How To Find The Best Pool Services Near You
You can hire pool companies to build and maintain pools so they function properly throughout the season. Installation and repair services performed by pool contractors include:
Pool construction: Local pool contractors build and install various types of inground and above ground pools.
Pool automation: This enables pools to run between pool mood or spa mode by flipping a switch.
Pump and motor installation and repair services: Pool contractors install new pumps and motors and switch out old ones for more energy-efficient models.
Pool heater installation: Swimming pool contractors install pool heaters and heat pumps to keep swimmers warm during pool season.
Local pool companies also offer maintenance services provided by pool technicians. These services don't require a license but do require experience.
Pool openings: At the start of the season, technicians remove safety covers and mount accessories such as ladders, handrails and skimmer baskets. They'll start equipment (heaters and pumps) and add chlorine and algaecide to the pool.
Pool closings: At the end of pool season, technicians will remove and store accessories, winterize pumps, clean heaters, and filters, add closing chemicals and fasten pool covers.
Weekly cleaning: Routine cleaning includes vacuuming, brushing tiles, cleaning pool walls and scrubbing steps and floors to remove algae and debris that can cause infections.
Water quality testing: Water testing ensures that pools are free from bacteria and contamination caused by improper pH levels, algae and other factors.
Maintain water levels: Correct water levels enable skimmers and filters to work properly.
Liner replacement: Over time, liners will need replacement. Sanitizing chemicals, sun and algae can fade them , and the liners can leak and corrode pool walls which requires replacement.
Compare Quotes From Top-rated Local Pool Contractors
Select a State To Get Started With Your No Commitment, Free Estimate
Get Free EstimatesResidents Of Arnolds Park Complex Face Lease Terminations, Fear What Comes Next
ARNOLDS Park — Renee Comstock thought she'd found home.
Five years ago, she used the lion's share of her savings to buy a 366-square-foot Mobile home and lease a lot at the Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage at 244 Highway 71. When she was a kid growing up near Denison, Iowa, Comstock and her family would make the two-hour journey up to Okoboji in the summer to fish, ride the wooden "Legend Roller Coaster" at the Arnolds Park Amusement Park and visit the historic Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin.
"And then I just decided I'm going to live up here," Comstock said.
First she settled in nearby Spirit Lake, Iowa, and spent about 20 years at Polaris Industries, where she worked on the line building UTVs. Later she took a job with the Northwest Humane Society.
People are also reading…
Finally, she got a mobile home in the Okoboji Trailer Park, right across the street from the amusement park she enjoyed so much as a young girl.
Renee Comstock refers to a notice of lease termination which she received from the new owners of an Arnolds Park, Iowa mobile home park. Under…
Thirty-seven places
Now age 60, Comstock says the idyllic memories of the Iowa Great Lakes have started to fade.
A few of the older family run cafés and smaller tourist shops she would frequent with her mother and father have been bulldozed. Not long after she moved to the mobile home park, Comstock began to deal with a combination of heart and kidney failure. According to a 2021 Lancet study, the median survival rate for those who have both is a little more than two years.
"I can't lift very heavy things or mow the lawn. I tried to scoop snow but had to stop because my heart started racing. Going up and down stairs is difficult. It's a lot like that," Comstock said. With those impediments, she still manages to look out for the Himalayan cat that wanders the neighborhood.
Those are all factors Comstock now has to keep in mind as she again begins the search for a new home.
On May 1, the Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage was sold to Midwest Partners Development LLC. The same day, the new ownership group, which has a P.O. Box in Arnolds Park, sent a letter to the residents of the dozen-plus mobile homes saying their leases would be terminated, effective Aug. 4. The group also provided a list of 37 places to possibly move to.
In an email to The Journal, Midwest Partners Development said its goal is to "provide a positive impact on the local community by cleaning up this area with multi-family housing and/or commercial development."
The response continued: "It might not be what some of these tenants want, but I would encourage anyone to take a drive through the property as it sits currently and see the deplorable conditions some of these mobile homes and property are in. I'm sure you have seen in the local news/paper how many tenants here are behind on taxes, but over 80% are also behind on multiple months of rent. This makes the business and property unsustainable going forward as it currently sits."
An email response to Sioux City Journal reporter Jared McNett from Midwest Partners Development LLC about the decision to terminate the leases…
"I'm pretty angry about it," Comstock said. "I have no family up here. I have nowhere to go. I have no money because I'm on disability. So what am I supposed to do?"
Larry Tech, center, talks about the possibility of moving his mobile home to a new location in Arnolds Park. Residents at this Arnolds Park, I…
What counts as new?
A number of other residents, and even a local pastor, are with Comstock in her anger.
Larry Tech, 74, grew up in Denison. From 1969 through 1972, Tech served in the Navy. A major duty of his was to bake for the troops fighting in Vietnam. Tech hadn't baked a day in his life before he traveled the 8,000 miles from Iowa to the Southeast Asian country.
"I remember the first sheet pan cake I made. I thought it was pretty good," Tech said. "I mean, I didn't taste it."
Larry Tech, 74, stands on the extended porch of his mobile home at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage with Gibson. Tech said he's tried reaching…
Later Tech and his wife, Shirley, found work at the Denison Job Corps Center. He taught construction for over 30 years and she was a nurse.
"I just loved teaching the kids. That's what kept me there so long," said Tech. He and Shirley loved being around kids, and became a foster family for about three decades. Later, Tech said, they adopted their grandkids. In time, Larry and Shirley decided to retire and move to Arnolds Park.
He said his mobile home in the park is a 2003 model. There's a patio extension coming off the unit. It's big enough to have room for two four-chair tables, two white rocking chairs, several plants, an American flag and a dog named Gibson.
One of the things that dawned on Tech when he got his notice is that Gibson wouldn't be able to go with him. He has called a few of the mobile home park options listed on the letter provided by Midwest Partners Development.
"One is Center Lake. And then they've got one by Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee has got like seven or eight spots. Center Lake only had a couple of spots. But he's only going to accept new trailers there," Tech said.
Asked if he knows what qualifies as "new," Tech said he didn't know what the date would need to be. "Why go by the date? I drive by (Renee Comstock's) trailer and she takes very good care of it."
Larry Tech opens the gate for his dog Gibson at his home. Tech said he likely won't be able to bring the dog with him when he moves out of the park.
Even though they're on Social Security, Tech said he and his wife are more worried about others in the park than they are about themselves.
Tech said he's bothered though by the timing.
"Why wouldn't he let us know a year ahead of time?" Tech asked about a property manager of the mobile home park. "Because most of us might stop paying rent or something. He wanted to keep us hanging on." The manager declined to give comment, on the record, to The Sioux City Journal.
Fellow mobile home owner Lana Bowman, 58, has resided for the past 13 years in a mobile home formerly owned Tech.
"We come in here with my foster kids and we cleaned it up. I put a new heater and air conditioner in it. I sold it, on contract, to a young man, I don't know who bought it after all that but then she put new windows in it. I mean this is a beautiful home," Tech said.
"And it's just going to be demolished," Bowman responded.
Lana Bowman, 58, enjoys the porch at her mobile home park. By her estimation, it would cost around $16,000 to move her home out of Okoboji Tra…
Bowman grew up in South Sioux City. She'd never visited Okoboji until she and her ex-husband visited for their honeymoon in 1994. It made an impression on her; she has now lived in the region for almost a quarter century.
"I love the lake," she said.
Bowman is a kind of social connector for tenants. She brought in other residents facing lease terminations to share documents with one another and vent their frustrations about what they're going through. On the Fourth of July, Bowman, along with her dog, Chloe, and two birds, Charlie and Rocko, host a party with food and fireworks.
Even when there isn't a party where they socialize, Comstock said residents keep in touch with one another.
"We all watch out for each other. And if there's something different, one person usually knows about it and says something to somebody else so we can figure out if there's something going on. It's a community," she said.
"All of that is just going to go away," Bowman sighed.
Phillip Janssen sits on the porch of his mobile home at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage. Janssen said he finally saw his termination of lease…
'A slap in the face'
Phillip Janssen, one of the younger residents of the park at age 27, said he told management he'd need a year to move out because he owns and operates two companies from home — a cab service called Clutch Cabs, and Advanced Lawn Care, which, as the name implies, does yard work.
"This location is the best place for the cab service because it's literally right down the road (from Arnolds Park Amusement Park). (We) pick them up, take them to where they gotta go and they don't have to wait very long," Janssen said. "I've got years of paperwork sitting in filing cabinets that needs to be pulled. I'm always having to go back and look at those papers to figure out what we did. And you can't just throw that stuff in a box."
A Rock Valley, Iowa, native, Janssen said he visited the Okoboji area when he was a child; it left enough of an impression that he moved there full time in 2018 and put most of his savings, about $16,000, into the unit he now lives in with his wife, Katherine, 27.
"If you saw the pictures as I got it, it was non-livable. I literally gutted that thing from front to back," Janssen said.
When he's not tending to his lawncare business or the taxicab company, Janssen's likely to be duck or pheasant hunting with one of the dogs he owns, tinkering with the piles of scrap he has near his unit or helping out other residents however he can.
Now he has to add to his to-do list: Looking for a new residence.
Phillip Janssen mows his neighbor Renee Comstock's yard. Janssen is one of the younger residents living at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage an…
Janssen said the movers he called wouldn't be available until October or November, several months after the termination date of Aug. 4.
"They're telling me I can go down by Hy-Vee," Janssen said, referring to the A and K Mobile Home Park, one of the 37 options on the list. Others include mobile home parks in Lake Park, Iowa, Milford, Iowa, Spirit Lake, Iowa, Wahpeton, Iowa, and West Okoboji, Iowa.
Multiple state parks appear on the list including Marble Beach, Emerson Bay and Elinor Bedell. The latter's website indicates that options there can run $26 a night for a standard, full hook-up in the campground.
When asked by The Journal if the state parks appearing on the list were meant as short-term options, Midwest Partners Development declined to answer directly. But representatives did discuss their process and their plans for early August.
"We have followed all state laws and given them their 90-day notice, which is 3x times as long as their lease states (30-days). Again, these are lot leases, and not rentals of homes or apartments. There are several government agencies out there that can help with relocation if needed and we encourage residents to seek that out during the 90-days. I would encourage you to go see the deplorable conditions this property and some of the mobile homes are in," Midwest Partners Development said in the email reply. "We have plans early August to start the cleanup and excavation of the property and all tenants will need to be out then. We also have utility companies who will be there putting in all new infrastructure (sewer, water, electric), and we will need the property vacant in order to do this."
Comstock called the inclusion of parks on the list a "slap in face."
"It's an insult," said Chris St. Clair, a pastor at Calvary United Methodist Church who's preached on the topic and is assisting mobile home park residents with whatever they need.
A list of possible mobile home park relocation options given to residents of Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage in Arnolds Park, Iowa. Residents…
According to reporting by The Journal's Des Moines Bureau, in 2019, about 45.6% of the state's lots identified by the Iowa's nonpartisan legal and fiscal analysis agency were owned by out-of-state companies.
That year, one out-of-state owner of several parks in Iowa increased rents 24 to 69%, the Des Moines Bureau reported last year.
In May 2022, the Iowa legislature passed a bill, later signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, requiring mobile homeowners be given an extra month's notice of a rent increase or when a landlord cancels the lease agreement.
Prior to the change, the mandatory notice had to be 60 days in advance of a lease termination. Democratic state legislators, such as Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville, Iowa, said the legislation was too favorable to landowners and didn't go far enough in protecting everyday people. The only lobbyist declaration in favor of the bill came from the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association, an industry group.
State Sen. Dave Rowley, R-Spirit Lake, called the legislation a "win-win" for tenants and landlords because it extended the termination and lease agreement timeframes.
"I haven't heard from any constituents or tenants," Rowley said about the current issue at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage.
Rowley said he thinks it's unlikely that the episode at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage would lead to further mobile home park legislation that might lengthen the period before a termination could occur.
"I do not know of anything in the works right now to build upon that," Rowley said.
According to the Iowa Legal Aid website, mobile home landlords are able to give a 90-day notice for any reason, or no reason, except under the following circumstances: An illegal retaliation, to make a space available for another mobile home or to end a rental agreement before its term expires.
"A 90-day notice can be given at any time during the month. The tenant must continue to pay rent, or risk being evicted for nonpayment of rent," the website said.
Chris St. Clair, a local pastor advocating for the Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage residents, reads over a list of places suggested for resid…
'We all knew what was going to happen'
"Everybody kind of had an idea that this was going to happen. But now, the next thing you know, you get the notice and it's 90 days. And they're not moving on that right now," St. Clair said. "I think that, if anything, and I can't speak for them, I'm guessing you all want some time. We gotta have time to either sell the units, so that they can get something out of the units or to arrange to move them."
St. Clair said the summer season is an especially difficult time of year to move multiple mobile homes out of the park.
"It just puts them in a pretty stressful situation. It was just as if a tornado came through and took them all but we don't have any disaster response for these 17 families to help them," St. Clair said.
Janssen added: "After Memorial Day, it's nonstop traffic. How are you going to take a trailer out of here?"
"They'd have to literally stop traffic," Comstock said.
"On both sides," Janssen added.
Tech said he thought the present situation was an inevitability once new housing starts going up next to Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage.
"We all knew what was going to happen," he said.
Lana Bowman refers to a notice of lease termination at her home in Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage. Bowman's lived in the area for about 25 y…
When asked about the tension of living in a town where land is at a premium and the demand for tourist lodging is constant, Comstock said there's a "very divided, fine line." Bowman said she and her neighbors feel as though they're being "pushed out of the community."
The first time St. Clair preached on the subject, there was some shock among parishioners but also an awareness that they're living in a community where poverty isn't well understood. Three Dickinson County towns, Okoboji, Wahpeton and West Okoboji, have some of the highest average home values in the state, according to data from the analytic website Stacker.
"There's nobody here who is going to advocate for folks who are struggling. We're a service industry place. They just built a million dollar unit to house students (for the Arnolds Park Amusement Park). And then you have multi-million dollar homes around the lake and other places."
Bowman can't afford to go to an apartment, let alone buy a home in the county. She also said she doesn't know how she'd be able to cover the cost of moving her unit and its addition. The price quote for moving the unit, Bowman said, was $6,000. The extra bedroom addition would be $10,000 on top of that.
A 2022 article from Forbes put the average cost of moving a mobile home at $9,000.
Moving costs of that magnitude are keeping Comstock from just selling her home and trying to start again somewhere else.
"How many people are going to want to buy it knowing they have to have the money to move it?" she asked.
Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage resident Renee Comstock stands on her front porch at her home in Arnolds Park, Iowa. Comstock said she's had to deal with multiple health issues including congestive heart failure and kidney failure.
Jesse Brothers, Sioux City Journal
Were all of the residents to just pack up and leave their homes or possessions behind, there would still be a price to pay.
"Any belongings left behind will be subject to immediate removal and/or salvage titles. Any costs incurred will be directly billed to current tenant responsible and may be withheld from deposits," the Midwest Partners Development letter to residents said.
"We've got to be out by August," Tech said. "Or..."
"They'll demo," St. Clair chimed in.
Phillip Janssen is shown in his front yard of his mobile home, at Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage, with one of several dogs he owns.
What's needed
"I'm still in denial," Bowman said.
Comstock said she's already going through therapy and the issue is weighing on her mind even more.
Janssen has spoken to an attorney and is considering his options under the law.
Tech had plans to vacation with his grandchildren.
"He had a trip planned to Georgia," St. Clair recalled. "That's what he had money saved up to. That doesn't go there anymore."
Lana Bowman stands in the doorway of her home.
But it's not just about the money for the residents.
"They can't do what's been asked of them in the time that's been given," St. Clair said.
From Bowman, "What all of us want is more time."
Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.
Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.
Monroe Co. Residents Start Cleanup After Tornado Touches Down
detroitnews.Com cannot provide a good user experience to your browser. To use this site and continue to benefit from our journalism and site features, please upgrade to the latest version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
