I rented a lot to camp on in Sebring Gardens, a trailer park, in Sebring FL in 1989. The rent was $60 / month. The owner was Tod Bloemsma, son of the landlord of a big trailer park here in Sebring. I moved to Sebring Gardens to escape from Highland Wheel Estates trailer park also in Sebring: more of that later.
Sebring Gardens is a park with a few year round residents but mostly snowbirds: the park is full of trailers but few people are present off season.
In 1989 Sebring Gardens had lots of trees. This area had been pine flatwoods, all slash pine. All slash pine had been removed. Very few of the replacement trees were native: that is, frost tolerant. One or two oaks had been planted but most of the trees were fast growing junk trees: Australian pine, melaleuca ...
The winter of 1990 had severe frost. Many of the trees were frost damaged: had dead branches, or the whole tree had died.
In the spring of 1990 Tod Bloemsma was told by the state of FL to remove the dead trees. Months passed.
In the summer of 1990 there was a freak tornado. It began on Brunns Road, swept through Sebring Gardens, ran east toward Highway 27, and disspitated: It swept for one half a mile: all damage was concentrated in Sebring Gardens. Trees, branches fell on trailers, on sheds: the same trees the landlord had been told by the state to get rid of.
Residents present that summer: me, pk; Marty and Hick Hickman, the Georges. Catherine Kaltner had visited Ohio: I had not yet met her. That was it.
I saw damage to snowbird trailers and sheds without looking hard. "Hick" Hickman was hired by snowbirds to watch their stuff, had keys to many trailers. Mr. George was furious, swore he would sue. I had no damage but sympathized. (I had nothing but contempt for the landlord who utterly ignored his property except to collect the rent. He lived in a trailer next door but worked full time and overtime for this father's trailer park. He was seldom present and paid little attention then: just as he had paid no attention to the state order to make the park safe from the dead wood.)
Marty Hickman and I agreed to form a committee in investigate facts and options. I got an appointment with a lawyer, Clifford Able, Esq.
Fact review:
Frost damaged the trees, making them dangerous.
The state told the landlord to take care of the danger. He didn't.
A tornado knocked down dead branches and trees, damaging properties, most of the property owners north for the summer.
Mr. Able agreed to check on the law. Understanding that we could not afford to hire him and that the majority of the residents were absent until October, he volunteered to attend the October tenants association meeting, prepared to answer questions still unhired. If the association then hired him, fine: otherwise his labor was his good deed.
October arrived. The evening before the meeting arrived. At twilight a couple of officers of the association called me over. Rev. Hall was present. They told me that I was not a member of the association and that neither I nor "your lawyer" would be allowed to speak at the meeting.
The following morning I managed to reach Mr. Able and told him not to bother to show up: the tenants had agreed to sabotage their own rights.
Mr. George, who has sworn that he'd sue, said, "Oh never mind, my insurance company paid."
Instead of being shocked at the tenants passivity at being damaged, the legal counselor was mad at me: I was the one who'd wasted his time!
Marty Hickman never acknowledged that we'd formed a committe, that she and Hick had driven me to the initial appointment with Mr. Able. "No one in this park will help you, Paul," she said: especially not since I'd spent my life trying to help them!
Months later the landlord told me that he'd heard that I'd gotten a lawyer to try to get the tenants association to sue him. No, no, no: to inform them of the law, of their rights, and to be available if any wanted to take legal action.
Catherine Kaltner returned from Ohio. She became my best friend, and patron. She told me that she had hired her contractor to repair her roof, damaged from the tornado. She never knew that anyone had sought to coordinate tenant rights and damages. She never knew that I had even tried to clarify the law. Typical: Catherine resisted being told such things: just like the association: just like the whole self-damaging society.
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