MARSHALL — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will be visiting Marshall on Friday, an advocacy group representing residents of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park said. The news comes as Broadmoor residents have renewed efforts to address conditions at the park like bad roads and vacant, uninhabitable mobile homes.

While residents and advocates didn’t give details on the reason for Ellison’s visit this week, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has been in contact with Broadmoor residents in the past. Around 60 Broadmoor Valley residents and advocates met with Ellison in the spring of 2019. Ellison also toured the mobile home park during that 2019 visit.

Residents of Broadmoor Valley — Marshall’s only trailer park — have been raising concerns about conditions there over the past few years. The Broadmoor Valley Resident Association was formed in 2018, and members of the group addressed the Marshall City Council, and held events like a community cleanup and a Walk For Dignity at the park. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made it hard for Resident Association members to gather in 2020, said Broadmoor Valley resident Deb Ertl.

Things were also busy for the Attorney General’s Office over the past year, said local advocate Misty Butler. The Attorney General’s Office was involved not only in the response to the pandemic, but in prosecuting Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

Earlier this month, members of the Marshall City Council voted to declare four vacant residences at Broadmoor Valley as hazardous structures, and called for owner Paul Schierholz to either repair or remove them. Issues with the four mobile homes included holes in their exteriors, places where water could get into the structures, unsecured doors and broken windows.

Marshall City Attorney Dennis Simpson said the order would need to be officially served to Schierholz, but it would be the first step for the city to take action to remove deficient structures at the park. Simpson proposed that the city obtain an administrative search warrant to inspect a total of 17 properties at Broadmoor Valley. After that, the city could issue another abatement order, he said.