Marion County commissioners will hear an update Tuesday on the progress of sinkhole remediation at two ravaged homes in the Village of Calumet Grove in The Villages.
Building and Safety Director Mike Savage is scheduled to address the board during its regularly scheduled meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the McPherson Governmental Campus at 601 SE 25th Ave. He apparently will provide an update on the ongoing saga of the two homes on McLawren Terrace that were severely damaged by sinkholes in February and May of 2018.
A large group of Calumet Grove residents went to two commission meetings in April to speak about the dilapidated homes, which had been sold to Asset Trust Holdings LLC, also known as I Buy Sick Homes. Those residents made the two trips to Ocala to make commissioners aware of the issues they had dealt with since the sinkholes first opened up almost two years ago and to request that the Asset Trust Holdings not be given multiple extensions to either repair the homes or tear them down.
The two homes are located at 17092 and 17086 McLawren Terrace. The first one was occupied by Doris Morrill and was owned by a trust set up by her late husband, while the other one was owned by Frank and Jan Neumann. Morrill had to rescued from her home when the sinkholes opened up in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 15, 2018. The Neumanns were able to escape unscathed but one sinkhole at least 35 feet deep opened up just outside their lanai door.
Prior to Asset Trust Holdings purchasing the homes, three reports – two geotechnical and one structural – made it clear that Morrill’s former home and the lot containing it were unstable and dangerous at best. Two of the reports went so far as to say the home wasn’t salvageable and should be torn down.
