Managers of a mobile home park that federal prosecutors want shut down over health and safety concerns will update a federal judge today on whether funds have been secured to pay for near-term costs tied to running the facility.

Last month, officials with the Duroville Renaissance Corp. told U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson they were seeking a bank loan of around $300,000 to cover immediate expenses connected with the Desert Mobile Home Park in Thermal, better known as ``Duroville.''

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

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Weidman has argued that park managers have failed to meet many of the conditions that Larson originally ordered to keep the facility open.

In April, the judge denied a U.S. Attorney's Office request to immediately shut down Duroville, which government lawyers argued had reached a state of irreversible disrepair.

Instead, Larson put the DRC in charge of studying what needs to be fixed and begin implementing changes by July. He has since acknowledged the deadline was impractical.

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 decade.

Orange County-based Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution has given preliminary approval to a $3 million loan to cover the cost of making physical improvements at the park, which rents collected from tenants will not cover, according to DRC spokesman -- and hands-on park manager -- Tom Flynn.

Before CDFI will release its loan, however, the DRC must become the new lessor at Duroville and establish rental agreements with the park's individual tenants, as well as two remaining businesses -- a laundry mat and grocery store -- according to DRC head Mark Adams.

All the proposed agreements have to be endorsed by 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.

The BIA wants proof that conditions are improving at the park before it endorses any new lease agreement.

At an Oct. 6 status hearing, Riverside County Deputy Fire Chief Dale Evanson told Larson that since the judge last visited Duroville in December, ``the roads are very much in the same condition.''

Adams argued the park has come a long way in a few short months.

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

The 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 most of them. A number of trailers have been destroyed in fires over the last few years.

According to Adams and Flynn, without the $3 million, a ``bridge'' loan of about $300,000 is needed pay for an engineering consultant, leftover utility bills and assorted predevelopment expenses.

The judge 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, provided the problems can't be solved before then.