MONTEVIDEO — The former Valley View Estates trailer park near Montevideo has a bright-looking future based on the plans of an interested buyer.

Jason Rongstad of Montevideo and his family have plans to build a single family, owner-occupied house on the property; along with a horse barn. The trailer park area will be combined with another adjacent wooded parcel for about a 14-acre tract next to U.S. Highway 212.

Yellow Medicine County officials voted this week to forego collection of back taxes and current taxes for the 13 remaining trailers. The grand total of $6,312 was written off after a recommendation from Yellow Medicine County Property and Public Services Director Janel Timm.

She said efforts to collect the taxes would have to involve finding out if owners of record for each of the 13 trailers are actually still the current owners. Records on file date back to when they were last registered with the Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles.

“We have the ability to waive mobile home taxes if we can’t collect them or if it would cost too much to follow through with collection procedures,” Timm said. “It would probably cost more than what’s due.”

She said the county could have opted to seize the trailers as forfeited property. That option was not recommended, however, since all of the units are beyond repair and have only a limited salvage value. Some of them have mostly collapsed roofs.

The entire Valley View housing area has been closed for the past several years. It was declared uninhabitable by the Minnesota Department of Health because of a combination health and safety concerns.

They include 21 septic tanks that don’t conform to 21st century planning and zoning standards. The property also has four unusable wells.

Those issues will be addressed in the process of redevelopment; which will also involve disposal of the trailers, removal of other junk and debris, and removal of an abandoned automobile.

Along with forgiveness of taxes, county commissioners approved spending $843 in redevelopment grant funds. They’re available in the 2019 budget and can be spent on the property under existing county redevelopment grant guidelines.

“A grant can apply because the site work will involve removal of blight,” said Yellow Medicine County Administrator Angie Steinbach. “It’s a very unique situation.”

Sheriff Bill Flatten said no one is currently living at the Valley View property in violation of the Department of Health order. The county’s actions should thereby eanble redevelopment efforts to begin at any point this fall.

Rongstad’s mother, Cheryl Munson, said the family “can’t wait” to begin improving the property based on their redevelopment goals. They hope that salvage of scrap metal and possibly some other materials will partly defray some of the clean-up expenses.

“Before we did anything, we had to know where we stood on the taxes and removal of the trailers,” Munson said. “We needed to know what to expect.”

Yellow Medicine County Commissioner Gary Johnson, who lives in Stony Run Township west of Montevideo within several miles of the Valley View property, said the chance to transfer ownership with the goal of redevelopment is a pleasant surprise for county taxpayers.

“We’re fortunate that someone wants to buy it, someone who’s willing to do what it takes to make the area valuable,” Johnson said. “It’s the best thing that could have happened. Otherwise I’m sure the county would have ended up with it.”