Dispute with town has Batesburg-Leesville resident camping in her yard

A dispute over repairing damage to her home in Batesburg-Leesville has left Amanda Ballenger camping in her backyard for 18 months.

Ballenger lives in four tents, saying she’s waiting for town and insurance officials to agree to remove mold and make related repairs to her home.

“I didn’t realize it would go on this long,” the 72-year-old said of living outdoors. “I thought it would only be a short while.”

Her pension and income from sporadic substitute teaching aren’t enough to afford other quarters, she said. And relatives either live too far away or can’t help, she added.

Ballenger also is concerned that the 91-year-old home that her grandmother built might be condemned as uninhabitable should she go elsewhere. But there’s no structural danger that would cause that to happen, town officials said.

Her problems began when a water pipe burst and flooded the home’s kitchen in June 2013.

It happened after repairs to a nearby town supply line increased pressure on pipes in the home, officials said.

Town officials turned the situation over to their insurer, the Municipal Association of South Carolina. The association provides coverage for 106 of the state’s 270 municipalities.

Association officials declined comment on Ballenger’s situation. “It’s a claim still in process,” spokeswoman Reba Campbell said.

Ballenger’s predicament is unusual, town officials say.

“We’ve never had a problem like this where it couldn’t be resolved,” Mayor Rita Crapps said. “We’ve done everything we possibly can do to help.”

At the town’s request, a second review of the problems and further repairs occurred, Crapps said.

Cleanup experts hired by the association insist the damage caused by the leak is fixed, officials say.

But Ballenger calls it a perfunctory job that left life-threatening mold and created more problems, including a roof leak.

“I get sick if I stay in there too long,” she said of the home lined with books and family heirlooms that she lived in for 11 years.

Ballenger refuses to accept suggestions that some furnishings and other items are impossible to save and should be thrown away.

As the dispute lingers, she goes inside briefly every few days wearing a breathing mask to empty humidifiers and check conditions.

Meanwhile, she moved selected household goods into three tents and set up a bathroom in another, relying on extension cords from the home to power appliances, heaters and lights.

“I’m using Boy Scout technology,” she said.

Life outdoors is bearable in mild weather but uncomfortable when it’s very cold or very hot, Ballenger said.

Help has come from church and charitable groups, but it’s insufficient to correct all the problems, she said.

She’s learned to be a bargain shopper, but says she’s still $11,000 in debt from expenses associated with damage to the home that she thinks no one will repay.

Ballenger describes what she is enduring as “my personal (Hurricane) Katrina.”

The experience has transformed her into a crusader against what she sees as officials’ indifference.

“I need to see that another person never has to go through this,” Ballenger said. “I don’t want to suffer for nothing.”

She refuses to give up pressing her demands for further repairs.

“I come by stubbornness” naturally, she said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Dispute with town has Batesburg-Leesville resident camping in her yard."