LUDLOW — Workers continued to fell trees at the West Street Village Mobile Home Community in Ludlow Thursday, the smell of freshly cut wood filling the air, mixing with the sound of a woodchipper.
Several dozen trees that once provided shade and privacy for residents at the mobile home park were reduced to stumps. Some residents say they believe the tree work was being done because they are legally challenging an increase of rent at the park.
“These were mostly all strong and healthy trees,” said resident Ethan Field, the president of the park’s housing association.
Tom Lennon, the owner of the mobile home community, has been involved in a handful of lawsuits over the last year with several of the tenants.
Lennon did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. His attorney, Robert Kraus of Kraus & Hummel in Plymouth, told a reporter to leave a voicemail.
While Field was speaking with a reporter, two workers with Allied Tree Service, the company tasked with the tree removal, worked feet away. They declined to speak to a reporter.
Field’s dog, Jester, was barked at the noise. “They’ve been at it since just before 8 a.m.,” Field yelled over the chainsaw.
The tenants claim they received no notice from Lennon before Tuesday, when the trees started coming down.
Wanting to remain anonymous, she told The Republican that she moved in to her home at the West Street Mobile Home Community in Ludlow exactly a year ago, and one of the reasons for this was that she liked the tree coverage that give shade during the summer. Now that’s gone it’ll turn the mobile homes into “metal heat boxes,” Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Attorney Joel Feldman, a housing lawyer who has represented the tenants in their case against Ludlow’s rental control board, said Lennon is supposed to give tenants notice before any work is done on the lots they rent from him.
State regulations, he said, bar the park owner from entering private property without the consent of the owner of the mobile home. Cutting down trees in the common areas is acceptable without permission, Feldman said.
The regulations say manufactured homes, another name for mobile homes, and homesites, the land they sit on, are not common spaces.
The tenants there own the mobile homes but have to pay rent on the lots their mobile homes sit on. They challenged in court a decision by the Ludlow rental control board to greenlight an increase of their monthly lot payments by about $300 a month. While a housing court judge recently sided with the tenants, the case has been appealed.
Many tenants at the mobile home park are low income. Many of them are disabled or rely on monthly Social Security checks.
“We’re worried about (Lennon’s) intentions,” said Amanda Sturtevant, one of the tenants at the park. She and Field are two of the three named plaintiffs in the tenant’s lawsuit against the town’s mobile home rental control board. “He could move to increase our rent again to compensate for the cost of the tree removal or he could sell the plot to developers.”
Sturtevant, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, invited a reporter into her home on Thursday morning. The previous night, she called the police seeking reprieve from the noise, which, she said, had persisted until at least 8 p.m.
Amanda Sturtevant has been living at the West Street Mobile Home Community in Ludlow for three years with her 15-year-old dog, Allie. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Lennon’s decision to cut down the trees “feels retaliatory,” she said.
The tenants claim Lennon has only made cosmetic changes to the park, like repaving the roads and implementing solar-powered street lamps, without addressing deep-seated issues like plumbing or electrical issues.
“We won our appeal and now he’s taking out on the whole park,” she said.
Kerwin Ortiz, a tenant who is involved in his own lawsuit against Lennon, has lived at the park for the last eight years. More than two years ago, Ortiz suffered an injury from a car accident and now relies on workers’ compensation to pay his bills.
Ortiz’s lawsuit alleges Lennon is discriminating against him after he asked to use state assistance to pay his rent.
He said during the tree work, a branch fell on the roof of his car, damaging it.
“This is out of my normal personality to fight so hard, but I just want peace,” said Sturtevant while sitting in her living room. “It feels like we’re fighting Goliath.”
