Water-Related News

Failing drains worry Tanglewood residents

Residents on Whistlestop in Tanglewood report that theirs is just one of more than a dozen collapsed drains in the manufactured home community.

Residents pointed to several locations of drain holes throughout the community, some of them shored up by infill of sand and shell, and most with signs of previous repairs. They said it doesn’t appear that park management is working on the problem, but a letter from the corporate office in Chicago states that the problems are being addressed as quickly as possible, though that may not be as quickly as residents want.

“That was just a little hiccup last year. They would just fill it in and fill it in,” said Cybil Rock, pointing at the Whistlestop drain near her house, now blocking the street with barricades and yellow tape reaching from one side of the road to the other. She and her husband just recently returned to Tanglewood from their northern home.

“I was shocked when I saw what happened,” said Rock, one of the park’s earliest residents since 2000. “Since I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen any sinkholes.”

Now there are enough to grab some attention. Terry Barry gathered signatures on a petition and sent that with a letter to park management on Oct. 2. Management then forwarded it to corporate headquarters in Chicago. Barry then received a letter dated Oct. 5 from Lindsay Harris, Florida regional assistant in Oviedo, on behalf of Stephen Braun, chief operating officer for Hometown America Communities in Chicago, who issued a statement.