I live in the Village of Country Club Hills and this area is notorious for grandkids living with grandparents. They are driving beat-up cars, staying out late, showing up at the pools all tatted up and don’t look like they have two pennies to rub together. I have witnessed this at Hilltop pool,Orange Blossom pool (which is private) and Paradise pool.
Also, in the spring, there was a couple and their dog camped out on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 begging for money. For months, they were there everyday. Now I have come to find, this couple and their dog, are now living with an older woman who needs help. So she has given them free rein of her home in the Village Country Club Hils. The house looks unkept from the outside and their cars are evidence of what they were doing on the streets.
Many situations are similar up in the older section of The Villages.
My husband was finishing up practicing ball at Knudson the other day, around 4 p.m. A very young woman came up to his cart, as he was getting his equipment together. He asked her if she was alright and she said she needed him to take her to Ocala. She had no purse, ID, and was dirty. He talked with her and said she needed help. He took her across the cart path to the Catholic church and talked with the priest. He did nothing. So he called the police. The sergeant gave my husband his card and case #. My husband called the next morning and the sergeant said she was in the hospital for observance.
When I worked for Paradise Rec Center this spring, we had encountered twice, as we were locking the bathrooms for the night, people living in the bathroom, as well as doing drugs.
But to get back to the topic at hand. There needs to be age restrictions. This is a 55+ community. The villages did what they could in Middleton to help support the infrastructure. Then, secure the rest of the community the way it was developed and enforce such.
Karlene Weherley is a resident of the Village of Country Club Hills.