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From The Observer News
(www.observernews.net) Top Stories By Penny Fletcher
Public works officials, however, say the water lowering was done based on a complaint from homeowners on the other side of Club Manor who live in Westwood Greens. The Westwood residents say lowering of the levels in the two Club Manor lakes helps drain runoff that during heavy rains, floods their streets and comes into their yards. The two sides can find no middle ground. Meanwhile, county officials say their first duty is to safety, even if “beauty” is sacrificed. “We own clear out to the middle of the lake and pay Aquatic Systems $140 a month to keep the lakes beautiful,” said Charlotte Muir, a 20-year resident whose home borders one of the lowered lakes. “We’ve always kept it pristine. We brought in fish to keep the bottom clean. We each paid at least $10,000 more than if we had bought homes that weren’t lakeside.”
The association has 32 affected homes, 16 on each lake, said Bob Garrod, who held a meeting of affected homeowners two weeks ago. After about a year of complaining, Westwood residents finally got the county to act, said Westwood’s president, John Thompson. “This was already going on when I became president,” Thompson said. “I’ve seen water within six inches of some front doors in Westwood Greens and when it rains, many of our streets and yards are flooded. This is a dangerous situation.” Westwood residents are paying for flood insurance, and they’re not in a flood zone. “This is expensive and downright ridiculous,” Thompson said. “If you go on the golf course you can see that there’s a real problem between Hole 6 and Hole 7. Water just pours down from there.”
With both sides suffering, the question now is who created the situation and who is responsible. Club Manor owners say they want the lake levels brought back up. That it isn’t their lakes causing the problem; it’s the runoff from the nearby golf course. County engineer Frank Deese says the golf course could be part of both the problem and the solution. “We’ve lowered the (Club Manor) lakes one foot. We could have lowered them three feet because that’s the level the original plans say the lakes are,” Deese said. “Now we may be able to lower the pond on the golf course and catch some of that water there.” But the county has no plans to restore Club Manor’s lakes. When asked about the white PVC pipes now visible sticking out all around the lakes, Deese said they must have been put in by residents to irrigate their yards. “The pumps must be in their garages,” he said when questioned about this. “Residents had to have altered the riser to raise the lake level,” he continued. “The old risers were made of metal and wood. All they had to do was put more boards in to make the elevation higher. But when the structure rusted, we (the county) put in concrete structures to replace them. We naturally assumed they were at their original level which is why we put them in at that level.” Deese is referring to a county public works project done in the early 1990s that replaced the original metal-and-wood weirs and drainage structures with concrete ones. That this was done to the height of the lake level at that time is not in question. Why the plans were not checked against the actual water level at that time is not known. Now the county must also worry about erosion of the nearby roads, which if flooded long and often enough can develop cracks and sinkholes. “So who created this problem, the county or the developer?” asks Garrod. “And why should we have to pay for it?” Muir has lived in Club Manor the longest of the affected residents. She says flooding all over Sun City Center has always been prevalent, but only in the last year has anyone considered tampering with their ponds. Club Manor residents say the county should find a way to work with the developer to drain the golf course elsewhere so all residents will be happy with the outcome. The current developer, WCI Communities Inc., is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the Public Works Department says it is up to them to fix the flooding now. No one disagrees that a combination of things led the flooding to worsen over time. The widening of State Road 674 and building of the new fire station about 8 years ago created a berm along the highway that affected drainage. “This is the county’s fault and they have to solve it,” said Club Manor resident Linda Crother. “We pay higher taxes because we’re lakeside. So let them fix our lake.” Deese however is concerned with safety. “We must make sure the roads are safe,” he said. “Recent rain events were monitored and lowering the lakes has helped some. Now we’re working toward lowering the pond on the golf course so the storage volume will catch the runoff which should alleviate more of the problem.” Residents object to the county saying they put in the white PVC pipes that now stick out around the pond. They say the pipes were part of the county’s project in the 1990s and they don’t think they should be left with an eyesore because of some department’s mistake. “They (PVC pipes) drain down, anyone can see that,” said Muir. “And can’t you just see us old folks out there digging those into the ground? The county is going to have to raise the water level back up and give us our lake back. This is ugly. We couldn’t sell now if we wanted to.” © Copyright 2008 by The Observer News Publications and M&M Printing |
