Volunteers Evicted from Riverdale
At noon today a Huffmaster crisis response security team, hired by Aqua America, arrived at Riverdale Mobile Home Park to clear the way for Aqua America’s planned construction. The private security team began to dismantle the barricades at the entrances of the park and to erect a security fence across the entire front of the park. Volunteers attempted to block these efforts by reconstructing barricades and standing in the way of the fence, but the Pennsylvania State Police arrived shortly thereafter. After 12 days inside the park, volunteers and supporters were given 20 minutes to gather their belongings and vacate the park, and warned that any who remained would be arrested for trespassing. A group of volunteers, hoping to slow this incursion into Riverdale, decided to not comply with the police. The volunteers held one of the entrances with their bodies, and a banner reading “This is a Beautiful Place, People Live Here.” As 40 state police moved in with handcuffs, several of the remaining residents stepped in, asking the volunteers to stand down, and move out of the park. The volunteers complied, and gathered in the public right of way to stand witness as construction equipment began to move into the park.
Aqua America buys land of mobile home park and evicts everyone
