Owners of Horses Face Eviction at Hansen Dam : Parks: The recreation area’s operator warns stable tenants after failing to reach an agreement over his own quarters.

In the latest twist in a tangled dispute, the concessionaire of the city’s Hansen Dam Recreation Center on Thursday threatened to evict 100 horse owners who lease stable space at the facility.

The threat comes seven months after the city tried to evict him from the site.

It is all part of a stormy conflict that has produced a libel suit, generated ill feelings and involved the concessionaire, a horse owners group, the city Department of Recreation and Parks and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But despite the threat by concessionaire Eddie Milligan to evict the horse owners, a top parks official predicted Thursday that the dispute will be settled amicably this month. “We’re going to solve this one,” vowed Recreation and Parks Commissioner Dominick Rubalcava.

Rubalcava said the five-member commission will take up the Milligan matter at its July 13 meeting. At issue are two mobile homes at the Hansen Dam site occupied by Milligan, his wife and daughter.

The corps owns the dam facility and leases it to the city parks department, which in turn leases to Milligan. According to the corps rules, human habitation is not to be allowed in the flood basin.

Milligan moved the mobile homes onto the site in December. The corps issued him a notice of violation Jan. 3. The city, complying with the wishes of its landlord, then served Milligan with an eviction notice.

On June 22, Jackie Tatum, city parks department chief, appealed to the corps to allow Milligan’s mobile homes and argued that it made sense to have round-the-clock management of the equestrian facility.

But when the outgoing chief of the Los Angeles district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Col. Charles Thomas, left office Tuesday without granting the exception, Milligan hit the roof.

In an interview Wednesday, Milligan said he could not “live mentally and financially” with the continuing uncertainty of the situation and decided to serve notice on his own tenants. He said he has already begun preparing the eviction notices.

U.S. Army Corps spokesman Jim Wittmeyer said the corps staff expects to brief the Los Angeles area’s new chief, Col. Robert VanAntwerp, on the Milligan situation in about two weeks.

Meanwhile, Rubalcava, assigned last month by his colleagues to resolve the Milligan matter, said he was confident that an accommodation could be reached that would allow Milligan to continue living on the site.

Last month, Milligan sued the Valley Horse Owners Assn., contending that the group had libeled him by sending city parks officials an unsigned letter that alleged that Milligan was a “little Caesar” who operates the equestrian center for the “monied few.”

Milligan alleged that the letter further complicated and delayed his efforts to straighten out his relations with the city and sued for $275,000.

Milligan said this week that if the mobile home issue can be laid to rest, his next quest is to have the city move ahead with its plans to grant him a 30-year concession to operate the equestrian facility.