Deadline extended for Wedgefield mobile home residents to move out

FLORENCE COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - Members of the Wedgefield community in Lake City met Tuesday night at the Ron McNair Life Center to talk about ways to move the remaining residents after a judge extended the deadline for all to vacate to Feb. 1.

Originally, the deadline was Monday morning. As it stands, about 20 families still live on the land.

At Tuesday's meeting, residents gave feedback about the judge's decision to extend the deadline and continued discussing ways to help those who still need to move.

"Our ultimate goal is ownership. We must know how to find out how to own your own home and own your own land, because in doing that, you won't have to be in a situation like this," resident Yamekia Robinson said. "No one can't take it away from you."

Earlier this year, everyone at Wedgefield was ordered to leave when the nonprofit group Greater Lake City Community Development bought the property the neighborhood sits on.

Since July, the community has met every Tuesday to figure out ways to get more support to relocate residents. Robinson said many who still live in the community are concerned about health, finances and the old age of mobile homes.

Felicia Coletrain still lives in Wedgefield and has for the last 25 years.

"It's just upsetting. It was upsetting for, No. 1, to tear down a whole … this is what I call community itself," Coletrain said. "We all came together and did things for the kids or what not, but it's sad."

Coletrain was one of the residents in the courtroom when the judge granted the extension. While it is a sigh of relief for some, she believed the judge could have made it longer, especially after referencing the weather in January.

"I just think we could of got more time after he said that he could of extended it to March," Coletrain said.

Weather is not the only problem. Even though Coletrain has a new place to move, it's money that's holding her back.

"It's costing me now $3,600 to move mines and I don't have no $3,600. I'm trying to find cheaper, but you know it's just a stressful process," she said.

However, the move may be for the best for the residents of the Wedgefield community. When she first moved to Wedgefield, Coletrain said it was a good neighborhood. Now, the property has been overrun with mischief.

"When I came around it, all three of my windows were bust out. They threw bricks. I don't know where they got it from, but they threw bricks in the windows," she said.

Now when Coletrain moves to her new land, broken windows and the stress of moving are things she no longer has to worry about.

"Where I'm going now, I don't have to worry about nobody breaking in. I don't have to worry about nobody throwing no rocks. I loving where I'm moving at now," she said.

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