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Filling the voids of recent sinkholes
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT, Times Staff Writer SPRING HILL -- Rains have slacked off enough recently that Hernando County officials have begun filling the sinkholes that appeared in Spring Hill last month. "Now we're just filling in the holes as quickly as we can to keep ahead of the game," said Hernando County Public Works Director Charles Mixon. Most of the sinkholes opened in two drainage retention areas -- one between Mariner Boulevard and Lake Forest Avenue, and the other at Amidon Street and Bentley Avenue. "Those are the areas we're focusing on first," Mixon said. "Then we'll see where to go from there." Workers are filling the holes with sand, Mixon said, and for a change, recent rains haven't worked against them. "You just basically have to keep feeding the beast," he said. "As we fill the holes, the rains come and pack it down in there so we can add more. Eventually, we can get in there to fill up the void." Even as the larger holes are filled, the county's Emergency Mangement Department fields about six calls each day from people concerned that they have a sinkhole, said Danny Roberts, the department's interim director. The good news is that in the past week, most of the callers' concerns have turned out to be drainage problems rather than actual sinkholes he said. Though the cost of filling the most recent rash of sinkholes hasn't been determined, Mixon expects the price to come in below last year's total of $50,000. County officials are still trying to decide a more comprehensive fix, considering whether to pump grout into the underground voids or possibly drill into the earth and fill it with hard rock. Anyone with questions about sinkholes can call the Emergency Management Department at 754-4083.
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