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I witnessed complete destruction at the Venice Ranch mobile home park
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
** Update from the owner of Venice Ranch
As you stated there are 2 sides to everything. First of all Venice Ranch is one of the last remaining family owned parks in the Venice area. My family developed and still owns and runs Venice Ranch. We do the best we can daily not just during times of crisis.
Let me say that not everyone knows me, and the health scare I recently had and I’m still having to continue to deal with daily. I got COVID August of 2021 and didn’t get out of the hospital / rehab until January 7th 2022. I had to learn many basic things again and I lost 100lbs. I had not been around the park like I was before I got sick due to health issues. Since the storm I have been there with my small team almost daily. Venice Ranch has typically 4 employees. 3 doing outside lawn maintenance (1 full time & 2 are part time) and 1 in the office. We have answered all questions and returned all calls. We are working on getting quotes for the removal of the damaged homes. Somebody came in from out of state and we had them buy tarps that they could find; we paid for them and donated them to the residents who needed them. We had a food truck come in and donate 50 meals for free. We then donated money to the food truck to pay it forward so that she could feed another mobile home community the next day. We picked up ice & MRE’s for residents. We posted important information; like phone numbers and emails on our Facebook page and connected with the Vice-President of our social club almost daily.
We have hired some people to come in and help with clean up. But everyone knows this is very difficult on a few levels. Everyone is dealing with their own loss and clean up. And not many want to work, which was an issue before the storm. We normally use small family-owned businesses for our daily concerns. But most of them had major destruction also. We had a lot of electrical issues. Which we have been told by the company we hired should be taken care of by end of this week, 10/21/2022, and it was. The company we hired was the only one that showed up. Electric and water was our number one concern. Next, we had to fill out paperwork to allow the county to come pick up debris since we are considered private property. This is done and waiting on date for pick up. We personally live in South Venice and only are getting pick up of tree debris now. There is no date given for the big pickups of the destroyed house hold items.
We have a Prospectus that states the tenants are responsible for items that emanate from their home or lot, meaning the tenant is required to pick up these items & pay for removal if needed. We have been helping by removing from the tenant’s lot the debris that is placed by the edge of the road to one big pile. Once things are cleaned up we will address the big pile removal. As for the electrical issues caused by Ian, Venice Ranch is responsible from the top of the meter pole down to the meter cans. The tenant is responsible from below the meter can to and though their home. I wanted to get the electric to the tenants faster, so I paid for the discount which should have been the homeowner’s responsibility. The cost they are responsible for now, damage from Ian, is from the bottom of the disconnect to and through the tenant’s home. I’m paying this amount, up front, to reduce the cost of this work and to allow them to make payments on the amounts owed so they can get power quicker and deal with other issues they might have. And as for the comment you made about an orange extension cord being draped across the road for power; what you saw is an orange Comcast cable that FPL lowered so bigger trucks can come and go without doing damage to the lines or poles.
So with all this said, I do care about my residents at Venice Ranch. When I was younger I had 150 ish Grandparents looking out for me. Now I’m trying to return the favor.
Thank you for hearing my side of the story,
Steven Ellis
Property Owner
** Please excuse any errors that might be typed as I’m using my S22 5G cell phone **
I saw Ron Smith sent a letter to the Herald covering the fact that Bay Indies folks are having issues with the City of Venice permitting process. It is not only the Bay Indies, but several of the mobile home parks within Venice and homeowners throughout the city. Ron suggested an emergency fund to cover or discount the permitting fees, for many of the individuals within the Bay Indies that live paycheck to paycheck. Where would the money come from? According to Ron’s piece, the City Manager stated they can not waive or reduce the fees because they are related to construction inspections. Is that accurate, if so, why? Could the city use the exuberant property tax rates that exceed the surrounding cities and county by .9-1.1% to help residents of the city? The city did expedite the permitting process, which is easily accessible online. What about the seniors or others that can not access the system online, well they must go down to the city and apply. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer, and my heart goes out to many of these mobile home owners that had no insurance coverage and lost their homes. I met one of the six couples that lived in one of the mobile homes that burnt down in Country Club Estates. He had a new mobile home and insurance, even with the insurance he will have to put out about $40k.
What I am seeing is a city that has many tools in their toolbox, but they do not know how to use them, or they just do not want to. I see a council that has the power to DIRECT the City Manager to take certain actions, but they do not and instead the City Manager dictates the direction he will take. My understanding is that about 300 people attended the Bay Indies HOA meeting, where the city came out to hear their concerns and the citizens hoped the city would provide direction. However, many left the meeting with even more questions and very frustrated with the processes that were in place. Processes that the city seemed reluctant to ease or waive during these trying times. This is just the Bay Indies, what about all the other mobile home parks? What about the homeowners that are in the same situation as the Bay Indies?
In another story related to mobile home issues. Today I visited an elderly lady in the Venice Ranch mobile home park, a block outside of the City of Venice and consider county. Their mobile home was destroyed and three weeks later, they are still working on repairs. Many of the homes still do not have electric and many are destroyed. As you will see from the pictures, they are in bad shape out at Venice Ranch. They have not heard from anybody within the county and the property owner has been very difficult and not to willing to work with the seniors. Leaving this place, I came across an extension cord taped down across the road, so that an individual could have some form of electric.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. We must look out for our seniors. Many are overwhelmed and have been given no direction. The county has failed big time, along with the City of Venice regarding communication and direction with the seniors in the mobile home parks within the city. One of the seniors that I talked to thought that my idea of the city coming out and handing out a one-page document providing resources, information and other documents would have been helpful. I would certainly be better than dead silence.
Thoughts?
