NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla — For years, a neighbor a has been living next to a North Fort Myers nightmare home, filled with trash and debris and causing all sorts of problems, but now, there’s finally a solution in sight.
Fox 4’s North Fort Myers Community Correspondent, Austin Schargorodski, has been following this story since last May, when the neighbor first reached out. Now, Lee County crews cleaned it all up.
Watch to see the cleanup and what led up to this point:
One skid steer load at a time, crews worked Thursday morning to clear the property. Lee County says it carried out a nuisance abatement after deadlines to remove the trash were missed.
Neighbor Tim Price said he’s relieved and says this is the day he’s been waiting for. “I’m hoping all the drama will just end, and hopefully it will go back to being just a nice peaceful street like it was when I first moved here. It was never like that,” Price said.
Months ago, Schargorodski first showed how Price said groups of people were living in the home and trashing the property. Schargorodski also confirmed the property owner and next of kin both passed away.
Price and his wife dealt with rats, sewage from an uprooted septic tank, burning garbage and toxic plants that made his wife sick, and even people walking around with what appeared to be a gun.
With no clear owner, there was no one to hold accountable for the code violations. The home later went through probate, taxes and code enforcement fines were paid, and the property now has a new owner. That cleared the way for the cleanup to finally happen.
“Now, I’m hoping the new owner will actually step forward, keep the property clean and fix up the place. Just bring order back to that property again,” Price said.
Schargorodski reached out to the new owner to ask about plans for the property but did not hear back.
Price says the cleanup gives him hope for his street and the Suncoast Estates community, which he says has been asking for more properties like this to get cleaned up.
“There’s a lot of good people here, they just need someone to kind of show them that ‘hey, we can actually clean up this neighborhood.’ I think a lot of people just lost hope,” Price said.
