Future unclear for residents affected by ‘absolutely devastating’ sinkhole in State College
Kay Piña was making dinner in her Amblewood Way townhome at about 2 p.m. on Christmas Day when she realized they didn’t have any water. She was with her toddler and mother; her husband was at work in the ICU at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
In the middle of a cold snap, they assumed the pipes had frozen. They called maintenance, who showed up around 3:30 p.m., Piña said. Around that time, other neighbors also reported not having water — and then something worse.
“...A neighbor comes frantically banging on all the doors saying that there’s a sinkhole, and we might want to move our cars,” Piña said during a phone interview on Jan. 5. “So I go outside to look at the sinkhole and it was clear that it was not a frozen pipe, but it was like a water main burst.”
Later, while she continued to cook dinner, she heard a consistent popping noise and told the police officer outside.
“He said, ‘There’s a code guy on site, we’ll get him to come look.’ Well, when I walked back into my townhome, the door didn’t close and there was an obvious crack going up the wall. And the popping was happening, it was the structure moving that was causing all the popping,” Piña said. When the code person came in to see, they told Piña they all needed to get out.
Piña grabbed two pairs of clothes for everybody, diapers, milk bottles, dog food and medicine.
The family ate Christmas dinner at Sheetz that night and is now among those trying to determine what comes next after 18 townhomes were deemed unsafe due to the sinkhole.
‘Absolutely devastating’
While residents still have questions about the chain of events, Walt Schneider, agency director at Centre Region Code Administration, previously told the Centre Daily Times that the sinkhole opened up in the parking lot for 18 townhomes between 432-466 Amblewood Way on Dec. 25 and a water main broke.
Brian Heiser, executive director of the State College Borough Water Authority, previously told the CDT it was the authority’s opinion that the sinkhole has been in existence for a “period of time” and the main was not being supported by anything because it was over top of the sinkhole. It eventually collapsed.
JoAnn Marsh has lived on Amblewood Way for about 30 years. She’s 86 years old with mobility and cardiac issues, and on a fixed income, her daughter Dana Costa said.
“This has been absolutely devastating for her. Both in terms of just the reality of losing her home, at least for now, and emotionally as well. This has been incredibly traumatic for a lot of people,” Costa said during a Zoom interview on Jan. 12.
Mollie Craig purchased her townhome on Amblewood Way in 2012. She has rented it out for a period of time, but has been living there full time for about two years.
She didn’t get home until late afternoon on Dec. 25, after getting a text message from a neighbor at 3:15 p.m. that said they didn’t have water. Craig confirmed to her neighbor at 4:41 p.m. that she didn’t have water, either.
They saw a hole in the pavement in the center of the parking lot around 4:50 p.m., Craig said, and could hear the water running underneath the parking lot, which “sounded like a waterfall.” The low end of the parking lot, where water would naturally run to, began to deteriorate. A car that was parked in that area had a dead battery, and began to sink. A tow truck on site later pulled the car out of the hole, she said.
‘This is not our fault’
A meeting between the State College Borough Water Authority, the Centre Region Code Administration, Georgetown Park Community Association (HOA) and the impacted residents was held on Jan. 6.
The residents, for the first time, received a letter from the CRCA that stated they’re “requiring an evaluation of the ... townhouse to determine that the dwelling is structurally sound, is able to be safely occupied, and that the townhouse is bearing on competent soils capable of supporting the applied loads.” If deficiencies are found, then the corrective actions should be provided in the report, it states.
The homeowners are responsible for ensuring the study is done and are financially responsible for it.
The estimates they’ve received from engineering firms to complete it, according to Costa and Craig, are between $8,000 and $10,000.
Craig said the homeowners association is still requiring them to pay their $150/month HOA fee, even if they’re not living there. Trying to figure out the insurance situation has been frustrating.
“Insurance companies don’t want to touch it because the water company is claiming that this is a sinkhole and you have to have a rider on your policies for sinkhole coverage,” Craig said. “It’s a problem. It’s a problem for me, I can’t come up with all this money.”
Craig’s homeowners insurance told her they do not cover the structure, only the contents, and that the structure should be covered by her HOA insurance. But the association said they don’t cover the structure. Without insurance, she’ll have to pay for the repairs, which she expects to cost at least $60,000.
“I just feel like this is not our fault. This didn’t happen like, underneath our own individual property. It happened in a common space in the parking lot, at no fault of our own,” Craig said.
This particular HOA is unique, Costa said, because the owners own sidewalk to sidewalk, including the land, whereas in most shared-wall communities, owners just own the contents of the home, and the structure and the land are owned or covered by the HOA insurance. That is not the case here, Costa said.
What is the next move?
Craig is close to retirement and has paid off $100,000 of her mortgage, and owes about $50,000.
“My mortgage company is still expecting me to pay my monthly mortgage whether I live there or not. I’m expected to pay for the fees to have the estimates done on the structure and it has to be done within 45 days. I still have to pay my homeowner’s association fee. I still have to pay my electric and now I’m homeless and I’m going to have to pay for rent somewhere in a town where rent is at least $1,400 a month. I am not financially in the position to be able to do this, so something for me has to go,” Craig said.
She’s considering not paying her mortgage anymore and letting the bank foreclose on the property, and losing $100,000 worth of equity. She is currently staying with a friend in Lewistown and driving to and from State College for work every day. Though she has had a lot of support and help from her friends and coworkers, that still has created an extra gas expense and a longer commute. Plus, she has three cats and this is just a temporary solution.
Once the residents were able to connect with the Red Cross, Piña said they were given $500 for a hotel. That was helpful, but didn’t stretch very far, and didn’t cover any of their meals.
For Costa and her mother, their plans change daily. When they heard the estimates from engineering firms for the required study, they got disheartened, Costa said. Her mother has also thought about giving up her home.
“It’s scary to think that the biggest asset likely in your portfolio, your property, is worth nothing. And, you know, that was my mother’s legacy. She was looking forward to giving this home to my brother and I and for us doing with it what we will,” Costa said.
Costa said even though the residents have been displaced since Dec. 25, they weren’t informed of the required engineering report until the meeting on Jan. 6.
There’s no end in sight, Costa said. They have 45 days to do the engineering report, which is around the end of February. Then they’ll have to assess and compile the reports and figure out the best course of action for each unit before any work can start — assuming the report shows that everything is OK, she said.
Residents were told that if they don’t do the report, there could be a fine, she said, and if they don’t pay the fine, it could potentially lead to a lien against the property.
“It’s all incredibly distressing. It’s distressing for me as a 53-year-old daughter, but my 86-year-old mother had her entire life uprooted,” said Costa, whose mother moved in with her in West Virginia. She started a GoFundMe to assist her mother with displacement expenses “and to prepare for the possibility that she may never be able to return to her home again,” according to the fundraiser description. Any additional funds will be used to help other families in the same situation. The fundraiser can be found by searching “JoAnn Marsh & the Georgetown Townhome Community” on www.gofundme.com.
Piña’s family was able to temporarily stay with a friend and recently found a new rental to move into. She’s grateful for all of the support she and her family have received.
“All of us are doing the same thing, trying to figure out, do we move? Do we stay? We have a baby and I’m in school, and with my husband’s work, we felt stability was more important than waiting it out. And we’re renting, so it’s not the same as some,” Piña said.
