The bullying has gone on for 17 years. No one knows about it when they buy from a victim who is running away. Everyone buys with the idea that they have found their paradise at the lake. Of the ten houses on our point, seven have changed ownership in the eight years we have been here. Including us there are two who are planning on selling.
Of the ten slips in the community dock, nine have changed ownership since we have been here.
The eight years we have been here have been a very uneasy coexistence and a balance of power has kept the neighborhood tolerable. In the last two years things have happened to upset that balance. I have stepped in and gotten the road done, which the head bully previously used to control all of his neighbors, while at the same time some of those who replaced those who have left are of the same ideology as the head bully. They also believe they are entitled to whatever they want regardless of what they have to do to get it. They are simply used to getting their way and not having anyone question the things they do.
The head bully ran the road for 15 years, and never got it turned over to the County. I did that and it just burns hims up every time the County snowplow or brushhogs comes down it. I wish I could play for you the profane, late-night phone calls I got from him right at the beginning of my involvement in the road, until he realized that the 20-plus other owners all wanted it turned over to the County.
As it turns out I made our presentation to the Commission in the last meeting we could have. In the morning session they had passed a new road adoption policy which disqualifies us. It was lacking one signature when I made our presentation in the afternoon.
Yes, Jenny and I
are the cause of the problem in the neighborhood. That is because we did not acqiesce, or move, as the others have. The bully has never had to deal with that situation. The sheriff has never known about his conduct because all the others chose to leave.
Our attorney, and many others whose advice I sought, say just to ignore them. They have no legal right to rule over our private property. They cannot without our permission. We cannot give that unless they talk to us. They haven't done that since August, 2004. Our attorn(ies) have said not to try to engage them in an endless email debate. They are not ready to resolve the matter. Except for the one I sent recently, I have not bothered them with any of my rhetoric since early last summer.
I am fully aware that they do not want to hear from me about anything, and I am obliging them.
Jenny and I have wanted to sit down and hammer out a compromise for more than a year, the Corps told them to get together with us and work things out last April, but they have decided they do not want to do that. The head bully has told the others, "Let me take care of this," because he always has in the past.
The leader of a project can be a uniter or a divider. The leader of this project has decided not the deal at all with the one party he needs to deal with. Why should he spend all his time with the others? They already agree with his position.
When I did the road, I dealt with 26 property owners, each with their own agenda. Not everyone saw things my way, so I worked things out with each of them, including those who are now giving us a hard time. I never demanded that anyone see things my way and compromised and spent whatever time was needed with each of the owners to gain their support.
All we can do is just let them faunch at the bit. Get our own dock, move out of theirs, build a new house down the road, and wind up better off than we would have had this not happened. That is what we are doing.
So, I am torn between just ignoring them, until they are ready, or force myself upon them by suggesting we work things out. Our attorney suggested that we attempt to start the healing process. We were going to do that when we got back from Florida Jan. 21. But when we got home the streetlight had been shot out and our house had been vandalized.
So,
what would you do? Ask the criminals if they want to sit down and talk?
The reporting I did to the sheriff was at the request of the sheriff, chief deputy and county prosecutor. I had approached them looking for a neighborhood mediation program, not a tattletale program. In a meeting last May 31, the Prosecutor told me to document everything that happens and communicate it to the Chief Deputy. He said he wanted to build a case based on a pattern of behavior rather than a specific occurrence. Yes, that became a lot of emails, three or four a week because that's how many incidences there were.
The sheriff requested an arrest warrant at one point last summer, at which time the geriatric delinquent who is an ex-cop came up with the idea of all of them telling the sheriff that I am the one doing to them what they have been doing to us.
So the Prosecutor wrote it off as neighbors who can't get along. We fully comprehend what happened, and know of no better way we could have proceeded. We have made sure that neither us nor our guests resorted to the same tactics. We have just taken the abuse and reported it.
Who could have figured that they would rely on such a warped plan? It is devilish, at best, especially for such fine upstanding Christian people, full of faulty logic and the longer this goes on the more others will see that.
What would they gain if they succeeded with that plan? Surely not our approval of their dock plan.
Every time I see our Commissioner he just shrugs his shoulders and says, "Things any better?"
Actually, the only way in which the authorities have acted in the same way is that they all have reacted in a way in which they think they don't to have to deal with it. They have taken what appeared to them to be the easy way out, but that has not resolved the problem. As things continue, one by one they will see the truth of what is going on, as has the Electric Company. One by one the deputies who have to come out, and catch the bullies in their lies, begin to see the truth of the situation.
Like I said, time is the best friend of the truth.
I should remember not to share our problems with others. Some don't care and the rest are glad you have them.
What was the question again?
