VINEMONT — The Vinemont Town Council gave residents of Vinemont Village and Vinemont Estates mobile home parks an opportunity to voice grievances that have been plaguing the parks for months, but did not reach a decision on the revocation of owner Kevin Serra’s business license.

After Serra’s purchase of the parks 16 months ago, complaints of living conditions, excess garbage and raw sewage overflows began to arise.

The town of Vinemont’s attorney Roy Williams stated that the town of Vinemont has received a total of ten complaints dating back to September of 2021, six of which have been verified by the Cullman County Health Department and two of which are currently unresolved and on notice until the end of April.

During the council’s March meeting, councilwoman Sonya Copeland, who has been the most vocal advocate on behalf of the residents in the parks, made a motion to begin the process of revoking Serra’s business license which passed with unanimous approval with Mayor Redginald Dodson holding a reserve on his ‘yes’ vote.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Serra’s attorney Matthew Carter made the council aware of upgrades and repairs made to the water and sewer lines inside of Estates.

“My client bought this property during the teeth of COVID-19, unaware of the immense amount of damage to the water and sewer lines that needed to be addressed. In that time he has spent an estimated $378,000 making those repairs [at Estates],” Carter said.

Carter went on to say that any complaints of road conditions in the park as well as excess garbage were a by-product of addressing fixing the water/sewer problems first.

“…unfortunately to fix those issues, infrastructure had to be disturbed,” Carter said.

Speaking for himself, Serra informed the council he’s recently purchased 45 water meters from the Cullman City Water Department that would allow individual lots to have their own water meter. A first for the park according to Serra.

Citing supply and labor shortages brought forth by the pandemic as well as more than a $100,000 loss of revenue [Serra’s estimate] from the parks — partly due to excess water leaks driving up utility costs — Serra admitted that the parks were in far worse shape than he originally was aware of and asked the council for their “respect and patience” while he attempted to complete the necessary upgrades.

“If I had done my due diligence, I probably would have kept trucking up Highway 65,” Serra said.

When asked about the lack of yard work and grass cutting over the last year from Councilman Chris Thompson Serra also admitted fault stating that “we do need to do better about that.”

Discussions got heated when residents began addressing Serra directly with complaints of lack of communication between park management and residents, and accusations The Times has been unable to verify.

“Unless you are recognized to speak, keep your mouth shut,” Williams said to the crowd.

Councilman Thompson addressed Serra stating that he would be happy to see a plan for the parks moving forward, and to see progress being made to achieve those goals.

Taking the floor to discuss the decades of neglect from previous owner Jack Steel, Vinemont Estates’ resident Marly Burnett came to Serra’s defense.

“There’s still a lot of what Jack left, and if we can give Kevin a chance to do what he’s got to do, so we can have water and be happy — then he can finish making Estates nice and the Village can have their time,” Burnett said.

Speaking for the first time, Dodson closed the meeting by stating that decision would be made outside of a regularly scheduled council meeting.

“There’s a lot of instances where things should have happened, where things should have been done different. We can’t cure ‘em all. We can not go in the park and tell them how to do their job. We ain’t got the horsepower, call it trespassing, call it whatever the cat hair you want to. Instead of trying to hurt ‘em we can try to help ‘em by staying out of their hair, that’s all I’m asking for. The gentleman came here in good faith and laid it straight on the line. He’s not trying to hide nothing from you, he’s speaking in dollars and cents and I don’t see a thing wrong with the gentleman and what he’s done,” Dodson said.

“He bought a pig in a poke, he knows what that is. He bought one and it’s cost him a zillion dollars.”