RINGWOOD — Two out of three Upper Ringwood homeowners with sinkholes on their lands oppose a remedy plan the Borough Council adopted this week because it leaves one without housing and another loses his back yard.

With $600,000 in grant money to work with, the council has been trying to negotiate with two families evacuated in November 2006 and a third whose back yard dropped into an abyss in July 2005. The grant money, federal funds passed on through the state, will be lost if not allocated by June 30. But the issue has become so contentious, it is likely headed to court.

Bradley Campbell, the former state Department of Environmental Protection commissioner and an attorney representing homeowner Roger DeGroat, said after the council's unanimous vote Monday night that it made no attempt to work with the residents. He noted that the plan hasn't changed, even after a state-mandated special committee was formed to offer other options.

"Now we go to court," Campbell said. "The council is supposed to work with the residents, and they paid no attention to the committee or the homeowners."

From the beginning, the issue has been complicated. The borough forced the families from the houses for their safety and has paid $221,957 to date in rental fees. But the crisis has been life-changing for the residents and where and how funding was spent only added to the chaos.

The approved plan allocates roughly $200,000 to each of the three families. But for two families, that won't solve the problem.

The hazardous section of DeGroat's yard would become municipal property. The borough will make it aesthetically pleasing, though not safe, and fence it off. Cost estimate: $185,000.

That's not acceptable to DeGroat, who wants his yard fixed, as local officials promised after receiving a $238,000 state grant for the problem. Before the work was done, state officials erroneously told Ringwood the money could not be used to fill the void. So officials spent it on other sinkhole issues before the state corrected the mistake.

Now the estimated cost to properly fill the hole and make the area safe is about $400,000, and borough officials said they don't have that kind of money.

Meantime, DeGroat continues to steer his children away from the fence surrounding the yawning void in his yard.

"This is disgusting," DeGroat said. "They have the power to make something safe and they're deciding in the favor of money."

As for the two evacuated houses, homeowner Rodney Mann has agreed to the following settlement: $160,000 to pay off his mortgage, $26,000 to demolish the building and then almost $14,000 to put toward another home.

But Jeanine Mann, the other homeowner and a distant relative of Rodney's, said that type of breakdown doesn't work for her. She is negotiating with her mortgage company to take over another foreclosed property, but she needs the entire $200,000, and the borough wants to use $27,000 to demolish her house.

Mann, who has been living in a rental house, said after the meeting, "I just want a home," before dissolving into tears.

Borough officials have said they will not consider leaving the two homes fenced off, as they are now, claiming they are a liability for the borough. And the borough can't foot the bill for demolition, said Borough Manager Kelley Rohde.

"We thought we could get the money from somewhere else, but there's no other place to get the money," Rohde said.

If Jeanine Mann does not agree to the borough's proposal, the resolution adopted by the council states that the borough will pay off the mortgage but will "no longer make any further payments regarding any matter of or for the benefit" of her family.

E-mail: williamsb@northjersey.com