State moving to shut down long-troubled Rock Falls mobile home park

ROCK FALLS – Riverside Mobile Estates, long plagued by bouts of contaminated water, pothole-pocked roads, vacant and deteriorating homes and, now, an elderly owner in ill health, is being targeted by the Illinois Department of Public Health for closure.

The mobile home park in the 900 block of Regan Road, and its owner, Franklin DeHaan, 83, who founded it 60-some years ago, have been cited for multiple violations over the last several years, involving all of the above, plus abandoned vehicles, appliances and other debris that has not been removed.

DeHaan, the department says, has ignored repeated warnings to correct the violations., and so now it has referred the matter to the state Attorney General’s office, IDPH spokesman Mile Clafffey said Tuesday. The AG will be taking the matter to court in an effort to get a judge to agree to close the park.

That would leave its 60-some residents, many of whom are elderly and/or disabled, without homes.

That’s the bad news. The good news is, a nationally known buyer – actually, a group of investors – with a reputation for rehabilitating older parks is in the final stages of purchasing Riverside, and plans to remediate all the deficiencies the state cited, which likely would bring the closure effort to a halt.

“The goal all along has been to address the violations,” Claffey said.

Franklin DeHaan could not be reached for comment, but his son, Darin – who is not managing the park and has no financial interest in it – nonetheless took some time Tuesday to try to explain the situation, which he is involved in only in an effort to help his father sell Riverside, he said.

DeHaan, who keeps busy as the city manager of Oregon, said he did not realize how bad the park’s condition had become until recently. He and his father have been working almost a year to get it sold, but it’s been a complex issue beset by delays as lawyers on both sides hammer out the details.

He hopes to see the sale close in the next few days, DeHaan said, declining to name the buyer until the deal is cinched.

In addition to his age and health, the pandemic – and the two years of rent moratorium that came with it – have contributed to his dad’s inability to deal with the park’s violations, DeHaan said. He’s asking residents to be patient with him a little longer.

Both men want to see it go to a good owner, he said.

“He loves that park,” his son said.

“It’s been in the family 60 years. He has given every second of my entire life to it.”