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Sitting in her yard with camera in hand, Gingerlee Michelllindo records while a demolition crew from Excavation Point tears down the wall surrounding her home at 503 E. Center Street in Sebring.
click any photo to view this story's photo gallery  published: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 
No confrontations, but Internet postings promised By SAMANTHA GHOLAR SEBRING - Gingerlee Mitchelllindo sat calmly in her yard Tuesday morning speaking mostly to herself. Unlike the countless other mornings when the 503 E. Center Ave. property owner would directly confront city officials and construction workers, this morning Mitchelllindo could not do much of anything. Excavation Point Inc. arrived at Mitchelllindo's property early Tuesday morning; before the Sebring Middle School tardy bell had even rang. The demolition team composed of approximately five Excavation Point workers waited calmly in the crisp, cool morning until all the students had crossed Center Avenue and were safely on the school grounds. The workers were approached by Mitchelllindo in the same manner she approaches anyone who "trespasses" on her property. "I told them what was going on and that this may cause them more harm than good down the road in the future ... They just said they were here to do their jobs," Mitchelllindo said. Lee Tolar of Sebring's Building and Zoning Department arrived next. Tolar explained he was sent by City Administrator Scott Noethlich to document and take photos of the demolition. No other city officials were present Tuesday. Tal Rancourt, owner of Excavation Point Inc., was in and out throughout the morning, overseeing and giving directions for the project. Rancourt was careful not to speak to Mitchelllindo Tuesday, only directing questions through Tolar when necessary. The fencing was the first to go. Workers cut the chain link fence away from the concrete wall and steel piping with a saw. The piping was also cut and pulled out. A backhoe was used to knock down each pillar of the wall and the base, which sat just on the sidewalk. Both walls, on Orange Street and Center Avenue, were demolished around the property as well as the sidewalks. According to Tolar, Rancourt and Excavation Point will add new sidewalks that will be ADA approved. The new sidewalks will fall in line with the current ADA guidelines and provide a ramp for disabled persons utilizing the space. Noethlich confirmed that new sidewalks will be added to the demolition site. "They are going to grade it and sod it," Noethlich said. "They will be utilizing the engineering plans of Civil Surv." The plan to go ahead and do the demolition job during a school week was Rancourt's choice. Excavation Point worked quickly, ensuring that the biggest part of the job - the demolition - was completed before SMS students were out of school. "This isn't really a big job for him and his crew. It's not like they're having to shut down (highway) 98 or anything like that. It doesn't seem to be a big deal to them. It's slated to be a three-day project. If they don't encounter much difficulty I imagine it could be done in a couple days," Noethlich said. Mitchelllindo was busy recording the team's work as well as taking photos that she plans to upload onto the Internet and spread to civil rights agencies. "This is a simple $12,000 job. It has cost them a lot more than that already, I bet. I'm fighting nail and tooth. I'm going to send these videos and photos to civil rights group. I have one who is already interested," Mitchellindo said. As for the city, Noethlich feels that officials can "breathe" now and that the real challenge is pretty much over. "Hopefully by Thursday this will all be done and all this can be behind us," Noethlich said.  CIVIL RIGHTS (by: GINGERLEEDREAD - 2/11/2013) Mr. Blindman, If you look at the public records in the courts of the court cases surrounding all this you will know which civil right I was infringed apon. My email and facebook name to see the latest corruption information on officials posted. Im fighting against the corruption to the best of my ability that Ive found, as one disabled, elderly ladie,and Im no Lawyer, but I know right from wrong and I know my Constitutional, and Bill of rights. The only thing that has saved many of the officials to this point has been the statue of limitations or they would of been charged as a felon for their wrongdoings. Think about that, you have a current sitting local government with officials whose crimes were not punished simply because of a time frame law. Does that make them any less a criminal? It doesent in my book. GINGERLEEDREAD@HOTMAIL.COM PROPERTY, MATERIAL,CIVIL,DUEPROCESS RIGHTS ALL INVADED BY GOVERNMENT (by: GINGERLEEDREAD - 2/11/2013) I read all these posts with interest knowing full well the mis-information they all carry. My retaining wall and fence were built within the survey that WHITLOCK LAND SURVEY did. (Evidence to the fact are in the court records of the ongoing court battle.) The City Building official JIM JACOBS seen to that many, many years ago. I pulled the permits to build both my retaining wall and fence and both were passed inspection and ok'ed by JIM JACOBS who was the building official for the CITY OF SEBRING. (Evidence to the fact are in the court records of the ongoing court battle.) I took nothing that I was not told by an official that it was mine. The use to be next door people from hell are only pissed and spitting crap outta their mouths because their obvious waste on their drunken parties into the early mornings caused them to not be able to pay for their taxes on the house they were living in and they were forced out of it for non payment of taxes after 3 years and also left the current owner with a hugh unpaid loan he made to them and a house totally distroyed inside Im told by the actual owner who held the morgage that never was paid off either by the disgruntal drunken pair. Her current husband ( who was not married to her when all this situation started) I heard is doing his own form of whining about the situation him self to radio and paper personalities when he was not even present till ten years later after the fact and building of the retaining wall and fence but this goes for the course as Im sure his mouth has not closed anymore then it did in his drunken stupers at 4 am in any given morning as he blabbered out absentites to anyone awake in the community. A simple check of the complaints waged on their address at 513 Center will tell the true story, or their public records at the courts of their run ins with the law, as the working people who lived all around them complained through the week when they had to get up to work and could not get to sleep due to their frequent all night parties. There exsisted in front of 503 E Center Ave a 5 foot ADA compliant sidewalk and 10 foot grass easement as many years as was my retaining wall and fence. The excuse of having to build a new one comes from Mr Gaverette removing what exsisted then widening the roads on center then compaining he was short 2 inches to put back in another 5 foot ADA sidewalk. Ya know if any of you wanted to know the facts you could see all of them at my office or see them in the court documents in public records. I too am Disabled Blindman and for more then a year I have not been able to access well my own property due to having no sidewalk to walk on in front of my own property. By the way the sidewalks that were removed were ones the city forced me to pay for on their land and that is yet another court case that will be filed against the city now that the Supreme Court has found that its illigal for a city to charge individual land owners with such items that should of been taken out of the general budget. Ive heard both City Councilman John Griffin and Admin Scott make statements that are not facts and the correct facts are actually in their own citys council meetings own records that show them both to be lieing on their comments both to the radio shows and newspapers. Id suggest to them both that they check their facts before speaking against a live video record of the council meetings and written transcrips to the facts that state a totally different timeline of events and what was stated, voted on and passed and abused of government actions, and now abuse of citizens, property, rights, and due process. I always enjoy reading what the uninformed and just plain ignorant write, how simple it is to find the facts in public records and see how the local government officials are abusing their positions and job given by the citizens to do. Bottom line, The government took my real property and material property away without just compensation. The retaining wall and fence were valued at $32,000.00, my 25 feet of front yard were valued at $20,000.00 and my flora and fauna and trees distroyed were valued at $6,000.00. The City of Sebring never offered anything other then $1,000.00 for all my land and property and I refused that offer and contered with asking them to simply pay me for my land they needed to rebuild due to their own engineering errors and rebuild back my retaining wall and fence like it was and they refused. This is where the lies, deceite, fraud,illigal taking, unethical and immoral acts by Highlands County Engineers and workers, The City of Sebrings Council, Administration and Lawyers started. I will be posting everything for the public,businesses, and the people in our country to see whats going on in our little town, they might not be so quick to move to such a corrupted county and city with such affairs going on as this. Villify me if you must for doing the right thing, when a local corrupt government is taking wrong action against its own citizens, You will see in the future as all this plays out that I am far from the only one, possibly just the first one and I was the WRONG one to choose to set presidence on when it was done with corruption and wrong doing on the part of local government officials. oH YEA one more thing, I was not talking to myself that day but into the video I was taking live. blah blah blah (by: bAdLeY b. - 2/9/2013) All the squawking, the whole anti-govt. campaign, and especially the accusation of a civil rights violation against this person is absurd. (by: castrol - 2/8/2013) I think "former neighbor" summed it up pretty good. What's New? (by: Former Neighbor - 2/7/2013) "Gingerlee Mitchelllindo sat calmly in her yard Tuesday morning speaking mostly to herself." Additional Background (by: tom walsh - 2/7/2013) See the News-Sun editorial of 1-13-13 Wrong Phil (by: Intheknow - 2/7/2013) The wall was built on the right of way. If it had been built on her property to begin with, she wouldn't be in this position. Also, they offered to rebuild the wall on her property. She refused. Tom Foolery (by: Sebring Resident. - 2/6/2013) I wish this woman would quit her incessant lying to everyone. She has alot of people snowed. This isn't about civil liberties....this is about she got caught taking more land and the land of her neighbors than she was allowed. Know the whole story before you feel too bad for her. misinformed public (by: Resident - 2/6/2013) Everyone keeps missing the point. She built the wall over every line that she was not supposed to build over. She knew she was doing it. She was happy the city turned their blind eye to it until the road was expanded and it caused line of sight issues. Not only is Gingerlee to blame but so is the city who allowed her to build the wall directly to the sidewalk not to mention 3 inches over onto the neighbors line as well. She has just been super at sqwaking about her rights and her campaign against the govt., that people have been deluded by her about what this was really all about to begin with. She outright took property that wasnt hers to take. End of story. Background (by: Phil Attinger - 2/6/2013) If I hadn't already lived in Sebring, I probably wouldn't know what this was about. But since I have, I'm assuming we are talking about the decorated wall that a homeowner had around her property for many years, directly across from Sebring Middle School. So am I also to assume that she lost the fight to keep it in light of a need for more ADA compliant sidewalks that would require more room, and thus needed to encroach on her property line? job? (by: 2teezr - 2/6/2013) ok now I know what EPI is doing,what is Gingerlee Mitchelllindo complaining about?way to give both sides of a story Civil Rights (by: Blindman - 2/6/2013) Ya know, it's funny how some people whine, cry, and carry on about their civil rights. Even the handicapped complain that "everything, everywhere" should be made accessible to them "at the expense of others". So here we have a residential retaining wall that must come down in order for the public sidewalk to be properly constructed in order to comply with the ADA guidelines, providing the handicapped with their civil rights". The strange thing is; while the city is working to protect the rights of the disabled, Mz. Gingerlee seems to imply her civil rights have been violated. Well is Mz. Gingerlee for civil rights or not? If your going to be a life long civil rights advocate, stand corrected when you unwittingly find yourself in violation! The wall never needed to come down but to comply with "civil rights". 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