Pownal mobile home park getting long

Crews with Berg Construction have begun work on a long-sought water line replacement project at Pownal Estate Mobile Home Park in Pownal.

POWNAL – The decades-old Pownal Estates Mobile Home Park— located near the then-thriving Green Mountain Race Track — is making significant strides toward restoring its appearance and service for residents.

The ownership group, Patriot Holdings, which purchased the park off Routes 7 and 346 in 2021, has begun replacing the dilapidated water lines and plans to pave the seriously pot-holed gravel park roads.

Park manager Jody LaCross said crews with Berg Construction began work on the upgrades Monday, with a hoped-for completion date by November.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a trench had been dug extending along the sloping entrance drive, and water pipes were piled up on the opposite side ready for installation.

Once the new internal pipe system is completed, the park is expected to be hooked up to the Pownal Fire District No. 2 water system, which serves homes and businesses in the south Pownal area.

“We will all be getting our own water meters,” LaCross said. “Real water; it’s going to be nice.”

In February, a state grant of $657,090 through the Agency of Natural Resources was announced to provide technical assistance, permitting and construction of a new park water line system.

In addition, LaCross said, the residents have organized to help clean up the park, and a contractor has been in to trim some overgrown trees.

“The community has come together as well and done garbage pickups,” she said. “That’s what the dumpsters are for. Everyone has worked together and cleaned up their yards, and it’s been nice.”

The park has about 53 mobile home lots, she said, 50 of which are now occupied.

“I’m very happy this is finally happening,” said resident Kevin Russell.

As the aging water lines and on-site well pumping equipment brought an increasing number of system failures in recent years, Russell said he was one of those who hauled bottled water to residents.

During one extended system failure in June, LaCross and a neighbor displayed for a photographer a bottle of the discolored water that had become commonplace. That was true, they said, even after the pump was fixed, or re-fixed, and the slow process of building up water pressure had begun.

Pump repairs this summer did finally restore the best water service in years, LaCross said, but the park owners already planned to replace the water lines and connect to the water district system.

LaCross said Jennifer Seivers of the Patriot Holdings office has been “working really hard to get this done.”

Amid water service breakdowns in the spring residents had begun to question whether promised park upgrades would actually occur. But LaCross said project planning accelerated in recent weeks and optimism has been building.

Patriot Holdings purchased the park in September 2021 and renamed what had been called Alta Gardens Mobile Home Park as Pownal Estates.

Residents at the time described the park as “highly neglected” for years under prior ownership.

Patriot Holdings, based in Las Vegas, is a real estate private equity group that invests in such facilities as manufactured home communities and self-storage facilities.

The Pownal park was in its heyday when racing meets were held at the nearby Green Mountain Race Track. The defunct track was opened in 1961 and operated though the mid-1970s, when the track shifted to greyhound racing.

The track closed for good in 1991, and in recent years conditions in the mobile home park have deteriorated.

Jim Therrien can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 413-281-2646.