The 'hole' story behind Winter Garden's delay to fix water pipes

Five months ago, Becky Gayle, a Winter Garden resident who lives in Trailer City by Lake Apopka, noticed a hole in the ground about 15 steps behind her home with a pipe exposed. The Winter Garden Utilities Department fixed it by pounding dirt in it.

Shortly after, it rained, and the hole caved in on itself. 

“There’s a pipe back here behind my trailer that shoots water into this (creek), but it all caved in, too,” Gayle said. “But that caved in five or six months ago, and they came out here and put all this dirt all over it to seal it in, and now all the stuff they did to it then is gone again. So they’re just out here, just packing dirt out on all these things instead of fixing whatever is causing the problem.”

A month ago, a second hole appeared. This one is in the middle of a field located between the Winter Garden-owned Trailer City and the Winter Garden’s sewage treatment plant.

“A month ago, when we had some pretty heavy rain, a hole opened and it got bigger and bigger and deeper and deeper,” Gayle said.

Upon noticing the second hole, Gayle, along with a couple of other residents, alerted trailer park manager Tony Firenze. The city of Winter Garden fixed the second hole by filling it with dirt. 

“Right before this hurricane came through, they came out here and put a dump truck load of dirt in the hole and pounded it down into the hole,” Gayle said. “And then when we had all the rain and stuff from (Hurricane Hermine) that came through a week ago, the hole just opened up again because there’s a broken water pipe down there.”

Winter Garden City Manager Michael Bollhoefer confirmed the existence of the hole and verified the city of Winter Garden was aware the cause was a broken water pipe. However, because they were short-staffed at the time, they temporarily loaded the opening with dirt.

They were short-staffed because the city engineer was on vacation for two weeks and didn’t return until Monday, Sept. 5.

When Gayle asked why they first fixed the hole by simply filling it with dirt, the park manager relayed a similar story.

“(He said) whoever is the engineer that was responsible for this wasn’t here before, so he claims they just put the dirt in the hole as a temporary solution,” she said. “I don’t believe that, but that’s me, personally.”

Bollhoefer said the city used this method because, given the hole’s distance from Trailer City, it did not pose a danger to the public. 

Gayle said the second hole located in the field behind their trailers can be spotted from her home, and the other one where the pipe is exposed is right behind her trailer.

The broken water pipes finally were repaired Friday, Sept. 9. Bollhoefer said considering residents’ deep concern, it would have been best for the supervisor to have had hired a contractor to fix the water pipe properly sooner.

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected].