President Trump’s border wall is dominating headlines these days, but many Villagers might not be aware that an equally controversial wall issue once existed right here in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
The structure, which quickly earned the moniker of the “Berlin Wall,” suddenly appeared in the wee hours of the morning on Aug. 10, 2013 on the golf cart trail between Paradise Drive and what is now The Villages Regional Hospital’s East Campus.
A highly popular path that had been used by Historic Side residents for two decades to access the medical facilities was suddenly blocked off by two sections of concrete wall – without warning or any kind of notice. And residents’ non-approved golf-cart access to several businesses such as Bealls, Lowe’s Home Improvement store, Aldi grocery store, Cracker Barrel and Wal-Mart had been eliminated as well.
Residents on the Historic Side of the community suddenly were in an uproar. Protests erupted. The wall was vandalized with graffiti and holes were knocked in it. Golf carts lined up on the path as residents gathered to discuss the nightmare they vowed to get removed. And the big question for those who relied on golf carts to get to medical appointments was simply: Why?
Not surprisingly, resourceful residents quickly found a way around the wall, which many believed was put up to keep Villagers from traveling by golf cart to stores outside the community and “outsiders” from entering the retirement community. Many traveled to the front of the Village of Orange Blossom Gardens and drove on the lawn area running alongside U.S. Hwy. 27/441. That quickly destroyed the grass and they were threatened with $166 tickets for using the makeshift path.
Four days after the wall appeared, residents found out that the Developer had installed it because of a “concern for security” and was willing to donate the homesite on Paradise Drive where the path had been located. And District Government officials were told that they would have to build and maintain a golf cart gate that would allow access to Villages residents only.
Finally, six days after it was put in place, a crane removed the “Berlin Wall” and there was a promise that a card-operated gate was coming soon. Like when the famed Cold War barrier came down in 1989, there were cheers and drinking. And like that triumphant day, those who suffered harvested souvenir pieces of the structure.
Lady Lake Mayor Jim Richards, who lives on the Historic Side of The Villages and had called the wall a “Midnight Fiasco,” said questions still needed to be answered. As he watched the dismantling of the structure, he said the issue still would come before the commission.
Then-District Manager Janet Tutt blamed social media for the controversy that erupted regarding the wall, saying “misinformation” had been spread about why the structure was erected. She said the wall had been put in place due to “a situation with liability on property and security.” And she took issue with the “rumor and misinformation” that the developer had approached then-VHA President Bill Gottschalk and her with the plan for a gate.
The Lady Lake Commission hosted an overflow crowd of angry Villagers and Stonecresters who came to express their frustrations with the wall. Richards was among the angry who had something to say.
“If I had done what I really wanted to do, I would have taken a front-end loader to it,” the mayor said, adding that the builders of the wall were never issued a permit.
The remaining pieces of the controversial wall – many Villagers had grabbed small chucks of the stucco-like covering as a souvenir – were finally hauled away from the area about a month after it first went up. It was the top story of 2013 on Villages-News.com. And the card-access gate that replaced the wall eventually was knocked off its hinges and the swinging-style gate was disabled – an ongoing problem that led to the installation of surveillance cameras at the location.
