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Highlands Today

Settlement Near For Spring Lake, Tyrell

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Greg Griffin, owner of Total Site Solutions, LLC, builds a revetment Wednesday in Spring Lake. The revetment will stop water flowing from Arbuckle Creek to flood adjacent property.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: July 5, 2008

SPRING LAKE — Joe DeCerbo thinks he's finally solved Spring Lake's water problem.

South Florida Water Management District has allowed a seawall to be built that carries excess rainfall directly to Arbuckle Creek, without flowing over the land of ranch owner Sandra Tyrell.

"This will, without a doubt, protect us and Sandy Tyrell forever," said DeCerbo, the manager of Spring Lake Improvement District for the past two years. "As soon as it's finished, we're going to sit down and have an agreement typed with them sitting there. We sign it, and Sandy signs it, and then we call the judge and get that injunction lifted."

That will happen, DeCerbo predicted, "no later than the end of next week. Let's just put a date on it. July 14."

A Short History Lesson
More than four decades ago, says DeCerbo, the Army Corps of Engineers diverted the course of Arbuckle Creek.

They dug a new channel and brought the creek to the border of Spring Lake, then inserted a 90-degree turn east to rejoin the original channel and drain the lands in northern Highlands County.

DeCerbo shook his head.

"Anybody should know that water doesn't flow that way," he said. It shouldn't take a hydraulics expert to realize that a creek full of rushing water is like a speeding car. If it can't negotiate that hairpin turn, its forward motion will force it to continue straight ahead.

Onto 39 acres owned, not by Spring Lake, but by Sandra Tyrell and Lakeside Stables.

The trouble was, the water coming from the north during extremely rainy days wasn't Spring Lake's, DeCerbo pointed out. But when Spring Lake's water met that deluge from the ranchlands and groves to the north, a flood was created that inundated Tyrell's land.

Injunction
The district collects rainfall in man-made residential canals and pumps it into Arbuckle Creek, which meanders southeast until it falls into Lake Istokpoga.

Which was fine, until Tyrell bought the ranch – indirectly from Spring Lake – in 1985 to offer trail riding lessons, board livestock, and take in abused and neglected animals that others don't want or can't afford. Today, she has llamas, lambs, a monkey, and an incubator where children can watch chickens hatch.

At one point, Tyrell said, the water crossing her road to U.S. 98 was chest deep.

"There were boats tied at the front gate," Tyrell said. She had to bring in hay for her horses and llamas by canoe.

Tyrell sued Spring Lake and got a judge to issue an injunction in 2002. The district was allowed to pump into Arbuckle Creek for no more than 15 minutes an hour, six hours a day.

Flood Zone
A storm brought the problem to a head.

In August 2006, Hurricane Ernesto dumped eight inches of water on Spring Lake in one day. Flood waters covered the golf course and floated dead fish into the yards of residents.

Ernesto wasn't so bad for Tyrell, she said, because Spring Lake wasn't allowed to pump its water her way. Instead, Highlands County pushed the water directly across U.S. 98.

Nearly two years after Ernesto, DeCerbo finally solved the problem, but it involved a change of thinking. Instead of fighting with Tyrell, DeCerbo decided to work with her.

DeCerbo, who had been on the Spring Lake Improvement District board for eight years, was appointed the manager.

"We have a major problem here," he told the board, the county, the water district, FEMA and anyone else who would listen. The former district manager had asked Florida's attorney general to take Tyrell's land by eminent domain.

"We need to forget eminent domain," DeCerbo said. "We gotta work with Sandy." DeCerbo met with Tyrell at his office.

"She just wanted to live on her land," DeCerbo said.

"You don't know," Tyrell said Thursday.

"I am absolutely almost bankrupted over attorney's fees. I spent $220,000 to defend my home. I never wanted to see Spring Lake flooded. It's a beautiful development. But they were trespassing."

What Spring Lake did was build what DeCerbo calls a seawall. It's more than 40 feet high in places, fortified by tons of stones, lifted into place by a track hoe.

DeCerbo almost guarantees it not to flood Tyrell's land.

"If it gets that high, we'll all be under water," DeCerbo said.

"It's a shame Joe wasn't there years ago," Tyrell said. "I am so happy. I just wish it had happened years ago. But it won't flood anymore. My property is high and dry."

Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

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