BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) – As the one-year anniversary of last July’s devastating flooding approaches, state officials are engaging local students to help out with ongoing recovery work for mobile home communities.
“We saw the need to help those families who not only lost everything but weren’t getting the maximum FEMA benefits and were responsible for getting their homes removed from the lots,” said Vermont Gov. Phil Scott.
Throughout the school year, career technical education centers have been chipping away at mobile home unit repair projects.
“We brought together a team from a number of different agencies to make sure no one in these parks had to worry about or pay for their home to be removed or deconstructed,” Scott said.
CTE students helped renovate salvageable homes wherever possible, honing their skills and helping their community.
“This mobile home project offered a lot of skills for us to learn that will help us with our future careers in construction,” said Ronin Kelly, a building trades student, who helped restore the interior and exterior, moved windows and doors around, replaced the wiring, and helped with plumbing. “This has a bigger community impact than just putting more people in the workforce because it’s giving us something that we can actually put out in the community.”
“I really enjoyed this opportunity and believe my classmates and I were able to use this as a real-world education experience,” said Ethan Garrison, an electrical tech student.
The state has distributed $670,000 to 31 homeowners.
“Being able to start something from an older project, tear it all down, and then build it back up with newer stuff and upgrade it and design it how we like is kinda cool,” said Kyle Fleury, a plumbing and heating student.
One renovated house will be up for auction until July 15.