Residents of North Pocono mobile home park have to move hearths and homes

MADISON TWP. - When Dan and Toni Luscher bought their double-wide trailer in Kearney's Mobile Park I in 2004, they expected to live there for a long time.

They had more space than they needed with three bedrooms and two full baths. They added porches, planted shrubs and last year replaced the windows and flooring.

Now, they are being forced to move from the park and take their mobile home with them.

The Luschers and about 60 other tenants of Kearney's Mobile Park I and II were given notice from owner Robert Kearney Jr. that the park is closing. Their personal possessions, including their homes, must be removed by April 30, according to a notice Mr. Kearney sent to all residents.

The notice came after months of rumors about regulators looking into the shared utilities at the lots. The parks are served by two wells and have a sewage system connected to a common septic mound, tenants say. Both have had problems, the Luschers say, adding that park officials blame regulators for requiring expensive system upgrades and testing for forcing the parks' closure.

Attempts to reach the park office by phone and email were unsuccessful Sunday. The state Department of Environmental Protection and federal Environmental Protection Agency also could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

Whatever the reason, the parks' closing in less than three months presents residents with some difficult problems to solve.

Alissa Lozenski and her husband had decided to move from Kearney's Mobile Park II with their two children. But they have few options. Their parents and aunts live nearby, but they have medical issues. Money is a problem.

"I want to leave, but we have no money to go anywhere else," Mrs. Lozenski said.

The Luschers figure the cost of moving a mobile home would be between $5,000 and $7,000, not including out-of-town moves and the large mileage surcharges. Special pilings are required for newly set mobile homes. The bank that has the mortgage to the home has to approve the move, and that could take months.

The problem underscores the limits that tenants of mobile home parks face. While they often own the home in which they live, they rent the land and can be evicted. In January, the park raised the lot rent from $230 to $250 per month.

Mr. Luscher is on disability. Mrs. Luscher is taking classes at Luzerne County Community College, hoping to get into an allied medical profession. Their son, Connor, is in preschool and could have to change schools.

They point to their neighbors, some elderly, who have lived at the park for decades, as having particularly hard times with the prospect of moving.

The Luschers also have looked at land, but any option requires more money than they have. "We don't have that kind of money," Mrs. Luscher said. "If we did, we wouldn't be living in a trailer park."

Contact the writer: dfalchek@timesshamrock.com

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Residents of North Pocono mobile home park have to move hearths and homes