HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Residents on Harbor Island are voicing concerns about a pond on the corner of Knights Run Avenue and Beneficial Drive.
On any given day, you’ll find families and pet owners strolling the sidewalks of Harbor Island. It's an active and pet-friendly community, but recently, residents said the pond is ruining the neighborhood's charm.
WATCH Harbor Island residents voice concerns about filthy pond
For Callie McGowan, the pond is hard to ignore. Her apartment overlooks it, and her daily dog walks take her right past it.
“I’m concerned about if it’s healthy or not for us to be walking by and I live above it and it smells,” Mcgowan said.
She lives at 500 Harbor Island and is concerned that the dirty pond is impacting her dog's health.
“Every time we walk by the corners where most of the blooms are happening, she sneezes a lot and itches her face, so there is some sort of allergy happening,” McGowan said.
I heard about this concern from other dog moms in the area. Ali Kinard, another resident, welcomed a new puppy into her family a few months ago. Now, she is worried the pond could be harmful to the puppy.
“The pond's been like this for a couple months now. It’s been pretty gross. The algae has been bad, there’s trash all in it, there’s wood,” Kinard said.
Both women and several other people in the area said they just want answers and a plan to fix the issue.
The City of Tampa said this is a privately owned pond, meaning it's not covered under city maintenance.
I also contacted several nearby apartment complexes. They said the MAA Harbor Island Apartments are responsible for managing and maintaining the pond.
Neighbors said they hope this story will bring attention to the issue and push management to act.
We contacted the MAA Harbor Island for comment and will update this story when we hear back.
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