The county prosecutor filed a misdemeanor environmental charge against Linda Hargrove personally in her capacity as the signing authority on the demolition work order. The state attorney general's office filed civil action against the HOA on behalf of the six flooded households.
A county court order issued in February required the HOA to rebuild Structure SW-014 to original specifications at its own expense under the supervision of a state-approved licensed engineer.
Ms. Ahuja called me at home on a Tuesday evening in early March. She asked whether I would be willing to serve as the supervising engineer on the rebuild pro bono.
I told her I would on one condition. Mrs. Patterson sat on the rebuild committee.
Ms. Ahuja laughed for the first time in any conversation we had ever had. She said, "Mr. Hayes, I was going to ask you the same thing."
Mrs. Patterson accepted by nodding once on her front porch with a coffee cup in her hand.
The financial side was simpler and harsher. The HOA's liability carrier did not move from its denial.
"Intentional act despite documented written warning" is the kind of phrase that closes a policy file and does not reopen it.
The HOA, with no insurance to draw on, passed the only motion it had left. A special assessment of roughly $18,400 per household to cover the rebuild, the demolition restitution, and the settlements to the six flooded families.
The vote was not close. The new board carried it on the first call.
Linda's own house went into foreclosure within eight months of the hearing. The bank could not carry a flood-condemned property on its books. Her homeowner's insurance had denied her claim, too.
Once the certified-mail receipts entered the public record, no carrier in the state would absorb that exposure. Her share of the special assessment converted under HOA bylaws into a personal judgment that followed her after the foreclosure.
I do not know where she went. I did not ask.
The community recall vote happened in late November, six weeks after the hearing. Linda was removed by a margin of 248 to 9.
The Aesthetic Standards Committee was dissolved by a separate motion the same evening. A new board was seated.
Mrs. Patterson was elected to one of the seats. Carl Whitaker, asked twice and reluctant both times, finally accepted the third time on the condition that his role be described in the minutes as "interim advisory."
The minutes were written exactly that way.
The neighborhood Facebook page, for the first 18 months of its existence a place where people went to be afraid, became a normal page about lost dogs and Halloween potlucks and a baby announcement in March.
Mrs. Patterson posted the first lost dog. The dog was found within 20 minutes. The thread had 43 comments.
None of them mentioned Linda.
The rebuild took most of the spring. I spent four mornings a week at the dam in work boots and a yellow vest with a clipboard and the same waterproof envelope from August.