Residents at Ohio mobile home park troubled by water shutoffs

SWANTON, Ohio — Several residents who live at the Arrowhead Lake Mobile Home Park in Swanton are once again upset after having their water cut off. 

They say this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and they don’t believe it’ll be the last. 

It’s been three days now and residents like Elizabeth Hummel, a mother of three, say they’ve been having to deal with getting water from a tank one of her neighbors has set up. 

“No water. We can’t shower. We can’t wash our dishes. We can’t do laundry,” said Hummel.  

A spokesperson for the park says it has to do with a water main break, which they believe was caused by tree roots. 

“The biggest issue right now is we’ve not had water since about 7 or 8 p.m. Wednesday evening,” said an Arrowhead Lake Mobile Home Park resident who doesn’t want to be identified.

The woman didn’t want to go on camera for fear of retaliation, but she says it’s getting old. 

“During that time they issued immediately on Wednesday a boil water notice. However, if you don’t have any water how can you boil it?” said the resident.

“Well it’s happened before, but I think this is the most upset that I’ve seen the residents since I’ve lived here. I think they’re really fed up,” added Gregory Gunn, who has lived at the park for 32 years. 

In fact, we did a story with these same residents back in 2019, when a Maumee judge ordered the park to supply clean drinking water to some residents.

The order came after residents complained the water was not safe to drink, but they say that’s not happening. 

“We’ve received one gallon in 48 hours. So it’s not being provided. The fact that you can’t even flush your toilet. And in the middle of a pandemic crisis as we’re in now, you can’t even wash your hands. They should be supplying more than just drinking water,” said the resident.

A spokesperson for the park sent over a statement saying “Per Ohio EPA guidelines we have been providing water to the residents during the outage. We fully expect the break to be fixed Friday night and the water service to resume as normal.” 

Still, residents want more done, so this doesn’t happen again. 

“We’re not gonna quit. People here are fed up,” said Gunn. 

A resident reached out to us to let us know their water had been restored as of 7:45 p.m. and she says hopefully, it stays that way.