The continuing saga of the sinkhole-ravaged homes in the Village of Chatham took yet another ugly turn last week during a Marion County Commission meeting.
For those who aren’t aware of it, homes at 17092 and 17086 McLawren Terrace were severely damaged by sinkholes in February 2018. Resident Doris Morrill had to be rescued from her home. Frank and Jan Neumann were able to escape unscathed, though a sinkhole at least 35 feet deep opened up just outside their lanai door.
A second wave of sinkholes hit McLawren Terrace in May and caused even more damage. Both of the houses eventually were sold to I Buy Sick Homes, owned by Hayden Wrobel. After multiple delays and a whole bunch of nonsense, he has until April 20 to have both homes completely repaired.
At this past Tuesday’s meeting, District Manager Richard Baier, appearing at the request of Community Development District 4 supervisors, raised a concern about the safety of $4 million in infrastructure near the damaged homes. He pointed out that the engineer hired by Wrobel, Mark Richter, of Richter Engineering Inc., elected to use chemical grout to stabilize the properties instead of structural grout, which was recommended by engineers hired by the District.
Baier also said that two engineers, including Scott Barfield of Andreyev Engineering Inc., had recommended the home at 17092 McLawren Terrace be torn down because it wasn’t salvageable. Richter disagreed with that assessment and said that kind of option is typically offered by insurance companies. He likened refurbishing the home to someone who has a car that’s totaled but elects to fix it and continue driving it.
Resident Marilyn Riccio, who lives next to the home at 17086 McLawren Terrace, said she was concerned about the safety of whomever purchases the homes.
“If the earth that’s holding the home is not stabilized with structural grout, then the home on it cannot possibly be considered stable,” she said, adding that she’s also worried about sinkholes eventually opening back up and damaging the pavement on McLawren Terrace again. “If Marion County signs off that these homes are safe, then something much worse than our road is going to be sacrificed – possibly the family that buys it.”
Baier asked the commission to consider having an outside geotechnical engineer prepare a peer review on the various reports and efforts to remediate the properties – an idea that sat quite well with Commission Chairman Kathy Bryant and Commissioner Jeff Gold, who represents The Villages portion of Marion County.
Marion County Building and Safety Director Mike Savage pointed out that Richter, as the engineer of record, had signed off on the work done at the properties. Savage said that’s what he needed and also pointed out that he couldn’t find any other counties or agencies that had conducted such a peer review.
Bryant and Gold weren’t deterred and asked Richter if Wrobel would consider letting the county have an independent review conducted on the home at 17092 McLawren Terrace. He first suggested the county had already done that – a claim Savage refuted – then said Wrobel had “indicated” he wasn’t interested in allowing such a review because he wanted to continue moving the project along. He also amazingly had the nerve to blame the frazzled residents in the neighborhood for the homes not being completed a whopping two years after the sinkholes first opened up.
“These houses would have been sold and remediated by now if the neighbors hadn’t delayed the entire project every step of the way,” he said. “That’s where the homeowner is coming from.”
That didn’t sit well with Gold, who said he was concerned because now that the county wants to do an independent study, the owner suddenly wants to wrap up the project.
“It’s very troublesome,” he said. “I’ve gone out there and there’s not a lot of work being done. And now that’s going to be the excuse that they don’t want us to come out and do an independent study? I think that’s unacceptable.”
Bryant agreed and asked Richter a second time to speak with Wrobel and encourage him to agree to the independent study.
“We are wanting that so we can give everyone some reassurances,” she said. “We’re not saying that we’re not confident in your work.”
While we applaud Bryant and Gold for taking a stand, we find it disturbing that it took them so long to do so. They’ve known for well over a year that two engineers had recommended that home be demolished but didn’t seem too worried about it for quite some time. We’re guessing Gold suddenly took an interest when he decided to run for a second term and discovered that close to 10,000 Villagers – residents who are known for casting votes – live in his district.
Like the two commissioners, we find it disturbing that Wrobel won’t do everything in his power to demonstrate that the homes and the property they sit on are safe. The neighbors deserve answers. They’ve gone through a nightmare few of us can understand, seen their property values decline, realized The Villages Developer could care less about them and no doubt spent many sleepless nights questioning their retirement decision.
As for Richter’s childish attack, he should be ashamed of himself. He knows all too well that those residents aren’t responsible for the outrageous delays in finishing those homes. But it certainly tells everyone exactly what they need to know about this sorry situation and the questionable tactics that have been in play for way too long.
