Williamstown Town Treasurer Janet Sadler auctions a smaller trailer at the Spruces Mobile Home Park on Friday. This trailer went for $150.
This story was updated on Nov. 17 at 10:30 a.m.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Four town-owned mobile homes from the soon-to-be-closed Spruces Mobile Home Park were sold at auction on Friday for a combined $2,725.
Nine more trailers were available in a silent auction. As of Monday morning, no bids were received on those units.
In all, the town has taken possession of 50 trailers at the park since it began the process of closing it under the terms of a federal Hazard Mitigation Grant. Not all of the homes are in salable condition, however.
The homes were left behind by residents who have begun to vacate the park. Not all former residents have had the wherewithal to pay for removal and disposal of their trailers and have sold them back to the town.
An additional 31 trailers have been abandoned since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The town has asked a Housing Court judge to award it possession of those homes as well.
Everything - including the pads on which the homes once sat - must be removed from the park by early 2016 in order to comply with the terms of the grant, which calls for the land to be returned to its natural state.
On Friday, Town Treasurer Janet Sadler conducted a live auction of four of the town-owned trailers to a group of about half a dozen bidders. Two sold for $1,200 apiece; the other two went for $150 and $175. The entire auction took less than half an hour.
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