ADAMS TWP — A state requirement means the closing of a mobile home park owned by a family for two generations.

Brian Kennedy bought the 15-acre, 24-unit Kennedy Mobile Home Park several years ago from his father, who opened it in the early 1970s. The 18-home main section of the park will be closed, and Kennedy has decided to sell the land.

He said his trouble started in September, when a resident came down with the intestinal disease giardiasis. The resident went to the doctor, and the state Department of Environmental Protection eventually contacted Kennedy regarding the three water wells serving the mobile home park off Hutchman Road, across from the former township building.

But the fecal contamination in one well found in August is not the reason the park will be closed and sold. DEP officials told Kennedy that anyone distributing water to more than 15 homes and 25 people must have a permit because that is considered a public water distributor.

Kennedy said he has two options that would allow him to keep the property running: pay to extend 1,500 feet of an Adams Township Water Authority line down Hutchman Road to the park, or get the permit from DEP, which would mean upgrading his wells to meet state requirements.

He said either option would cost $250,000 to $300,000, making a solution cost prohibitive for Kennedy because he collects only $240 per month from each renter and still owes on the park's mortgage.

"It's so stressful," said Kennedy. "I feel terrible. Some of these people I have known almost my whole life, but there's nothing I can do."

Kennedy said DEP officials gave him until June to decide what to do. Since selling the property is his only option, he gave renters until the end of February to move or to demolish their homes. That gives Kennedy time to prepare the property to sell.

Kennedy said his situation is an illustration of what he sees as government oppression of low- to middle-income citizens.

"The people here are good people, but because they don't have high-paying jobs, they are being crowded out by the system," said Kennedy. "It's getting to the place where (lower income) people can't afford to live in Adams Township anymore."

One of Kennedy's residents is single father Grant Heffley, who bought his 1982 trailer in August, borrowed $8,000 to fix it up and moved to the park.

Heffley is a registered nurse at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," said Heffley. "I have an older home and no trailer parks want older homes."

He has placed a classified advertisement in the Butler Eagle requesting rental land, but has not had any calls yet.

"I'm basically between a rock and a hard place," a dejected Heffley said.

Matthew Cranmer, manager at the Adams water authority, said Kennedy and several residents from the mobile home park attended an authority board meeting in November to ask the authority to pay for the 1,500-foot line extension to the park.

Board members told Cranmer to put together a cost estimate, which came in at a minimum cost of a little more than $100,000. Cranmer said because of the sparse population along Hutchman Road, the authority's voluntary tap-in policy and the fact that mobile homes use less water than single-family homes, the board voted 3-2 against the extension.

"It would be a tremendous expense for us without a whole lot of return on revenue," said Cranmer.

He said the board gave the matter a lot of consideration, but also feared a sale of the property.

"It was a tough decision and, obviously, we feel bad that it wasn't feasible for us to do," Cranmer said.

DEP spokeswoman Freda Tarbell said the agency has had other calls in the past about the water at the mobile home park. She said the application fee alone for the permit is $750.

Kennedy said his wells have not tested positive for any contaminants since August.

Tarbell said officials told Kennedy he could apply for the permit or he must discontinue the operation of the well water system.

"So he decided that is what he is going to do," she said.