Spring Lake Injunction Lifted

The nine-year nightmare is over for Sandra Tyrell and Spring Lake Improvement District.

Bill Nielander, attorney for the district southeast of Sebring, and Kevin Ashley, Tyrell's lawyer, drew up a joint stipulation to dissolve an injunction, which District Judge Olin Shinholser signed on Wednesday.

"We got the notice yesterday that everything's all signed and sealed," said Leon Van, chairman of the SLID board of supervisors. "Now we can all go on with our lives and be happy."

"There had been a construction project by the district to remedy the water flow," Shinholser explained Thursday. "That corrective action will keep all the water off Miss Tyrell."

Spring Lake was ordered in 2003 and again in 2004 to quit pumping its stormwater into Arbuckle Creek, because it was flowing over the land of ranch owner Sandra Tyrell. At times, she said two weeks ago, water would be chest high on her land, and she had to canoe to her front gate.

Tyrell bought the 39-acre ranch in 1985 to offer trail riding lessons, board livestock and take in abused and neglected animals others don't want or can't afford. Today, she has llamas, lambs, a monkey and an incubator where children can watch chickens hatch.

Tyrell complained for years that Spring Lake's pumps were flooding her ranch. It all came to a head after Hurricane Ernesto in August 2006, when the golf course flooded, fish were dying in the streets and homes were threatened.

Because Spring Lake was allowed by the court to operate its pumps no more than 15 minutes an hour, six hours a day, Tyrell's ranch stayed dry.

But sometimes, when God closes a door, he opens a sinkhole. Ernesto's flooding also washed out sand around the pump station.

"When all this started - I probably shouldn't say this - I had never met her, but I had heard all the stories about her," said Van, who moved to Spring Lake nine years ago. "Sandy Tyrell was taking us to court."

Then, two years ago, Joe DeCerbo, who was the chairman of the board of supervisors, became the district manager. Van was elected to DeCerbo's old job on the board, and DeCerbo - realizing repairs had to be made to the pump station anyway - proposed talking to Tyrell. So they went to visit their next-door neighbor.

The construction project was finished two weeks ago, when the pump station was shored up and a seawall was built that keeps the stormwater in Arbuckle Creek and off Tyrell's land.

"Sandy wants to live where she wants to live, and I want to live where I want to live. I'm sorry I prejudged her without even knowing her," Van said. "We sat down and talked about our needs and wants, and it evolved from there. It turned out to be a nice solution."

Now, Van said, South Florida Water Management District also has allowed Spring Lake to pump its canals in anticipation of a major storm like Ernesto.

Tyrell couldn't be reached for comment on Thursday. But two weeks ago, she 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."