‘Sinkhole Guy’ pays home fee for disabled Pasco vet
Jul 20, 2011
The following article was published in the St. Petersburg Times on July 20, 2011:
“Sinkhole Guy’ pays home fee for disable Pasco vet
By Lisa Buie
Disabled Vietnam veteran Tim Carmack and his family can move into their home legally, thanks to the Sinkhole Guy.
Taylor Yarkosky, head of the Brooksville-based sinkhole repair company Advanced Pier Technology, read the St. Petersburg Times story about Carmack’s struggles and came to the rescue.
“I’ve got a real passion for helping people who don’t have a voice or who don’t have power to get where they need to be,” said Yarkosky, who has a website askthesinkholeguy.com and who works for consumer law firms. “I thought, ‘I can write a check to help this guy and feel damn good doing it.'”
Carmack, 65, suffers from a disease contracted when he was an Army sergeant fighting in Vietnam. He uses a wheelchair and is unable to work. A fire in December severely damaged his mobile home.
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, helped him overcome insurance red tape and replace the home for a larger one, but the increased size meant Carmack owed Pasco County $2,927 in impact fees before he could move in with his wife and two sons.
Yarkosky wrote a check to Pasco County for the total amount and sent it by overnight mail to Fasano, who delivered it Tuesday.
“It’s nice to see a community coming together to help a disabled veteran and his family,” Fasano said.
Yarkosky wasn’t the only one moved by Carmack’s story. Todd Pressman, president of his Palm Harbor-based lobbying firm and newly appointed chairman of the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s governing board, rounded up $1,000 in commitments from businesses. By Tuesday afternoon, at least $700 of that was already in a special fund for the Carmacks at Regions Bank.
“It’s like a huge weight gone, a very huge weight,” said Carmack’s wife, Shannon, 34, who had to quit work to care for Tim full time. “If we could have saved that month-to-month and made payments, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
Shannon thanked everyone who donated and said any leftover money would be spent on building a new wheelchair ramp and grab bars in the bathroom that would allow her husband more independence.
Find this here: http://www.tampabay.com/news/growth/sinkhole-guy-pays-home-fee-for-disabled-pasco-vet/1181338