One of the nine people who died in a Sunday bus crash in Eastern Oregon was a Spanaway man who owned a mobile home park in Lakewood.
Dale Osborn, 57, was reportedly vacationing with his wife and were traveling on the bus that skidded off an icy, rural road.
Osborn owned and managed the Northwest Mobile Home Park located at 5108 San Francisco Ave. SW, near Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He was also a frequent contributor to Lakewood-JBLM Patch.
According to The Associated Press via The Seattle Times:
He owned Lakeside Terrace Mobile Home Park on Spanaway Lake and Northwest Mobile Home Park in Lakewood near Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He was active in the Pacific Neighborhood Association, where he was a former treasurer.
"He was an important person in this community, and this is a terrible loss," said John Ruze, a friend who lived near Osborn's Lakewood property. "He's been a mentor to me; he's been a mentor to a lot of us."
As owner of the Northwest Mobile Home Park, he managed his business' listing on Lakewood-JBLM Patch. Here's how he described himself and his business:
I am a real estate investor who started out with single family homes in January of 1982. In July 1994, a 27-unit apartment was purchased and we were involved with apartments mostly from July 1994 to December 2003. We did own a 31,000 SF office building in downtown Colorado Springs, CO from 2000 to 2002. After selling the apartment in December of 2003 we bough a 116-space MHP in NC in April of 2004. This we built up from 82 occupied spaces to 108 occupied spaces and then sold it February 2008. In March of 2008 we bought a 134-space MHP in Colorado Springs, CO. My Daughter is managing that for me while we are in WA. We bought Northwest MHP in August of 2009 and then in December of 2009 we spent the last of our funds we brought with us to WA to buy a 40-space 55+ MHP in Spanaway, WA.
He was also a Patch blogger who wrote about the Pacific Neighborhood Association. He commented on a number of articles. This was his comment on an article, Poll: Do You Support Governor Gregoire's Proposal for a Temporary Sales Tax Increase?:
The government must learn not to operate in the red. Better money management is needed. They must think the masses are a bunch of fools. The masses are getting tired of government always making threats to cut vital services unless they get the tax increase they want. It smells, looks and feels like extortion. Why not cut out the higher paid admin jobs and then they might be able to operate more efficiently. Compare government salaries to what the masses have to survive on and then you see where all the money is going. Greed will cause the downfall of one of the greatest nations. If politicians were volunteers and there was no pay compensation I wonder how many would continue in office?? Personal greed should not be their only reason for being in office. Perhaps their salary should be capped at the lowest level of income of those in their district they are supposed to be representing.
Patch will have more on this story as information becomes available.
