Article Courtesy of Bay News 9

By Saundra Weathers

Published October 29, 2014

       
LAKELAND -- People who live in a Lakeland community say their property is being vandalized and they’re living in fear, and they say an abandoned golf course is to blame.
  

The Bridgewater community, just off of State Road 33, was home to a golf course that closed down a few years ago. People who live in that neighborhood say that gulf course has become a haven for people on four wheelers and dirt bikes. They say the unwanted visitors are not only noisy, but they’re dangerous and they want something done.   “We don’t have anything legally that we can do, so it’s kind of a catch-22 where everybody keeps circling,” said resident Marty Guthrie. “I wish we could figure out how we could get these guys out of here, and you would think it would be the police but it’s just not happening.” Lakeland police said there’s not much they can do since the owners of the abandoned golf course are in litigation. So for now they’re telling residents to call if there is an emergency and to start using their neighborhood watch program more.

A trail at the golf course leads to fresh tire treads and a makeshift dirt ramp, which the people in this neighborhood says is the root of their problems.

  
“There’s only so much that we can do,” LPD Sgt. Gary Gross said. “We can’t enforce some of the laws that they want us to do. We can’t fix some of the streetlights that are broken because that is within that subdivision and that’s something they’re going to address on their own.”
 
Guthrie said it’s going to be hard because the unwanted visitors aren’t easy to deal with.
 
“You’ve got some dangerous people coming through here,” Guthrie said. “You can see the trucks roll through here four, five, six deep at a time. At nighttime you can hear it they do to drag racing out in the back.”

A trail at the golf course leads to fresh tire treads and a makeshift dirt ramp. It’s what the people in this neighborhood says is the root of their problems.

“Ever since the golf course closed we’ve been seeing a lot more traffic in and out," resident Danyel Lieberman said. “People that don't actually live in our community, a lot more kids teenagers on four wheelers and in with big trucks kind of going through up there.”
 
Lieberman said some of the people coming into their community are vandalizing their property. Her daughter was among the latest 12 victims.
 
Residents said they know the problem needs to be fixed but they don’t want to discourage people from moving into the development. They said they just want to protect the people who are already living there.