ORANGE PARK – The Parkway Inn, formerly known as Rodeway Inn, has been witness to hundreds of crimes in its time perched at The Town of Orange Park’s edge. A judge’s decision to close the hotel could help the crime problem that plagued the town, but it also introduces new problems for the motel’s precariously housed families.

For officials and law enforcement in the Town of Orange Park, Circuit Judge Mike Sharrit’s ruling last Wednesday to close the motel may mean fewer calls to the Orange Park Police Department and the closure of what many consider the town’s biggest blemish at 300 Park Ave.

An exodus will take place for the families living out of the $40-a-night motel, having had only 16 days to locate housing.

Sharrit’s ruling enforces the town’s closure petition filed by after many failed attempts to fix the problems the motel presented to the town. The motel will close effective July 1, and aims to reopen Dec. 31, granted the motel cures the public safety issues caused from prevalent pop-up meth labs, prostitution busts and fire hazards, which forced the Town of Orange Park to declare it a public nuisance. The motel was also the scene of a murder in late 2012.

Patrick Hayle, chief executive officer of Mercy Support Services on Fleming Island, said the nonprofit is working in tandem with the nonprofit Changing Homelessness to identify and assist the families looking for a helping hand between now and July 1. He said it’s challenging identifying the families that need assistance.

“We are going to meet and come up with a strategy as to how we’re going to approach that, but we haven’t met yet and talked about a strategy,” Hayle said. “We don’t know how many people in the hotel are going to definitely need our help, so all of those things need to be established.”

Mercy Support Services and Changing Homelessness have taken measures prior to the motel’s closure to identify the needs of the families who, deterred by high security deposits and transportation, have resigned themselves for temporary residency at the motel.

“I don’t miss anything about that hotel,” said Courtney Bishop, a former resident of the motel. “The staff, the people they had working there, the people that lived there, the nastiness of the hotel, yeah, I don’t miss any bit of it. There’s not a good thing to say about it other than I had a roof over my head. There’s not a thing that I can say.”

Bishop pooled her money with another former Parkway Inn resident and rented a house in Jacksonville’s Riverside area.

Bishop’s mother and two children, whom her mother has custody of, still live in the motel. Before July 1, she said they plan to move to Jacksonville, North Carolina, where she said, the schools are better and the neighborhoods are safer.

Bishop said she could have never moved out if Metro Diner had not hired her. She hopes to move her way up the cooperate ladder of Metro Diner and financially stabilize herself so she can regain custody of her two children.

Black mold, roaches and faulty plumbing contributed to the oppressive atmosphere Bishop’s family felt. Constant visits from the Orange Park Police Department didn’t help either. Police Chief Gary Goble said, that in one year, his department had 760 calls to the motel’s premises.

“It was taxing our services – that’s the only place in town that we responded that many times to those types of crimes,” Goble said, adding that while the motel was found to have another meth lab while under the jurisdiction of the Nuisance Abatement Board on Feb. 2, 2015.

Dan Copeland, the attorney representing Parkway owner Jax Inns Inc. and motel owner Rick Patel, filed a motion for an emergency rehearing of the case last Friday, which the judge later denied. Under Florida law, it is up to the court’s discretion whether to grant a rehearing or not.

“As far as the town’s concerned, the board issued its order, that order was then reviewed by a circuit judge and the circuit judge ruled that the order was appropriate,” said Sam Garrison, attorney for the Town of Orange Park. “From the towns perspective the matter is resolved and we’re moving forward towards whatever is next to ensure the nuisance is abated.”

As the rehearing motion fell on deaf ears, so too did a March countersuit by the motel. Sharrit threw out the countersuit for failing to state a proper legal basis that would authorize the town to pay the motel damages.

July 1 is fast approach, service agencies will continue to identify the residents in need at the motel and give assistance where necessary.

“Everything is starting to look way up, I’m just glad to be gone away from that damn hotel,” Bishop said.