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Expressing concern for the welfare of tenants at a dilapidated mobile home park, a federal judge said Monday he would consider postponing a trial that could determine whether the facility remains open.

"We're all hopefully working for the common good here," U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson told the parties involved in litigating the fate of the Desert Mobile Home Park in Thermal, better known as "Duroville."

"I want a solution to this," the judge said. "I don't want this to be about moving people from point A to point B."

During a status conference in the case, Duroville's managers told Larson that a bank loan to cover immediate expenses at the park had not been secured, but the process of obtaining the loan was well under way.

The "bridge loan" from Canyon Bank in Palm Springs, if approved, would be applied toward $70,000 in overdue utility bills, an engineering study of electric, fire suppression and sewage systems, as well as other predevelopment costs, according to Tom Flynn of the Duroville Renaissance Corp., a nonprofit set up specifically to address Duroville's problems.

Attorney and DRC executive Mark Adams agreed with Larson that the loan is the "lynchpin" to starting the process of permanently rehabilitating the park.

A $3 million loan has already been approved for large-scale modifications, but the lender put the money on hold until management's plans for the facility are approved by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In April, the judge denied a request by the U.S. Attorney's Office to immediately shut down Duroville, which government lawyers argued had reached a state of irreversible disrepair, citing broken sewage and electric systems, lack of emergency access to the park and trailers not fit to live in.

Larson ordered the DRC to take over temporary management of the facility and move forward with making basic repairs, hiring engineers for studies on how to salvage or improve infrastructure, setting up eviction procedures and securing loans to cover the costs associated with all of that.

Harvey Duro, the park's owner, is pursuing the bridge loan from Canyon Bank, which is awaiting letters of good standing and other certifications that Duro is creditworthy, according to his attorney, Scott Zundel.

He estimated it would be a minimum of two months before the bank would notify his client whether the loan will be approved.

Last month, Larson set a tentative Dec. 16 trial date to hear arguments over whether a permanent injunction should be issued, halting operations at Duroville for good. But Arturo Rodriguez, an attorney representing a number of Duroville tenants, asked Larson today to delay the trial at least 60 days -- until word on the bridge loan comes through.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Weidman argued against a postponement, telling Larson that Duroville's problems showed no signs of abating.

"We just learned of a pump failure on one of the two wells at the park," Weidman said. "There could be cross-contamination of the well, threatening not only the trailer park but the water supply" in the area.

Weidman said the state of the trailer park's sewage system remained in doubt.

"We can't wait for a loan," he said. "We need to know what the status is now."

According to Flynn, water samples are drawn from the park's water supply routinely and tested by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chemists. No potential hazards have been identified to date.

He described the failed water pump as a "corroded, rusted (instrument) that looked like it had gone down with the Titanic."

He said the well water was being supplied despite the failure.

"Without the money from the loan, they can't take the next step (to developing) a workable plan for keeping the park open," Larson said.

The judge, emphasizing the need for a "humane solution" to Duroville's problems, said he will notify all interested parties later this week whether he intends to delay the trial.

The interim loan could be as much as $500,000, according to Flynn.

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, Flynn said.

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 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 against Duroville.

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

Federal officials plan to inspect the facility Tuesday.

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.