When Dawn Eggenberger looks out through the front window in her home, she sees the road in front of her house, some trees and not much else. That alone makes her happy.
In her opinion, the view across the street is a significant improvement over the scenery she had grown accustomed to seeing.
For the last several months, the property across from her Mann Road home in Independence Township had the burnt ruins of two homes. Both homes had previously been abandoned and were burned by the Independence Township Fire Department, who used the homes for collapsing drills.
‘It was depressing to looks at,? Eggenberger said. ‘To me, the worst of it was the holes and the rubble.?
Subgroups of JR Management, a Bloomfield Hills property management company, are listed as the current property owners and remained responsible for cleanup.
Back in October, The Clarkston News contacted Rick Linnel, a representative from JR Management. At the time, Linnel said he had loaned the property to the Independence Township Fire Department for practice and disagreed that the property represented a danger. Linnel also indicated the other abandoned homes along the same stretch of Mann Road are slated for demolition to make way for a new development. However, he said major work wasn’t likely to begin until sometime in 2007.
A call to Linnel for comments regarding the cleanup was not returned.
Independence Township Supervisor David Wagner said the township sent multiple notices to the property owners, then established a 30-day deadline for cleanup on Nov. 6. When Dec. 6 passed and no action had yet been taken, Wagner said the township moved forward to take the matter to court.
‘The warm welcome has turned cold,? Wagner said. ‘We’ve followed all the steps in our ordinance to take care of it.?
Representatives from JR Management have contacted him and he hopes to work out an agreement, he said.
‘I don’t want to go to court,? Wagner said.
Approximately one week later, the piles of rubble were gone, the broken appliances were removed and the open cisterns were filled with sand. Save for a few pieces of torn ‘caution? tape, there were no signs of the mess that sat on the property for months prior.
‘More has happened there in the last few weeks than in the last six months,? Eggenberger said.
Seeing the damaged property was bothersome, but her big concern was safety. The open cisterns dropped several feet into the ground, but previously had been exposed or covered with thin pieces of wood.
A school bus drops off students at an intersection near the property, and Eggenrberg had previously expresed concen that if a child fell into one of the open holes, nobody would be able to hear them.
The remaining abandoned homes still stand, but Eggenberg said she is just happy the destroyed ones are gone.
‘I can totally live with that,? she said. ‘I’m so glad somebody thought of us, even if it took some prodding.?