'Jet'-setting mobile home residents set to burn mortgage

PALMETTO - Ask just about anyone what their favorite thing is about living in Jet Mobile Home Park, and they’ll probably tell you it’s their neighbors.

“It’s the people, they’re so friendly,” said Kortne Lampman, who with her husband, Lee, moved to the park from Ionia, Mich., seven years ago.

Nora Kilby agreed.

As did Kathleen and Bernie Huizenga.

“Bernie had open heart surgery (while they were back in their hometown, Hastings, Mich.),” said Kathleen Huizenga, “and the stack of cards and letters he got — you wouldn’t believe.”

The friendliness could stem from the fact that many of residents are second-generation owners.

Just as the Lampmans and Huizengas, Kilby came south to take care of her elderly mother, who lived in the mobile home park.

“The funny thing was, I wasn’t going to stay in this park,” said Kilby, who moved down from Battle Creek, Mich. “But it was the convenience to everything that turned me — and the people.”

Jet Park was founded in September 1950, according to a park flier, on the banks of the Manatee River, just east of Fifth Avenue West, on 28 acres.

Joe E. Tankey, from Akron, Ohio, who was ordered by his doctor to find a warm climate, started the fishing camp with six trailers and named it using his initials.

The Tankey family owned the park until August 1989, when a cooperative was formed, and it was sold to the residents for $4.2 million.

On Feb. 24, the residents paid off their debt and are celebrating Wednesday with a mortgage-burning party.

Harry Poling, the co-op president since 1998, made it his priority to get the mortgage paid off.

“When I took over we owed $1,445,000,” said Poling, who with his wife, Dorotha, bought in the park in 1993. “We paid it off in 11 years — I’m proud of that accomplishment.”

The retired partner in a retail lumber company in Vienna, W.Va., said the park now will have more money to make some improvements.

Counting the recreational vehicle spaces, there are 264 units in the park, of which 230 are co-op member units. The monthly maintenance fee is $115.

Most of the residents are from the Midwest, mainly Ohio.

Poling said the co-op has the same attorney and accounting firm since it was established, and both will be invited to the mortgage-burning party.

Ward 3 City Commissioner Brian Williams, whose district includes the park, congratulated the park on its achievement.

“It’s great, and I hope they have many more years,” Williams said. “They worked hard to accomplish it.”

He said he has had a relationship with the residents of the park for years and has found them to be great.

“They are very active in the community,” Williams said, “and they participate in many of the area organization.”

Kilby said many of the residents hold fundraisers for the Southeastern Guide Dogs organization in Palmetto.

“We’ve been able to name several puppies,” she said.

Residents also can participate in the myriad activities at the mobile home park.

There’s shuffleboard, a swimming pool and fishing.

Also, there is a calendar-full of club activities held in the huge recreation hall at the front of the park, such as bingo, the Red Hat Ladies, baseball darts, pool tables, board games and card nights.

“My daughter asked, ‘Aren’t you bored?’ ” said Lee Lampman. “No way, there’s something every night.”

Kortne Lampman said if you want to watch a particular program on the television, “you have to tape it.”

Bernie Huizenga pointed out that four events had to cancelled in the recreation hall just to have the mortgage-burning party.

“You can be as busy as you want to be,” said Kortne Lampman.