Ypsilanti Township officials are hopeful the final chapter in the 3-year old Ypsilanti Mobile Village legal saga is being written.

The bulk of the former East Michigan Avenue trailer park has been cleared, and its owner, Dominic D’Mello, is required by court order to mow and maintain the property until it sells. The property has not yet been listed with a brokerage firm.

Township attorney Doug Winters said the township got about 90 percent of what it wanted in terms of clean up and clearing the property. Two free-standing buildings and some concrete remain, but Winters said he is satisfied with the progress.

“I think it’s about as close as we can be to having closure absent the sale of the property,” he said.

D’Mello twice filed for bankruptcy - once personally and once with Cormello LLC, his company that owns the park - hours before he was to be in circuit court. The moves were seen was by township officials as an 11th-hour move to avoid paying for clean up.

In December, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Tucker lifted the stay placed on any other legal action against D’Mello in filing for bankruptcy. In his order, Tucker wrote that a municipality trying to enforce its ordinance codes is an exception to the rule that bankruptcy proceedings stop all litigation.

A judge subsequently gave D’Mello 45 days to meet the terms of the order to clear and clean debris from the park, or face jail time. D’Mello failed to meet the terms by the deadline and was held in contempt of court. He was rescheduled for an April 13 hearing, at which time he would be taken into custody if the order was not met.

The park still wasn’t cleaned as April 13 approached, and hours before a hearing that could have led to jail time, D'Mello again filed for personal bankruptcy in U.S. District Court.

At a May hearing in U.S. District Court, the township only requested that D’Mello be required to complete tasks he can perform without spending money on hiring a company or renting equipment.

In his order, Tucker wrote D’Mello can personally remove all remaining rubbish, debris, mail boxes, landscape edging, garbage and other smaller items. D’Mello must also mow the lawn.

On June 8, D’Mello was purged of contempt in circuit court.

Winters said the case’s outcome, which has left D’Mello, a Troy resident, bankrupt and physically cleaning the park himself, sends a message to absentee landlords.

“One of the lessons here is if you’re going to operate multiple housing units, such as Liberty Square or a mobile home park, you have to maintain the housing stock and be a responsible landlord,” Winters said. “You cant let the property become a nuisance to the detriment of adjacent property owners and safety and welfare of the public in general.

“That mobile home park was a very, very troubled place for many years and a beacon for those who wanted to carry out nefarious activities. The manger and landlord there turned a blind eye to the property and what was going on, and that led to many problems.”