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CLARKS GROVE — Thanks to grants for mobile home communities through Minnesota Housing, Hillcrest Community Cooperative is seeing some big updates to both the cooperative’s storm shelter and roads.

Gary Olson, president of the cooperative’s board, and Tricia Lau, office manager, said the cooperative received a grant for the storm shelter in 2021, and construction started in 2022.

The shelter is in the basement of the main office building and has been completely redone with new ceilings, walls and flooring. It is handicap accessible with a lift to the lower level and is equipped with sprinklers. There are also new restroom facilities.

Olson, who has lived at the park for 13 or 14 years, said they hope the shelter area can be dual purpose in that it can also function as a community center throughout the year where people can meet for parties and other gatherings.

With separate funds, eventually they hope to add a kitchen, and they are also setting up an exercise room. The amenities are accessible all day for residents in the park.

In addition to the storm shelter and community center work, in 2023 they found out the cooperative qualified for an infrastructure grant through Minnesota Housing for roadwork. They said they were awarded $2.2 million toward upgrading sewer lines and reconstructing the roads.

That work began in 2024, and they said it is 80% complete.

“If it weren’t for the grant, we’d never been able to afford it,” Olson said.

He said they had been planning previously to do some patch work on the roads in the park, but with the grant, they are able to do the whole park.

The cooperative, which started in 2015, is led by a board of directors, who are residents within the park. They said there are currently 72 families living there.

“Our goals are to clean up and rebuild,” Olson said, noting their objective is to keep the cooperative as affordable as possible. He touted their lot rents, noting they are some of the lowest in southern Minnesota.

Aside from the work through the grants, they have also taken out a lot of condemned homes and brought in a lot of new homes, which ultimately get sold.

This year they also plan to put up a pavilion and playground for the children at the park. They estimated at least 100 children live at the park.

He said Hillcrest is a nice community that is quiet and affordable.

Over the course of his life, he said he has had big homes and little homes both in Albert Lea and Clarks Grove, and he moved to the park when he downsized for retirement.

“It’s just a good community to live in,” Olson said.