TAMPA TRIBUNE

December 3, 2009

Site of tot's death ordered to get migrant camp permit

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Hillsborough County health officials this week ordered the manager of the Valrico mobile home park where a child died in an uncapped septic tank over the weekend to get a migrant labor camp permit.

The designation allows health inspectors to check on conditions at the Silver Lane Mobile Home Park more frequently, opening up not only the grounds for inspection, but rooms inside the dozen mobile homes there, said Brian Miller, environmental health administrator with the Hillsborough County Health Department.

The park's manager, Kenneth Winter, is cooperating, Miller said. Winter has 30 days to pull the permit for that mobile home park and one across the street.

Winter could not immediately be reached for comment.

"We noted that there were a number of out-of-state license plates," said Miller this morning, "and that the conditions there may be that it is a migrant labor camp rather than regular mobile home park."

Registering as a migrant labor camp allows health inspectors to visit the park twice every three months and to inspect the common areas as well as inside the mobile homes, Miller said.

"One of requirements is that we go in and look at some of the basics," Miller said. "We look at the walls and floors and make sure they don't have holes in them; that there is hot and cold running water and there are some means for trying to keep roaches and rats out of the premises."

The county inspects lots of labor camps, most of which are closer to agricultural areas in eastern Hillsborough County around Plant City, Miller said.

Miller said that even if the Silver Lane Mobile Home Park had been registered as a migrant labor camp, the uncapped septic tank that claimed the life of 2-year-old Luis Martinez on Friday may still have gone unnoticed.

"It's hard to say if it would be seen or not," Miller said. "Septic systems all are underground and we're typically looking for some state of failure where there is effluent or sewage coming up to surface."

Luis disappeared on Friday afternoon. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies and about 400 volunteers searched the area, only to discover on Saturday the body of the toddler in a septic tank not far from the home he shared with his mom, dad and little sister.

On Monday, county code enforcement officers swept through the park, searching for code violations. They found another septic tank that was improperly capped. Notice was given and Winter told inspectors he would fix that and other minor violations, officers said.

Sheriff's deputies are still looking into the matter, but have said the death appears to be accidental, that the child wandered too close to the uncapped, 11-inch wide hole over the tank, which was covered by grass, and simply fell about 5 feet into the tank.

"We are looking to wrap up the investigation and will be conferring with the state attorney's office," said sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway this morning. That could come by the end of this week, he said.