Flash flooding closes roads, prompts water rescues in Berks County; Reading airport sets rainfall record with more than 5 inches

Jul. 10—For most drivers heading down Kutztown Road past the Airport Diner in Maxatawny Township, the Airport Mobile Home Park is barely a fleeting thought.

The park's 57 plots lie largely hidden from the main road, flanked by the quiet of the fields — a silence only broken by the occasional pulsing of helicopters from a nearby medevac pad.

Few have any reason to enter the park, and that small number has dwindled even further.

In October 2022, about 40 of the park's mobile homes were occupied.

Since then, most of the homes have been abandoned by their owners.

They left after being told to vacate the park by the owners' attorneys due to the impending sale of the land to C&B Development LLC, Wyomissing, which in 2022 submitted plans for a 754,000-square-foot warehouse on the 75-acre plot.

Those plans have slated the park for demolition, said Chris Paff, Maxatawny Township zoning and code enforcement officer.

Developers are scheduled to present a revised version of those plans before the township planning commission at a meeting July 20.

Paff said he didn't think the warehouse itself overlapped the mobile home park area in the plans that he reviewed.

He said the developers have yet to provide the township with an explanation as to why the park would need to be demolished.

Attorneys for the developers did not return a request for comment.

The park is owned by Nicholas and Sophie Prikis, who have been trying to sell the land since about 2008.

The owners could not be reached for comment, and their attorneys declined to comment on their behalf.

The sale agreement with C&B Development is contingent on approval of the warehouse plans, according to township officials.

State of the park

The park itself tells stories of recent departure — garden plants struggling for life as weeds creep into flower beds; sheds with doors ajar and supplies strewn about as if the owners grabbed the essentials and fled; wood panels falling off the facade of a house where the front door reads "home sweet home."

Only three or four residents now remain.

Among them is Cindy Hoffer, a resident for 50 years.

Every evening, Hoffer takes a walk through the area to enjoy the idyllic scenery and feed cats that were left behind.

"I raised my son here...there are beautiful sunsets from my door," Hoffer said. "I thought I would stay here as long as I lived."

Hoffer and other residents said they'd gotten appraisals from a firm hired by the park owners to value the mobile homes, but those appraisals are not being fully honored by attorneys for the park owners when residents go to close the sale.

The appraisals were performed by Lisa Foreback of The Frederick Group, Allentown. Friend Inc., a Kutztown-based social services nonprofit, helped coordinate the appraisals and covered some of the costs, according to Hoffer.

Neither Foreback nor Friend Inc. returned requests for comment.

Hoffer and others said some residents have accepted offers of as little as 60% of the appraised value of their homes from the park owners.

Hoffer said she's had her own issues with her original appraisal being low, and has since had her home reappraised independently.

Dennis Ritter, a pastor with Trinity Lutheran Church in Kutztown, said his congregation reached out to help mobile home park owners pay their portion of the appraisal costs and has since been assisting residents moving out of the park.

He said property owners have challenged the original valuations and are looking to reappraise the properties.

"What has happened in the meantime is vandals have come in and done damage to the homes," Ritter said. "They've torn copper piping out of air conditioners, windows have been broken, doors have been broken."

Numerous mobile homes in the park can be seen with doors askew, mangled exteriors and other damage that appears to show signs of vandalism and looting.

"I'm guessing it happens in the middle of the night because I don't see it," Hoffer said of the looting. "So that's a little bit scary."

Appraisal issues persist

Justin Chambers, another park resident, said his mobile home was appraised for $72,000.

He said he's tried to get in touch with attorneys for the park owners about selling his home but has received no reply.

"I'm not looking to sue these guys for millions of dollars," Chambers said. "I just want what is owed to me so I can move on with my life. But I've got no clue how to proceed, outside of getting caught up in some class action suit."

Chambers said it wasn't the first time the park owners' attorneys have interfered in the sale of his home.

He said he previously reached an agreement through a Realtor to sell his home to another buyer in August for about $80,000, but the sale fell through when the park owners' attorneys got involved.

"The sale had to be declined despite the check being in escrow," Chambers said. "We were two days away from settlement."

A letter from attorney Joseph O'Keefe, representing the developers, to members of the Community Justice Project, a nonprofit law firm that assisted several park residents with the appraisals, says the valuations appear to be incomplete because they were supposed to be based on long-term lot leases and a functioning septic system, neither of which are in place at the park.

The letter says the owners want to balance the appraisals fairly to reflect the state of the park's malfunctioning sewage system — which the letter claims it would cost seven figures to replace — and are open to negotiating home sale prices with residents.

Another letter from O'Keefe to park residents notes that the park's sewage system has failed completely.

It says the park would begin charging residents added fees for pumping out the sewage, as well as fees for other code violations in addition to their monthly lot fees.

"For several reasons, including a lack of capacity, connecting to Maxatawny Township's public sewage system is not an option," the letter says.

The letter is dated August 2022. Hoffer said her appraisal took place months later in February.

Paff said the township hasn't been contacted by park owners about connecting to the public system.

He also noted the township tried to have the park connect to public sewage in 2012 after Maxatawny built a new sewer plant and line.

"The owners hired a lawyer and fought the township to not connect to the sewer. Long story short, they won," Paff said. "Because there was a court order that said they never had to connect that capacity was sold to other developers. So it's true that there might be a lack of capacity (now), but that's kind of a misrepresentation. If they really wanted to connect, I'm sure there would be a way to figure it out."

Hoffer and other residents noted that the park never ended up charging them any extra fees for pumping the sewage.

Paff also said he's had trouble getting the park to comply with code requirements, including violations that dealt with road quality.

"Making sure they do the right thing by their residents is not the easiest thing to do with that particular trailer park," Paff said.

He noted that tenants had also faced code violations for not maintaining their plots.

Challenges dealing with park owners

Ex-resident Jeff Slostad said he had problems with his electricity, at one point losing power throughout half his home for nearly a year.

"I was one of two or three other houses that had the same problem," Slostad said. "My neighbor next to me lost power completely. It was the park's responsibility. They didn't want anything to do with it."

Slostad said the power issues began after the park's closure had been announced.

"It would've cost them about $12,000 to fix my electric. They just waited me out." Slostad said.

He eventually decided to move his mobile home to another plot in Hamburg.

The move cost Slostad about $30,000.

"I'll probably be fixing that house for the next six months," he said. "I wasn't expecting this (move), I couldn't afford it. This has totally disrupted my life. There is nobody that made it ahead after this move. Everybody lost."

Some things, like the shed and patio he had at his previous site, are lost for good, Slostad noted.

"I've had to do all this stuff while running a business," he said. "I'm worn out on all this."

Ritter noted that according to state law mobile home parks that close must cover part of the costs of the move — up to $7,200, depending on the size of the home.

Slostad said he never received any payment from the park.

"These people who are very low income are being taken advantage of," Ritter said. "That frustrates me and angers me. It is a tremendous issue of justice here."

Slostad said he'd spoken with other residents who were dissatisfied with how the park had been managed.

"They basically just let a really nice park go down the drain," Slostad said. "They didn't maintain the park or put money back into the utilities. They just took everybody's money and ran. Now everybody with no money is paying for the repercussions of their decisions."

Ordeal has taken a toll

Chambers and Hoffer said the park's looming closure has taken a toll on their mental health.

Chambers said the strain of the ordeal has forced him to take medical leave from his job as a caterer at Lehigh University.

For Hoffer, parting with the lifetime of memories that inhabit the place she grew up and raised a family is almost unthinkable.

"I know when I leave here, I'm going to be upset. This is the only place I think of as home," Hoffer said, her voice crackling with emotion.

For now, life retains some sense of normalcy for those few who remain in the park.

Despite receiving letters stating that all residents must vacate the park by March, Hoffer and Chambers said they haven't been forced to leave and have continued to pay their standard monthly lot fees.

She said she's considered moving her home to another lot, but the place she was looking into turned out to have issues with contamination from a nearby toxic site.

"I'm kind of up in the air," Hoffer said. "I guess that makes things even more difficult in some respects because I don't have a clear direction. I don't even want to leave here because if I do, my place is gonna get looted."