in the seats.

It is true: currently, Parkhill and his organizations own approximately 600 acres of undeveloped land in SVPWD’s former boundaries, 2880 acres.  This means that Parkhill’s interests include about 20 percent of SVPWD territory that is within or just outside Village limits. He also owns even more property that is developed in both the SVPWD and the Village of Mahomet limits.

A lot of that land is located along Prairieview Road could be prime for development. Every year the Village of Mahomet puts about $25,000 into the Prairieview escrow account. The Village also split the cost of first drafts of what could happen on that land. Truck stops, which Village planner Kelly Pfeifer insists are called “travel centers”, hotels, and multi-family developments are just a few options in the layouts Parkhill is in possession of.

He also owns the land just south of Fox Run. Sketches of one layout were provided to the Mahomet Daily via FOIA. Through reading emails provided via FOIA, commercial development and expansion of the mobile home park were also discussed.

Of course, as long as land is zoned a particular way, a developer can make progress on that land. Just because Parkhill owns land doesn’t mean that he would personally benefit from the services provided by the Sangamon Valley Public Water District. So, in order to answer the question of why would these men all of a sudden change their mind as to how board members are seated, some questions needed to be answered.

In Feb. Mike Melton brought up that he was a participant in a 457b retirement plan that is designated for employees of non-profit organizations. Through FOIA, it was also brought to light that Parkhill also participated in that program.

The SVPWD was asked for a lot of information over the next few weeks. FOIA requests for old board minutes, purchases and invoices, repair and maintenance, vendors, land purchases, special water rates, water/sewer main lines plans, gifting of infrastructure, and supplies used in the Candlewood Mobile Home Park were all requested.

First, it’s important to understand how development usually works. Outside of what is happening with TIF money in the East Mahomet district, usually developers are responsible for building public infrastructure: water/sewer mains, sidewalks, and roads, then that is “gifted” to the municipality for maintenance. The municipality, in this case SVPWD, would make repairs on water and sewer mains for any subdivision within its territory: Deer Hollow, Cobblecreek, or Candlewood.

But, property owners within the subdivision, in many cases a homeowner, are then required to build and maintain their home’s infrastructure, like the water/sewer lines on their private property and their own driveway.

This is important to understand because in searching through documents provided by SVPWD, it is indisputable that the lines between Parkhill’s interests as a business owner/developer and board member were blurred.

The most prominent development that Parkhill owns at this time is Candlewood. Unlike other subdivisions he’s developed, like Cobblecreek, each home (trailer) is not owned by the residents. Parkhill owns all of the land according to Champaign County GIS.

In the case of Candlewood, it is unclear if SVPWD has the easements or if the infrastructure has been dedicated to the district. The only documents available were signed by Parkhill, who is the owner and was the seated chair at the time. There was no board action taken and no title documents were available. Still, SVPWD maintains the main lines through the Park, just as it does in Cobblecreek.

According to the Illinois Mobile Home Act, owners are required to maintain the streets, garbage and water, and sewer within the park boundaries.

During his time on the SVPWD board, though, Parkhill consistently used the district’s equipment and employees to service projects (water leaks, sewage issues) that any property owner should have been responsible for. Other SVPWD customers would have paid a markup on items and services, like building necessary pipe structures, Parkhill only reimbursed the district at cost for equipment, using the district funds to compensate for employee time.

It was not unusual for SVPWD employees to be required to install water meters on the mobile homes at district expense, for example. In other developments that have multiple residents, like an apartment complex, one meter is placed within the community, and the property owner is billed for the water/sewer usage. The landlord is then responsible for billing each tenant.

Parkhill bypassed this practice during his time on the board. During May’s board meeting, SVPWD decided that one meter would be placed at Candlewood before fall, placing the responsibility back on Parkhill’s shoulders. Additionally, since Parkhill has been off the board, maintenance of anything other than the water and sewer mains has ceased.

He was also notorious for going to the district property to take meters for Candlewood. SVPWD staff called inventory a “nightmare” because of this practice. Today, SVPWD has a fence and security cameras around the property, not only to keep the water supply safe but also to keep this from happening.

It is estimated that from 2008-2018 Candlewood labor and material costs totaled $37,808.00 for standpipe material; $5,265.00 for meters; $12,510.00 for labor of standpipes and $4,860.00 for labor of meters.

The long-standing practice of water rates for different groups of customers (previously 33 water rates, depending on who the person was) hurt the district. Over the last decade, the district has moved to standard water rates for customers, which has helped it save for capital projects and fair employee compensation.

Board meeting minutes show that SVPWD was barely surviving through the early 2000s. Because Candlewood is a transient community, sometimes tracking down tenants who owed for water or sewer was difficult. Any water loss from that community comes at a loss to the district. Most of the time, board members blamed that struggle on people in Candlewood who had not paid their water/sewer bill, when in fact, it was Parkhill’s responsibility.

It is estimated that standpipe breaks in Candlewood from 2008-2018 cost the district 36,028,800 gallons and meter breaks cost 4,003,200 gallons. In today’s dollars that would be about $320,256.00.

Outside of using SVPWD employees for maintenance within Candlewood, there were times that the district was instructed to use Parkhill’s companies Parkhill Construction and Central Xavaction. His son’s company T.S.P. Enterprises was also used several times.

Accounting documents were limited, but those that were provided show that from 2001-2014 the district paid T.S.P. Enterprises $11,436; from 2000-2021 paid Parkhill Construction $317,231.83; and from 2005-2006 Central Xavation $20,153.10. Some of those line items show work throughout the district while other memos are left empty. There were no records prior to 2000.

The work Parkhill’s compaines/employee did for the district was quality work, other employees said. But it wasn’t always about what needed to be done within the district. When Parkhill Construction did not have contracts coming in, Parkhill would tell the SVPWD general manager to find work for his employee to do. Then the district would pay Parkhill’s company.

Records also show that at times when Parkhill did not receive rent owed in Candlewood, he would send tenants to work off their debt at SVPWD. After the tenant completed the work for SVPWD, the district would take funds out of the paycheck to pay for the employee’s back-owed lot rent and send that to Parkhill rather than the person who did the work. Long-time SVPWD employees have said that because of wages, it has been difficult to keep workers at the district. They added that while these employees (that Parkhill sent over) helped fill in shortages, they were not trained to do the work that needed to be done in order to keep the district’s assets safe.

Parkhill’s Candlewood was not the only development that benefited from public infrastructure. As SVPWD installed “trunkline” water and sewer mains, including lift stations to the north and west of Candlewood in 2005, Deer Hollow and Cobblecreek (Parkhill’s development) were able to come to fruition. Parkhill’s investment into Cobblecreek was reduced because of the availability of the trunkline.

With that development, along with Thornewood, by 2011 SVPWD needed additional capacity. Parkhill had land to sell. In 2012, after 40 years on the board, Parkhill stepped down from his seat, citing a need to spend more time with his family. Just a few moments later, SVPWD purchased two acres of land from Parkhill for $175,000 (that would be about $220,000 in today’s dollars) to expand their water treatment plant. Although Parkhill was never reappointed to the board, he was back in his seat a meeting or two later, according to board minutes.

The district has also purchased other pieces of land from Parkhill, including a small triangular piece that currently holds an apple tree.

He also encouraged the purchase of .75 acres near the newest developments of Thornewood from the Schneider family for $40,000 in 2012 (almost $51,000 in today’s dollars). This property houses a storage facility. These properties were appraised at these amounts in 2012, but staff has said that favorable appraisers were chosen after another appraisal came in around $16,000-$20,000 per acre.

Prior to not being reappointed to the board, Parkhill said that he had more land that he wanted the district to purchase. He owns 14.3 acres contiguous to the water district property. The water district said, being at 50 percent capacity of the current facility, they do not need to expand or purchase any more land for 15 years, if development remains steady.

The ballot measure in the June 28 primary would likely put Parkhill back in control of the district. Although he was not a registered voter in Champaign County prior to April 2022, Parkhill has the interest and the means to fund candidates who would continue to work in his interest of development. Having held the seat on the SVPWD board until 2021, even not as a registered voter, but a property owner in the Village of Mahomet, perhaps he could even run for a seat again.

Most races in Mahomet, aside from the Mahomet-Seymour School board races recently, go uncontested.

Recently, Parkhill entered into conversations with the Village about the property south of the mobile home park. Part of the land was rezoned and annexed for commercial development. FOIA documents show that he is also interested in expanding the mobile home park.

It seems to be that there is a lot at stake for Parkhill when it comes to the makeup of the SVPWD board. He already has a lot invested in making sure that customers approve the measure to elect board members. Not only did Parkhill have his Candlewood employee circulate petitions, he also used his political action committee, “Committee to Keep Our Water Local,” to send out “Vote YES” flyers to voters in the area.

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