The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1948-02-19
Trailer Camps . . !.

Trailer Camps -.
Continued from Page -
time and we won't be satisfied
until everything is right.
If a rigid program OF cleanl-
ness was ever carried out, 1t is
being carried out there. Shower
stalls, toilets, floors, etc., are not
only scrubbed every day; they
are sterilized too.
Down towards Kennewick,
camps which are a bit older,
were found to measure up well
towards what trailer occupants
like them to be. One is the Hill
side Court, owned and operated
by Mr.. and Mrs. Kenneth Lech-
cit. Occupants of this camp re-
ported that the community house
always was clean, there were no
crowded conditions, and there al
ways was plenty of hot water,
ample laundry facilities, toilets,
and showers.
Other camps where satisfied
customers and reasonably clean
conditions were found included
Hawn's Court, Cottonwood camp,
and Shady Nook. --2-ss
Where operators in some of
these camps admitted conditions
were not always up to par, they
explained that materials had
been hard to get and that they
had done the best they could. Of.
In Island View community,
where there are a large num-
Der of tent houses and shacks,
with some fairly good dwellings
here and there, rents were found
to be high - high enough
for the. finest modern home to
demand. One tent house Is feet
wide and 80 feet long housed
two families, with a partition in
the center.
Each family pays $45 a month,
or total of $50 monthly for the
whole tent house. These are UNI
furnished, pot heated, the floors
are double, but wood walls ex-
tend only five feet high with
rafters and the tent overhead.
Oddly enough, however, a man
reported widely to have paid $50
month for one of these tent
houses, told the Courier-Report-
er representative that he never
paid cent.
II was going to pay $50 if 1
lived in it," said Elmer Mercer
sometimes called Ed Mercer),
"but I didn't live In the place
and I told those guys that"
The families paying $45 a
month each are next door to
where Mercer was to live. One
works for a construction comp
any, has a wife but no children.
He has an artificial limb.
People living in the smaller
tent houses own their tents and
board floors in most cases and
pay about SIS a month for the
ground on which the tent
stands
Some families have left trailer
camps along the river road to
find space in the new North
Richland trailer camp being lain
out for employees of Richland and
the Hartford project. Some new
| trailers have come in, some OF
these being from the Pasco camp
which was closed by order of the
state health department.
In one camp, occupants OBJ.
jected to a lack of sanitation but
stayed there apparently largely
because it was located in cherry
orchard which gave ample shade
and on a high bank of the Co.
+, lumbia.
A woman who had lived there
since last summer said the sew.
age disposal problem was awful
Barrels had been sunk to take
the dirty water draining from
the sinks. 1--WE are waiting TO,
the health authorities" said .
women. II hope they enforce
some changes"
The camp had communit,
shower and toilets which were
said to be inadequate. Toilet:
are often stopped up and running
over, she said. The rent is $500
per trailer per week. A new
septic tank was being installed
however.
/ Another complaint was thai
power has been too low and thai
only partial electric service wa!
received where complete servict
had been expected. Electric sup
ply has been inadequate in thi!
section at times because of thu
fast-growing demand for cur
rent)
/ At some camps, when peopl'
come in they are forced to pro
mise mot to kick" if condition
are not satisfactory, one occp
lpant said.
| Many of the occupants are EN-
ployes of General Electric a
Richland and the areas and ar
in line for prefabricated and pre-
cut homes as fast as they be
come available.
A variety of attitudes Wer
r. found among the occupants wit
L 1nv~