By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Goffstown News/Rod Hansen Medvil Cooperative resident board member Gene Pelletier applauds as Betty Smith raises her arms in triumph upon hearing that members voted 171-64 in favor of purchasing the manufactured home park from its current owners.

A mighty cheer arose in the clubhouse basement of the Medford Farms housing community the afternoon of Saturday, March 11, following the reading of two numbers.

Those numbers were 171 to 64, the number of residents in Medford Farms and neighboring Village of Glen Falls who voted to purchase the two manufactured home parks from the current owners.

A total of 235 residents of the two communities, known together as the Medvil Cooperative Association, took part in Saturday’s vote. Linda Stonner, the association’s secretary, read the final vote at 4 p.m., following voting that began at 9 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m., and an hourlong vote count.

Saturday’s vote allows the cooperative association to purchase the park from current owners J.M. Kilmartin and Sons, and Medford Farms Realty Trust. Stonner said she expects the closing to take place before the end of the month. The purchase will total $11 million, with financing from Citizens Bank and the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Stonner said.

Under the new ownership plan, the cooperative association will own the park, and Evergreen Management, Inc., of Bedford, will serve as the park’s property manager.

Prior to the reading of the vote, several residents spoke out on both sides of the purchase.

“I voted ‘yes’ all the way,” said Ernie Poland, who has lived in the park with his wife, Grace, for seven years. “Peace of mind is the best reason. This way, I know no one can sell my land out from under my house.”

The purchase of the parks comes after a legal battle that sometimes pitted neighbor against neighbor. Members of the Medvil Cooperative Association filed suit in Hillsborough County Superior Court last July alleging the owners violated an agreement to sell the property to them. That suit was settled out of court in December, allowing residents of the park to vote on self-ownership.

Not all residents of the park favor ownership, though. Roger Buxton, a park resident who led a letter-writing campaign and has been the voice of approximately 25 residents who formed a group against ownership.

Buxton said he would prefer to see the parks owned by Hometown America, a Chicago-based company that is the second-largest for-profit operator of mobile home parks in the nation.

“I came here to rent, not to own,” Buxton said, adding that the cooperative association would now be responsible for handling and financing all repairs to the park.

“It’s their decision; now they’ll have to live with it,” Buxton said after the vote.

Buxton said he also questions the methods some board members used to raise votes in favor of the purchase. Specifically, he said some members of the cooperative association had hand-delivered absentee ballots to the association’s lawyer rather than allow voters to mail the votes in themselves.

However, Medvil Cooperative Association President Dave Doiron said this only occurred in one instance, and the voter had requested the board handle her vote that way.

Although not all residents agree on the merits of park ownership, all did agree that Saturday’s vote gave them a say in a matter sure to have a major effect on their lives.

“It’s incredible to see the amount of people who have come out to vote; their commitment to take advantage of their right to vote has just blown me away,” said Stonner.

The cooperative chose to have the vote at the Medford Farms clubhouse rather than the Goffstown High School auditorium, because many of the residents of the cooperative have problems with mobility, Stonner said.

While awaiting the vote results, members of the cooperative association waited in the clubhouse’s furnished basement, chatting at the tables, dining from a buffet-style outlay of snacks, pizza and soft drinks, and waiting in anticipation of the results.

The residents were joined by some members of the Goffstown Board of Selectmen, including Chairman Gossett McRae.

Although he said the board of selectmen took no stand on the Medvil purchase, McRae said he stopped by to hear the vote because he was interested in the outcome, and residents had invited selectmen to attend.

“Clearly Medvil is very important to the town of Goffstown, and we want everyone to understand we’re supportive of whatever decision they make,” he said.