(WSVN) - A neighborhood improvement project left one woman’s front yard destroyed. She called her town for help, but when she got nowhere, she called 7 Investigates. Kevin Ozebek has the story.
Marie Ressler tries to ignore the mess.
Marie Ressler: “I don’t even look at it. I don’t even have the heart to look at it, because I’m crushed.”
But considering this is Marie’s front yard, she can’t completely block it out.
There’s a huge hole in her flower bed.
Marie Ressler: “They have definitely trashed it. I won’t even go in there to pick up the garbage, because I don’t want to fall in the hole.”
Right next to the hole is an overturned water meter, chunks of concrete and broken pieces of her retaining wall.
Marie Ressler: “I’m a teacher. I teach elementary school. I don’t know how to fix pipes and water meters and things like that.”
Marie’s small front yard has looked like this for months.
Early last year, the Town of Davie started installing new water pipes, but after crews finished the work in September, Marie says they did not clean up, and instead of filling the hole they dug, they just covered it with a piece of plywood.
Marie Ressler: “It’s incompetence.”
Kevin Ozebek: “So you refuse to clean this up?”
Marie: “I refuse to clean it up. I didn’t make the mess.”
Marie’s neighbor also has a huge hole outside his front door.
Marie Ressler: “If you look down there, his hole looks even larger than mine.”
With pressure mounting from her HOA to fix her yard, Marie called the Town of Davie.
She says a town employee came out and had a look, but nothing was done.
Kevin Ozebek: “Why did you get us involved?”
Marie Ressler: “Because I couldn’t get any answers out of anybody. I got tired of getting the runaround.”
Immediately after we met Marie, we reached out to the Town of Davie to get answers.
Just hours later, town staff were out here and filled both holes, properly placed the meter and hauled off the blocks of concrete.
Marie Ressler: “I can’t believe that it took a phone call from Kevin to get somebody to come out. The resident should be able to do that without a fight.”
Davie’s assistant town administrator says its contractors left the mess, and, “The Town takes great pride in promptly responding to its residents’ queries; as such, we greatly appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention.”
But instead of seeing “great pride” on display from the crew sent out to make the repairs, our 7 Investigates crew was harassed.
Worker: “You guys don’t have anything else better to do today, huh? You ain’t got no drug dealer house you can go after?”
Marie Ressler: “The gentlemen weren’t very pleasant.”
But Marie says she’s just happy to have her flower bed back and can’t wait to replant it.
Kevin Ozebek, 7News.
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