MERRILLVILLE | A Teal Crossings resident earlier this week took to task her community's developer for not maintaining such things as a communal retention pond and other landscaping.

Resident Debbie Peters asked the Town Council for assistance in getting McFarland Homes in Highland to handle duties she thinks are the developer's responsibility and not that of residents.

But Richard Anderson, a Merrillville-based attorney for McFarland, said it's a maintenance situation that the developer hasn't abandoned.

Peters, who moved into the community about 3 1/2 years ago, said she has been handling such landscaping duties as mowing around the retention pond and trimming bushes.

She said she is tired of being an unpaid worker for the development.

"We can't get an answer," she said. "The people have been bought and sold."

Town Attorney Steve Bower said that maintenance of retention ponds is up to the developers and not the town.

"This is too common," Bower said. "They want to develop houses and walk away."

Anderson said he has spoken to the developer and the builder, and they are taking care of the community's maintenance.

"McFarland is the developer, and Craig Van Prooyen is the builder," Anderson said. "No one has walked away from the development."