CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Terry Omara is quick to admit that she and her immediate neighbors are lucky.
Unlike others in Inverness Village 4, they don’t experience the neighborhood’s frustrating issues to the extreme other homeowners on other blocks do.
“My heart goes out to all those people,” said Omara.
In the neighborhood outside Inverness, the sugar sand streets are unpaved. In some spots, the sand is so thick that vehicles occasionally get stuck. In other spots, the streets are scarred with deep potholes and fissures.
On rainy days, many of the streets become streams of silty, sandy slurry.
As ABC Action News has reported, a confusing stalemate between Citrus County and the people who developed the neighborhood has left neighbors with no relief and no hope for a quick solution.
Though Terry Omara’s street, N. Cunningham Drive, is in better shape than many others in the neighborhood, she does face a problem that she thinks could get someone hurt or killed.
Near Omara’s home is the intersection of E. Dawson Drive and Independence Highway, which functions as one of the entry points to Inverness Village 4.
As Omara and half a dozen other neighbors told ABC Action News, it can be dangerous to turn from Independence, a paved highway with quick-moving traffic, onto Dawson Drive. The street is not only unpaved but also badly eroded and scarred with fissures at the turn-off point.
“It’s absolutely a nightmare because when you’re pulling in, especially when you’re slowing down to pull in, you have to literally stop and gear yourself to miss or try to miss some of the holes,” she said. “I’m always afraid of getting hit from behind.”
It can also be a challenge to turn from the unpaved Dawson into the traffic on Independence Highway.
“We’re all spinning our wheels to get out, and that’s not good. So we have to wait until it’s absolutely clear on both ends,” Omara explained.
Neighbors say the county recently added a narrow strip of asphalt to the side of Independence Highway to help, but they would like to see a wider apron to give them easier, safer access to and from their neighborhood.
ABC Action News shared the neighbors’ safety concern with Citrus County, but Omara isn’t holding her breath.
“And that’s the sad part,” she said. “I don’t think anything is really happening yet.”
