Nothing but crickets … GME residents residents still wait for a word from someone as to why landowner is allowed to keep utilities shut off
While much of Gasparilla Mobile Estates was dark last Saturday night, in the very back there was a little corner of festivity, complete with Christmas lights. Inside the Clontz home there were nine people gathered to eat, to drink, to share company among friends. Not long ago that was what the little mobile home park was all about. Christmas lights would have decorated almost every little home on every one of the street names identified only by a letter.
Many of the people who were there that night were getting ready to head somewhere north for Christmas, to be with family and to get away from the devastation that has plagued the park since a tornado hit them so hard in January. When Hurricane Ian came, it seemed it was trying to finish them off … and it almost worked.
Almost.
Larry Clontz and his wife, Patty, are working feverishly to exhaust every possible resource to save their beautiful home. The others who gathered with them – Ron and Patricia Cutler, Don and Shirley Cutler, Doug Cutler, Fran and Sam Jones – they all have homes in Gasparilla Mobile Estates that are well worth saving, too. But the landowner, a woman by the name of Carol Kropp, seems to be trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Just a week after the hurricane hit, Kropp sent out a letter to the owners of all 179 units in the park, telling them to vacate by November 7 and turn their titles over to her. The letter called the storm “an act of God” and that GME would no longer exist.
Owners from seven out of the 179 units in the park were still so shell shocked from the storm, they turned their titles in as they were told to do. Since then, two have gotten them back.
“If I told you to turn your title to your home over to me, would you do it?” Larry Clontz asked. “Of course not. But that’s what she did when she wrote that letter. She was just here earlier in the week with her attorney, and when that letter was brought up to her she said, ‘Oh, what letter?’ We told her it was the letter that was sent to everyone with no signature, the one that told everyone to leave. She said, ‘Oh, that letter.’ The attorney just looked away like he didn’t hear anything.”
That’s been a pretty common reaction from a lot of people who are confronted with the fact that, while more than half of the homes in the park are less than 50 percent damaged, it is starting to appear that everyone there might lose their homes.
The day that Kropp and her attorney visited, so did two ladies from the Florida Attorney General’s office. They didn’t seem phased by anything the residents tried to explain to them, including when Fran Jones explained to them that every bit of clean up that had been done to the park had been done by the residents, with their own money and on their own time. Kropp, she said, has done nothing, other than to make sure most of the residents can’t turn their water back on. Fran’s husband Sam is very ill, and Fran has been hauling water in five-gallon buckets since the storm hit. She is 72.
Even though several residents have gone through almost every home to see if there are water leaks, only G Street has running water right now. By the way, the park manager had told Kropp months ago that it would cost thousands of dollars to fix the water system in the park. It cost the residents who fixed G Street $1.50 for a small part, and it took a little over a day to get it done.
Another problem the residents who still iive in the park have is looting. Most of the street lights still don’t work, and suspicious vehicles coming through in the middle of the night is common. Just recently someone came in and vandalized a home, smashing everything they could get their hands on. Many homes have been burgled, many possessions have been taken. Still, the park owner has made no move to rectify the situation.
Clontz and the Cutlers said the situation in the 55-and-over park is akin to elder abuse. One woman who lives in the park, an 85-year-old named Mary, lives in a tent in front of her home. She volunteers at Cayo Costa most winters and is still very active, but the fact is, she is 85 and living in a tent in her front yard. Kropp has made it very difficult for any of the residents to get repairs done. In fact, she has had more than one contractor kicked out of the park upon entry.
“It is unconscionable,” Fran said. “She has done nothing to help us. Her attorney told us while he was very sympathetic to our plight, the park is not ‘sustainable.’ We heard that phrase so many times that day when they were here. You know, we aren’t the only ones with beautiful homes still standing in this park. Everyone in this room has a good, solid home still standing. Most of them have been appraised for more than $200,000. That’s why when we invited the ladies from the state to come into our homes, they wouldn’t do it. They didn’t want to say they had seen how nice they are. They flat out refused to come in.”
Clontz said at their last meeting with Kropp, her attorney mentioned that “the county didn’t want a mobile home park there.” They don’t know why that would be true, but they are starting to feel like it might be. There has been not a peep from county commissioners when letters have been written, phone calls have been made. But the core group of residents at GME who remain will keep trying, and will keep fighting.
“They can drive a Bobcat up to my front door and I still won’t leave,” Fran said. “Not without compensation.”
