Williamstown Board Hears Emotional Pleas For Spruces

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Selectmen on Monday night heard empassioned appeals by two residents of the Spruces Mobile Home Park who want the town to reconsider a plan that ultimately would lead to the park's closure.

Residents Linda Bell and Linda Chesbro spoke during the public comment period as the board discussed the town's application with park owner Morgan Management for Federal Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Grant money.

"I've accomplished a lot for a single person, but this is the first home in my life I've ever been happy with, and the town of Williamstown wants to take it away from me," said Linda Bell, who appeared on the verge of tears as she pleaded her case to the Selectmen.

"This is a sin what's being done down there. ... Everyone in the Spruces takes good care of our homes. The majority of us want to stay."

Bell was among about a dozen residents who spoke during discussion of a plan that would see the town assume ownership of the land beneath homes like Bell's, place it in conservation and use federal money to develop affordable housing on town-owned land currently in conservation.

The goal, town officials say, is twofold: Remove the residents in 66 homes currently occupied at the privately owned park from harm's way and develop affordable housing on a parcel less prone to the kind of severe flooding that made 153 sites at the park uninhabitable after last year's Tropical Storm Irene.

Bell showed the Selectmen photographs of the inside of homes owned by herself and other Spruces residents, like Linda Chesbro, who also spoke at the meeting.

"You didn't even consider the residents," Chesbro said. "These are our homes. We own them. You just want to take it all away."

Chairman David Rempell thanked the Spruces residents and all town residents who attended the meeting to discuss the plan, first announced at the last fully-attended Selectmen's meeting on Nov. 13.

"It's no one's intent that it's 'we versus they,' " Rempell said. "We're dealing with complicated issues on many levels."

Town Manager Peter Fohlin, who announced the grant application on Nov. 13 — first to Spruces residents and later that evening to the town — emphasized that the town is still waiting to hear from FEMA. And he responded to criticism that has surfaced over the last month that the town pursued the grant without public discussion.

"It wasn't discussed sooner because we didn't think we'd get the grant," Fohlin said. "When ('super storm') Sandy hit, it was time to talk about ideas."

After the meeting, Selectman Thomas Sheldon clarified that the Selectmen had been informed about the grant application as long ago as last spring but shared Fohlin's concern that public discussion early in the process could do more harm than good.

Sheldon characterized the grant proposal as "a long shot" before the town this fall started to receive indications from FEMA that it might be approved.

Sheldon, who chaired the panel when the grant process began, said the board's initial discussions of a grant application grew out of executive session meetings to deal with Morgan Management's lawsuit against the town.

Discussion of "strategy with respect to ... litigation" is an allowable purpose of non-public executive sessions under the commonwealth's Open Meeting Law.

Above, Spruces resident Linda Bell shows the board photos of the interiors of Spruces homes, including hers. Below, Longview Terrace resident Robert Scerbo addresses the board about the use of conserved land.

Both Rempell and Fohlin on Monday acknowledged the human impact of any plan that would include closing the Spruces, which Morgan Management is on record saying it cannot operate with fewer than 180 homes — nearly three times the number of habitable sites at the park after Irene.

"I can't help you with your feelings about your home," Fohlin said, addressing Bell. "Those are valid, and I understand them."

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