Discovery Of Asbestos Drives Up Mobile Home Cleanup Costs

VPR/John Dillon

Crews demolish damaged mobile homes at the Weston Mobile Home Park in Berlin.

(Host) The unexpected discovery of asbestos in some flood damaged mobile homes is driving up the cost of removal.

So state officials and a private philanthropy are asking the public for help. The goal is to raise enough money so that mobile home residents don't have to use their own savings to dispose of their damaged property.

VPR's John Dillon reports.

(Dillon) Two by fours snap like matchsticks as heavy equipment demolishes a gutted home at the Weston Mobile Home Park in Berlin.

Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott - who also runs a construction company - is coordinating the removal work. He said the discovery of asbestos in about a quarter of the homes they've inspected is complicating the project.

(Scott) "What that's done to our project is that it's increased the cost a bit. For those units that have asbestos, where we've been able to reduce the cost to $1,500 per unit, that has the potential of increasing that to a total cost of possibly $3,500 to $4,500."

(Dillon) Scott and other officials say more money needs to be raised so the work can be done as promised at no cost to the homeowners.

Christoper Kaufman Ilstrup is with the Vermont Community Foundation, a non-profit that's raising money to help with flood relief.

VPR/John Dillon

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott speaks at the Weston Mobile Home Park in Berlin. as Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, left, of the Vermont Community Foundation, and mobile home park advocate Shaun Gilpin watch.

(Dillon) About 70 of the 83 homes in the Weston park were heavily damaged when the Dog River overflowed its banks. What was a neighborhood of neat homes and carefully tended lawns is now a demolition zone.

Donna French and her husband Glenn had lived in the park for three years.

(Glenn French) "A spot finally came open that we liked, so we grabbed it. Then this happened."

(Dillon) The flood left 25 inches of water inside, coating everything with mud. The couple had flood insurance but they used the money to pay off their mortgage on their ruined home. Donna French says park managers have told them they could move back when everything is cleaned up and the park re-opens. But the nearby river makes them nervous.

(Donna French) "She said we're welcome to come back anytime, but I said we're just not comfortable right now, coming back."

(Dillon) Finding housing for people like the Frenches remains a big piece of the post-Irene challenge.

Chris Graff was appointed by the governor to the Vermont Long Term Disaster Recovery Group, which is trying to meet needs not covered by federal agencies.

(Graff) "We can't even begin to put a number on it, but I think informally we know we have to raise at the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, we have to raise $10 million just to begin to think about meeting the unmet needs of Vermont."

(Dillon) Meanwhile, the clean-up continues. After contractors finish at Weston Mobile Home Park, they'll move on to parks in Duxbury and Woodstock.