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Pond belongs to no one, so who takes care of it?

Neighbors say it's a mosquito nursery, but neither they nor the city wants to take full responsibility for the retention pond's fate.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published October 10, 2005

SAFETY HARBOR - Deep in Tangelo Grove Village on Valencia Circle sits a round pond that is owned by nobody.

Its surface is thick with spongy green slime, clouded with bugs.

"In the summer months, the algae is an inch thick," said Richard Auth, who lives across the street. "It's got a rotting stench."

Auth and his neighbors say the 20-foot-deep pond is a mosquito haven, a breeding ground for insect-borne diseases.

No wonder no one wants to lay claim.

The neighbors say it's the city's problem. The city wants the neighbors to take it on.

When the 60-home subdivision was platted in the mid to late 1970s, City Manager Wayne Logan said, the pond was on a lot that included a house. But the buyer didn't want the pond, so the developer, Ryan Homes of Pennsylvania, sliced it off the tract and sold the home separately.

Ryan Homes kept ownership of the pond.

Around the late 1980s or early 1990s, the developer left Florida and offered $15,000 to anyone who would take responsibility of the pond, Auth said.

No one in Safety Harbor bit.

But a man named Marcel J. D'Hondt, then of Kissimmee, did.

In 1991, D'Hondt formed a corporation called Tangelo Pond Inc., which became the property's legal owner. That company was voluntarily dissolved later the same year.

D'Hondt, 79, now lives in Bonita Springs. His wife, Joan D'Hondt, would not let the Times speak to her husband, saying he "probably doesn't remember" anything about it.

"His mind is not too good," she said.

When asked if she recalled the deal, she said, "I don't remember much."

The Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office still lists Tangelo Pond Inc. as the owner of the tract but lists no monetary value or any owed property taxes.

"When (D'Hondt) didn't maintain the pond, the city went after him," Logan said. "But he filed bankruptcy."

This makes the property "a no man's land," said City Commissioner Andy Steingold, who heard about it while campaigning for election door to door this year.

Logan said the Tangelo Grove Village pond is the last unclaimed pond in the city. The others are owned and maintained by property owners or neighborhood associations.

Michael Molligan, a spokesman for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said the retention pond was built in 1981 "before our permitting," and, therefore, the agency does not have jurisdiction over it.

Over the years, the city has asked Swiftmud for a permit to modify the pond so its ebb and flow mesh with the water in Bishop Creek, but officials ran into a problem.

"The owner has to sign the permit," said Safety Harbor engineer Kim Tracy. "Without an owner to sign for it, we can't apply for that permit."

About two decades ago, the city erected a chain-link fence around the pond, which is just off Bishop Creek. Every six to eight weeks, it mows the grass surrounding it. And it hired a company to spray it once a month to rid it of algae.

But the pond constantly refills with algae, duckweed and cattails. It attracts mosquitoes and, sometimes, rats.

Auth and his neighbors want to stop the bugs by installing a fountain that would keep the water moving.

The city agreed to buy and install an aerator, a pump and supporting electrical equipment if the neighbors maintained the pond and paid the electric bill, which Auth estimated at $120 a year.

Auth planned to have the electric bill sent to him, and he would collect money from the five or six neighbors who live closest to the pond.

The city agreed and had its attorney prepare an agreement.

Auth was ready to sign until he got to the part about liability.

"Auth, his heirs, successors, and assigns, agree to assume liability for and indemnify, hold harmless, and defend the City, its commissioners ..."

"I thought, I can't sign this," said Auth, a pest control salesman who has lived in the neighborhood for 19 years.

He called Logan, who told him to write a letter saying he was unable to agree to all of the agreement's terms.

"Then I went to the commission meeting, and everything fell apart," Auth said.

Commissioners said they wanted Auth and other residents to form a neighborhood association and take control of the pond.

Auth resisted, saying the neighbors didn't want an association. They simply wanted the city to take care of the pond.

"See, we're not a big community with a big voice," he said. "We are a community of widows, retired people and working stiffs. Once the city touches it, it has the obligation and the liability."

Steingold, a personal injury lawyer, agreed.

"The city has been maintaining it," he said. "It is my opinion the city (has opened) itself up to liability should anyone get injured."

Under the agreement, Auth would maintain the fountain equipment while the city would maintain the fence.

City Attorney Alan Zimmet said in that case, if someone were injured because Auth did not maintain the equipment, he would be responsible. If the indemnification clause were taken out of the agreement, the city and Auth would probably share responsibility because the city would own the equipment.

City Commissioner Keith Zayac said, as a homeowner, he wouldn't want to take on that burden. But he's not so sure the city should, either.

"But it's not just as simple as us being good guys and take it over," he said. "It opens up a whole new precedent. All the other neighborhoods will want us to maintain their ponds."

The City Commission will decide Oct. 17 whether to require that the agreement include the indemnification clause.

For Steingold, the pond is simply a health issue, not only for Tangelo Grove Village but also for the entire city.

"Imagine that much water standing around in pots around your house?" he said. "It's a breeding ground for mosquitoes."

--Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 10, 2005, 01:18:12]