Managers of a mobile home park that federal prosecutors want shut down over health and safety concerns told a judge today they're seeking a small loan to pay down expenses connected with rehabilitating the facility until a larger $3 million loan is obtained.

``A bridge loan is a great idea,'' U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G.
Larson said in response to the Duroville Renaissance Corp.'s efforts to obtain
funding for engineering studies and an environmental assessment at the Desert
Mobile Home Park in Thermal, better known as ``Duroville.''

The DRC became the tentative manager of the park in April, on Larson's
orders.

At a status hearing, the management team told the judge that Canyon Bank
was in the process of reviewing a request by the DRC for more than $300,000
to cover various expenses tied to improving conditions at the park.

A $3 million loan has already been approved for large-scale
modifications at Duroville, but the lender put the money on hold until park
management can satisfy certain stipulations laid out by the U.S. Attorney's
Office.

DRC, a nonprofit entity formed specifically to sort out Duroville's
problems, is seeking a lease agreement with park owner Harvey Duro to assure
that the DRC will oversee operations at the park for the next 10 years.

In April, Larson denied a U.S. Attorney's Office request to immediately
shut down Duroville, which government lawyers argued had reached a state of
irreversible disrepair, and instead established 21 conditions Duro would need
to meet in three months to prevent closure.

Larson has since acknowledged that more time may be needed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Weidman complained on Sept. 8 that in the
four months since Larson's order, Duro and the DRC had not followed through on
providing plans for rehabilitating park infrastructure.

Weidman cited the lack of an environmental assessment to gauge the
impact of park operations on the surrounding area, lack of a formal business
plan to show how future cash flow will be generated and spent, and a lack of
progress toward paving roads that can support emergency vehicles.

He said the Bureau of Indian Affairs, on whose behalf the U.S.
Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit last October seeking a permanent injunction
to halt operations at Duroville, could not endorse an agreement between Duro
and the DRC, making the latter the new lessor, until there was more evidence of
a good faith effort to improve conditions at the park.

Attorney Mark Adams, the head of DRC, rejected the government's claims,
saying the park had come a long way in a few short months.

He reiterated that position today, along with DRC spokesman Tom Flynn.

``We're not where we were a month ago,'' Flynn said outside court.
``We've made a couple of first-downs on the field since then.''

He cited the success in evicting a dozen auto and restaurant businesses
that posed environmental hazards at the park and progress toward evaluating
each of the roughly 300 trailers that occupy the property for habitability.

Flynn said Orange County-based Clearinghouse Community Development
Financial Institution has given preliminary approval to a $3 million loan to
cover the cost of engineering studies and physical improvements at the park,
which rents collected from tenants will not cover.

CDFI comprises a consortium of banks -- among them Wachovia, Washington
Mutual and Wells Fargo -- that pool funds to underwrite low-income neighborhood
projects under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

Duroville, a 40-acre property located on the Torres-Martinez Desert
Cahuilla Indian Reservation, is home to between 3,000 and 5,000 migrant workers
and their families.

Many of the park's trailers are more than 50 years old -- and stacked in
tight proximity, with leaky pipes and propane tanks located underneath many
of them. A number of trailers have been destroyed in fires over the last few
years.

According to Weidman, federal authorities have tried in vain for five
years to reach compromise solutions with Duro to salvage the park.

Larson has set a tentative Dec. 16 trial date to give the government a
chance to argue its case for a permanent injunction against operations at
Duroville. The parties are scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference Nov.
24, and another status hearing prior to that, on Nov. 3.