New Port Richey, Fla. — These days, Magnolia Valley Golf Club owner Pete Lenhardt has four major worries about his golf course: flooding, alligators, out-of-work employees and gunshots.
The alligators that have taken up residence in the swamped 105-acre course are perhaps his simplest problem. He estimates how deep the water is, instead of actually going out and measuring, so he doesn't end up gator prey.
"I would say in the deepest point it was up 7 feet," Lenhardt said Wednesday. "Five feet at its most shallow."
The other issues are more complicated.
Ever since Frances blew through Pasco County, the golf course has been closed because of flooding. That means no revenue is coming into his family business and about three-quarters of his 30-person staff is out of work.
Soon after rains dumped several inches on the already saturated ground, course operators switched on water pumps to try to dry out.
When the pumps sucked the water out of Magnolia Valley, in a roundabout way through culverts and wetlands, it spit out water into Suncoast Gateway Mobile Village on Ridge Road and businesses nearby, such as Ultima Automotive a block south of Ridge Road on Congress Street.
Because the mobile homes are raised, Michele Baker, Pasco's emergency management director, said she hasn't received reports of water getting inside. Suncoast Gateway residents have seen a foot or so of water on their roads, and many can't safely drive their cars through.
"We got a call from the county asking us to shut down the pumps because they thought we were the possible cause of that," Lenhardt said. "We turned off the pumps to alleviate the pressure on them."
Then the water began creeping into Magnolia Valley homes. About 27 had flooding, said Tami Turner, civic association president.
"At that point, we had to put the mobile home park folks aside and protect our residents," Lenhardt said.
The pumps have been off and on ever since.
Ultima Automotive manager Shawn Skerritt said the pumps should be shut off no matter what until the water recedes and the risk of flooding again is gone. Four inches of water crept into the business and water sits a foot deep in the parking lot.
Skerritt blames the golf course, too.
"When we have 4 inches in the office they need to stop pumping," he said. "They're putting us out of business."
Late Friday night, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report, someone shot through the diesel-powered water pump on Rowan Road, temporarily stopping it. Since it was repaired Saturday, volunteers and some golf club employees have been guarding the pump station.
The gunman has not been found, and threats from passers-by haven't stopped.
"We had a guy stop and say if we don't shut the pump down he and his friends will come back and they'll shut the pump down for us," said George Reid, a golf club maintenance staffer.
For nearly two weeks, the county has had three pumps working to push water out of the Suncoast Gateway area, under U.S. 19 and into the Gulf of Mexico. However, when tides are high, as they have been, there's no place for the water to go.
It's a slow process, Baker said, but the golf course isn't the sole problem.
The course off Massachusetts Avenue has been pumping for at least three decades, Lenhardt said.
"They were there before all of this development downstream," Baker said. "It's not like it's all the golf course's fault."
The course predates the Southwest Water Management District, so stringent water and related development regulations weren't in place then, Baker said.
"'Yes, the pumping is aggravating the flooding," she said. "No, we can't stop them."
The county is working with the water district, Baker said, to avoid future flooding issues.
"We're going to try to find a long-term engineering solution," she said.
Republished with permission of The Tampa Tribune