TRUMBULL COUNTY Sinkholes in yard, lack of help frustrate Girard homeowner

Old coal mines didn't cause the depressions, the homeowner was told.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Denise Fleischer isn't sure where to turn next.
After months of phones calls to state and county agencies, weeks spent at a computer drafting e-mails and conducting research, and inspections performed by geologists, engineers and more, she's right back where she started -- with sinkholes in her yard.
The Verona Street woman, who has lived in the single-story brick and plaster home for 14 years, has watched the land around her house sink more and more since last August.
"In the back yard is the worst," she said. "When the apple tree started to lean, we eventually figured out it was an old well that started to subside, and formed a depression."
But there are other areas aside from the old well that are sinking in on both sides of the home and in the front yard. Fleischer said when those depressions started appearing, she and neighbors then tried to figure out what was causing them.
Possibilities
Two possible sources, they thought, could be an abandoned coal mine underneath the property, or a change in the bedrock underneath the land related to a nearby construction project. Fleischer lives roughly a quarter of a mile from the blasting site for the state Route 711 connector project.
Fleischer said she started with the possibility of an old mine and contacted officials from both the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mineral Resources Management and the Ohio Mine Subsidence Insurance Underwriting Association.
Inspections from both agencies concluded that no mining activity had taken place underneath her home. The closest coal vein mined was roughly 5,000 feet away from her property. Copies of the reports suggested she consult with a professional engineer with geological experience to determine if the blasting in the area had anything to do with the depressions.
From that point, Fleischer said, she and other neighbors who claimed they suffered damage to their homes and property from the blasting filed claims with Zurich North America, an insurance company based in Philadelphia that handled such matters for Shelly and Sands, the company performing the work. Letters from the company show all of the claims were denied.
Tried working with FEMA
Since then, she said, she's tried working with her own insurance carrier as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When Fleischer's neighborhood was flooded by the heavy rains last July, she was among the homeowners who received assistance from FEMA to replace personal property and appliances lost or damaged in the floods, but was told the agency could not help with the yard damage. Her own insurance company told her the same thing.
Requests for help from other agencies have also been in vain, she said, since they are not able to correct the yard damage. She said some have told her they can't help with any damage to the home -- such as the sinking porch steps at the front and back of the house, and repaired foundation cracks that are opening again.
"I've been told any repairs made to the home would only be a bandage, since the sinking land means the damage could happen again," she said.
For now, Fleischer said she's hoping the local EMA office and possibly city officials can help her. One route, she said, is local officials could declare her property a disaster area, and then pass that declaration on to state officials. If the declaration is approved, she may be eligible for financial help from FEMA to find new housing and move.
"Basically, it leaves me in a house I can't do anything with," she said. "No one seems willing to pick up the ball from here, but rather it keeps getting passed around."
slshaulis@vindy.com