Contractors drill a new well at Whippoorwill Hill Mobile Home Park on Thursday morning, Aug. 31. The mobile home park’s residents have been coping with repeated water supply and water quality problems. Maria Skillings / The Times Record
After seven months of water outages at a Wiscasset mobile home park, residents are skeptical whether their persistent problems will be resolved with the new well that’s being drilled, per the state’s request.
Residents at Whippoorwill Hill Mobile Home Park have reported unscheduled water shutoffs and poor water quality dating back to February, saying they haven’t been able to shower, wash their clothes or flush toilets on multiple occasions. The property has three wells but the main well installed in 2020 has run dry several times, according to resident Tom Kurtz.
Bangor-based Maine Real Estate Management decided to take action after the state intervened and demanded they make potable water deliveries twice a day and drill a new well by Aug. 25. Consecutive rainstorms prevented Bowie Brother’s Well Drilling from breaking ground until yesterday morning.
“It’s too little too late,” said park resident Shawn McNeill.
When McNeill, 60, and his wife purchased their property at Whippoorwill in March, they said management told them the water issues would be resolved before they moved in. Kelly McNeill, 54, said when they arrived from Nevada in May with their 10-year-old chocolate lab, Brady, the water problems persisted. The added stress of bathing with bottled water and spending extra money at a laundry mat was “brutal,” she said. The struggles became more pronounced after Shawn McNeill was involved in a head-on collision in June, leaving him in a wheelchair with a fractured pelvis.
“They give me jugs of water to sponge bathe my husband,” Kelly McNeill said. “This is barbaric; no one should have to live like this. If I wanted to go camping, I would rent a campground.”
Shawn McNeill said the new well won’t guarantee their water issues will be resolved. He said the dirt and rocks spitting out of his pipes for months have ruined the element in his water heater and destroyed his washing machine.
Attempts to reach Maine Real Estate Management’s legal team by phone were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.
Water issues aside, Kelly McNeill said the property isn’t maintained well. She noted a culvert outside her home was no longer functioning, leaving her driveway “under water” during extreme weather. She said the roads are uneven and rough due to repeated flooding and that three pipes burst this week at surrounding properties and have yet to be fixed.
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