We just can't figure this one out

Sometimes, there are no winners.

Sometimes, everyone involved has the right intentions and still nothing is done.

Sometimes, devoted minds can sit in a room and leave two hours later frustrated yet again.
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Welcome to Inverness Villages 4.

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Residents are at their wit’s end. County commissioners are tired of being attacked every two weeks by thugs in black "IV 4" T-shirts.

(I jokingly use the word thugs. But the chairman requested a deputy Tuesday to keep everyone in line.)

Commissioners at first shot down a vote allowing them to pass an emergency ordinance that residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting didn’t want.

A few hours later when everyone had gone, the board extended the no-build moratorium in IV 4 another two weeks, when it plans to vote for the ordinance that residents didn’t want. The moratorium's been in place for a year, and commissioners want an alternative.

Man oh man, this is a mess.

You’re probably as tired reading about this as I am writing it. Days like Tuesday are just so frustrating for all involved.

I’m not going to go over the whole thing. At this point, details don’t seem that important. Bottom line, these folks are no closer to having decent roads and drainage than they did when the day started.

And summer storms are looming.

Today’s photo is the same one from the first time I introduced Just Wright Citrus readers to Inverness Villages 4 in August 2022. I was reluctant to write about it at all because I recalled from my Chronicle days just how twisted, confused, and mind-boggling this issue is. Not something to explain in 700 words.

Over time, though, I decided to go the opposite tack. Keep it in the public eye. Folks in Crystal River, Sugarmill Woods, and Hernando should know about IV 4. If Citrus County has a neighborhood in crisis, we all take notice. 

I communicate with a handful of IV 4 residents several times a week. They send me photos of washouts and videos of vehicles sinking in mud. 

They are desperate for attention. A Tampa TV station has taken interest, and Just Wright Citrus is right with them, but that’s about it. The hometown paper doesn’t seem to care about IV 4 at all unless it comes up at a government meeting.

Yet, as I sat in the back of the room Tuesday surrounded by IV 4 residents and saw how commissioners struggled to make sense of what to do, it dawned on me that it really was time to drop the finger-pointing.

Look. I’m as critical of county government on IV 4 as anyone, but it’s obvious they really have no idea how to solve this. That’s not from lack of trying.

The county’s new public works director, Marcello Tavernari, who was handed IV 4 and asked to figure it out, was rather blunt in his assessment.

Whatever has to happen will be expensive. The place is a trainwreck. A little asphalt for the roads and a bucket to hold rainwater won’t cut it.

I asked him in the Courthouse hallway: Isn’t there an easy, simple, temporary solution to at least make those folks feel safe that summer storms won’t turn their roads into pea soup?

His response: No. Marcello was very nice about it, and he’s clearly appalled at the condition of IV 4, but he’s also quite practical. Policy and political issues are not his concern. That’s why we should listen to his advice.

Some things are just unfair. As a journalist, I don’t like saying that because I generally believe there’s a cure for any public illness.

Except this one. So far.

IV 4 will be back on the commission agenda in a few weeks and we’ll go through this all over again. Residents demand answers, but at some point they’re going to realize there’s no gas in the tank. 

That’s not to suggest commissioners should just give up. “Oh well, we did our best!” is not the mantra.

As for the residents: Keep plugging. One of these days, hopefully before anything really ugly happens, someone’s going to wake up at 3 in the morning with an idea no one has thought of.

Our community is pulling for all involved to find a compromise they can live with. Those summer storms are on the horizon, and after that first raindrop it’s an entirely different conversation.

One that nobody wants.

Join the discussion on our Facebook page.

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