One more community coming together

I remember seeing this story in the paper a week or so ago. It is a story about a dispute between a builder and a homeowner over landscaping.

The builder, who is also currently the head of the homeowner's association, threatened to sue if the homeowner didn't get the landscaping installed within the year as was agreed when he purchased the home. The problem is that the homeowner had been called up as a reservist five months ago and is headed to Kuwait.

So Jensen, who says he is an involuntarily mobilized reservist, headed off, leaving behind a pregnant wife, a young son and a 2.5-acre lot with not a spot of landscaping... Jensen's situation is complicated by the fact his wife chose to return with her son to stay with family on the East Coast for the duration of her pregnancy, leaving the home unoccupied... Jensen had paid a landscaper thousands of dollars to design and install an irrigation system and hydroseed the large lot this summer... But DeAlicante said it appears the landscaper may have abandoned the job with the irrigation system only partially completed and no seeding done.

The developer's response:

"I really don't give a [expletive] where he is or what his problem is," said Chick Edwards, owner and developer of the 47-lot subdivision at the south end of Oak Street in Kennewick... "This is a contract. I don't like the way his property looks. This clown gets to do what he wants, and I'm as mad as hell," he said.

I was happy to see this follow up story yesterday. About 70 volunteers showed up to help out a neighbor and soldier. They finished the sprinkler system and rolled out new sod to complete the landscaping project. "It was coordinated by Montgomery Construction Sprinkler Systems Specialist with sod donated by Basin Sod and plenty of volunteers from Fluor Hanford, Home Depot, the Hanford Fire Department and Energy Northwest where Jensen has a job waiting."

Here is local video coverage of the community effort. Video