Name:   Osms - Subject:   HOBOs and Pleasure Point Date:   4/15/2015 10:45:32 AM

The HOBOs were contacted by a couple of residents of Pleasure Point a couple of months after the eviction notice was made public by Alabama Power.  We talked with Health Department personnel, Alabama Power personnel, and made personal visits to Pleasure Point to observe as much as possible, such as personnally observing effulent seeping out of the ground in the middle of a dirt road, and we have continued to re-visit over the past months.  After considering all aspects of the situation, the HOBOs determined that Alabama Power and the Health Department were already doing what needed to be done to correct the situation.

Points to consider:

1.  Pleasure Point was created as a recreation area under licensing many years ago, but it was allowed to become a permanent residence trailer court over the years....a fault of the licensee, Alabama Power.  A recreation area allowed by FERC is generally an area set aside for swimming, boating, and/or short term camping, like Dare Park or boat ramps, not permanent residences.

2.  A Health Department supervisor informed us that there were 85 trailers on the property and only 25 approved septic systems were installed.  It is a failure of both the Health Department and Alabama Power to allow this condition to continue for decades.

3.  The sub-tenants were well aware of the violations created by themselves and the leaseholder.  Read the document filed above and you will plainly see the violations of both groups.

4.  The entire area is undermined by septic field lines....under trailers, under dirt roads, etc.; therefore, it would be impossible to correct the problems without removal of all trailers.

5.  By all appearances, all parties bear some responsibility for the conditions that were allowed to occur.  Alabama Power failed its duty to oversee the conditions of its own property and allowed it to operate in possible violation of its license.  The tenant landlord grossly violated septic regulations, did not maintain the septic systems installed, and encouraged continued violations by sub-tenants, and abandoned the property and sub-tenants when confronted with the violations.  The sub-tenants knew about the violations and even created a worse situation by dumping raw sewage into the lake.  If tenants had contacted the health department two decades ago there may have been some way to repair the park, but that didn't happen.

This is a difficult situation for all parties, but we feel Alabama Power and the Health Department will rectify the situation once the court case is decided.  BTW, there are still about 15-20 sub-tenants still occupying Pleasure Point, mostly the lake front property.