Water service temporarily restored to mobile home park after 8 days

Park owner Joseph Sandoval made $4,500 payment on his $10,000 bill

SAN ANTONIO – Residents of a Northeast side mobile home park celebrated the return of water service to their homes Thursday after living without it for eight days.

San Antonio Water Service cut off water service to the Plaza Mobile Home Park last week because the owner, Joseph Sandoval, owed the utility more than $10,000.

After the KSAT 12 Defenders got involved, Sandoval agreed to make a partial payment, cutting a check for $4,500.

Park managers Pat Molina and Krista Cox made the payment Thursday afternoon and water service was restored a few hours later.

"I am excited," Cox said. "I don't have to go stay in a motel room or stay with my family or buy more water, so I'm pretty excited."

The managers weren't the only ones relieved the week-long ordeal was finally over.

"I'm happy," resident Lisa Johnson said. "We're finally going to be able to take showers, cook, and clean our dishes without having to go buy it or go somewhere to take a shower."
Johnson said she was looking forward to giving her son a bath at home after a challenging week without water.

"It's been very difficult," Johnson said. "I mean we shouldn't have to go out of our way to buy stuff when we're paying our bills."

There's still work to be done at the mobile home park. Residents spent the day cleaning up trash and debris to bring the park back up to code after receiving violations from San Antonio's Code Enforcement Section.

Sandoval still has 10 days to fix the violations pointed out by code enforcement officers. He also needs to set up a payment plan with SAWS to pay down the rest of his bill. He has until next Thursday to make those arrangements or SAWS will turn the water off again.

Lisa Johnson said she hopes Sandoval follows through.

"I hope it's the end," Johnson said. "I hope this is it, that it's not going to happen again."