A new home for trailer court refugees
A new home for trailer court refugees
By Jerry W. Kram
It’s been nearly six months since members of the Prairie Winds Trailer Court came home to find eviction notices taped to the doors of their trailers. In the uncertain months that followed, it became clear that the residents had very few options to relocate. Finally, it looks like they will have a new place to call home, which will be called the Riverview Subdivision.
The Three Affiliated Tribes is building a new subdivision near the old North Segment Building about three miles east of New Town on North Dakota Highway 23. The trailer court will have room for 46 units arranged along one long street with four cul de sacs branching off of it.
“There has been a lot of planning and working,” said Verdell Smith. Smith is a resident of Prairie Winds who has been working to find a new location for that court’s residents.
Smith said he and the tribe had been looking for a location further south, away from the highway, but there were too many complications building on or near land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“So finally we settled right here,” Smith said. “The tribe owns this area. I think they wanted to develop something else in this area but we were pressed for time.”
