Street lights — they're one of those things we take for granted as we drive to and from our homes at night, unless we live way, way out in the country.But for the residents of the Edgeway Mobile Home Park, "lights on" last week was a big event.
The street lights were among the items listed in the agreement filed by the town and the park operators with a Superior Court judge last month.For the first time since the park was permitted in 1985 and the first residents moved in in 1999, the operators pledged they would finish the project.
We refer to "the operators" since no one is really sure who's in charge at this point, and that's one indication of the complexity of the long and tortured Edgeway story.The original developer, Wayne Williams, ran afoul of local officials almost immediately after the manufactured housing community opened for business.At his death in 2006, two years after the selectmen acting as the Board of Health denied him a license to operate, Mr.Williams' son, Corey Farcas, took over the business interests that include the Twin Coach Estates park adjacent to Edgeway and over the town line in Lakeville.
Mr.Farcas is just one of the heirs involved with Mr.Williams' estate, and according to the attorney for Edgeway Realty Trust, he has been under some pressure to resolve the problems at Edgeway, sell the property and settle up with the others.But regardless of the legal and financial reasons for last month's settlement, the selectmen and Town Manager Charlie Cristello deserve plenty of credit for keeping the pressure on and making it possible for Edgeway residents to feel a bit more secure in their living arrangements.
The settlement between the town and Edgeway has a long way to go.The park has no permanent drainage system, the septic system has failed and must be overhauled, and the roadway is not finished.All that is addressed in a timeline that extends well beyond this calendar year.But more has been accomplished in the past two months than in the past 11 years.
The Edgeway residents have become regulars at Monday night's selectmen's meetings, and it is their vigilance and determination that have kept the problems at the park at the forefront of the selectmen's agenda since early last year.They made sure the situation at Edgeway remained a priority with town departments as well.The attention they brought to their living conditions, coupled with the fact that the town's lawsuit against the park operators finally came to fruition this summer after seven years of delays, went a long way toward making the settlement a reality.But the selectmen and the town manager themselves have been equally vigilant, keeping the pressure on Edgeway to maintain the timeline laid out in the settlement agreement.Ben Quelle, as the board's liaison with the residents, could not have imagined when he was elected to the board in April that he would be spending much of his free time with the folks at Edgeway or working on their behalf.
Hopefully the light posts represent the light at the end of a long and frustrating road for the residents of Edgeway, and that they can finally begin to think about enjoying life in what is supposed to be a leisure community.
And with cable TV coming soon, the Edgeway residents will be able to sit back and watch the selectmen on TV on Monday nights once they don't feel that they need to make their presence known on a weekly basis.
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