CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — When Luann Barker and her husband moved to Citrus County three years ago, they traded the beaches of South Florida for a different kind of beach outside their front door.
“There’s more sand here than there was at the beach,” she said with a chuckle. “Yeah.”
They live in Inverness Village 4, a Citrus County neighborhood that was somehow built with no drainage system. Years of erosion have turned roads that were never paved into deeply scarred sand pits.
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“We just feel like we’ve really been given the shaft,” Barker said.
It’s so bad that neighbors in Inverness Village 4 just lost another modern convenience: mail delivery.
In a May 3 letter to neighbors, the U.S. Postal Service described the roads as impassable.
“I do apologize for the inconvenience, but the roads are not passable with our government vehicles,” the postmaster wrote to neighbors.
Thursday, Lecia Hall, a spokesperson for USPS, clarified the change in a statement to ABC Action News.
Until the roads in the neighborhood are improved, neighbors must pick up their mail at the Interview Post Office on Hwy. 41.
“Local officials will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure the matter is resolved as soon as possible,” Hall wrote. “We appreciate our customers’ patience as we continue to successfully resolve their concerns.”
Neighbors like Barker understand why USPS made the decision. Barker says her mail carrier’s truck has gotten stuck multiple times while delivering mail to her box.
Instead, she places her blame on those who allowed the neighborhood’s situation to develop and worsen over the years.
What caused the situation in Inverness Village 4?
Right now, there’s relentless finger-pointing between the Citrus County government, a homebuilder, and the person who sold many of the lots to homebuilders. A solution has yet to materialize.
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Though the neighborhood’s roads were dedicated to the public, it refused to perform maintenance on the right-of-ways because no roads were ever constructed.
Meanwhile, Chris Matser, whose Van Der Valk Construction built many of the homes in Inverness Village 4, maintains it is the county’s responsibility.
“Every two weeks, there’s a county meeting, and every two weeks,” Barker said. “It’s the same questions and no answers.”
Barker hopes the setback with mail delivery will help spur a solution, but she’s not holding her breath. In fact, if she can successfully sell her home, she’s not sticking around to find out.
“I just don’t like being here anymore,” she said. “I just want to go somewhere else, fresh start.”
When reached for comment Thursday, Citrus County Commission Chair Holly Davis said any future ideas to solve the neighborhood’s stalemate would not come from her.
“I’m done,” she said. “I have no more tools in the toolbox.”
Weeks ago, Davis proposed a plan to allow new home development in the neighborhood if homebuilders install underground stormwater storage tanks to offset the addition of new impermeable surfaces.
To Davis, the plan would have provided a safety measure for the neighborhood, which would have prevented its existing flooding and erosion problems from worsening.
However, a majority of commissioners nixed the idea since it would have also applied to existing homeowners who wish to pour concrete for smaller projects like sheds, generator pads, and pools.
Matser, meanwhile, said he has contacted the county in hopes of brainstorming solutions but has yet to get a response.
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