Monson Considers Emergency Mobile Home Lots
MONSON (CBS) - Hot is about to get hotter for Tina Partlow living next to her pile of debris in the town of Monson.
"It's a hot mobile home, like a giant easy-bake oven sitting in the sun," said Partlow. "It looks like a garbage dump in the middle of the desert, there's not much grass."
Any shade is now gone for the mobile home that's become her family's temporary residence after the June 1st tornado wiped them out.
WBZ-TV's Beth Germano reports
"This is a constant reminder of what we had to walk out of that day," she said.
Zoning regulations forced the Partlows off a temporary lot on her mother's property a mile away, and back onto their own Bethany Road property even before new construction begins. Town officials said the trailer was on a lot too small and too close to the road, and the Partlows say someone complained their trailer was an eyesore in the neighborhood.
"That's my biggest thing. I don't know why I'm stuck here looking at this here," said her husband Corey Partlow who has the plans for their new home in hand and hopes to have it constructed in the next five months.
The Monson planning board is now considering changes to allow trailers on emergency lots in the future, even if it won't help the Partlows now. Once approved by the board it goes to town meeting and the changes could be in place in the next few weeks.
"Hey, this was a huge disaster and they have to say 'okay' we need to change things and make an exception," said Monson resident Gina Dunn. It's the Partlows' mobile home dilemma that prompted the move for zoning changes in the first place, even though it's too late to help their situation now.
"I'm sure there's more than this one family that's affected and hopefully it will alleviate everybody's problems," said Craig Sweitzer the head of the Monson planning board who tells WBZ-TV he regrets the town couldn't have moved faster for the Partlows.
For many residents now living in what are basically construction zones, it's both physically and emotionally draining.
"It was difficult coming back here, difficult for the kids who had a hard time with it," said Tina Partlow. Now they wait for the day when rubble becomes four walls once again.
