Tool City Councilman, next-door neighbor spar




A long-brewing feud between Tool City Councilman Phil Ringley and a next-door neighbor spilled on to the pages of the local newspapers recently.

The neighbor, Kathy Anderson, addressed the Tool City Council June 14 about her family's disagreements with Ringley, whom she didn't name during the meeting. The Athens Daily Review and The Monitor of Mabank reported her complaints.

Anderson spoke with reporters for both newspapers prior to appearing before the Tool City Council, but no stories resulted until her public appearance.

Anderson said the disagreement began because Ringley, who moved next to them several years after they settled in Tool, objected to their oleander shrubs and a storage building blocking his view of the lake.

Anderson claimed Ringley took matters into his own hands, cutting back their shrubs and later burning the privacy fence they built after the destruction of the shrubs.

Ringley filed a lawsuit against them over the construction of the fence, and it was later settled in mediation, Anderson said. The Tool City Council approved the fence's construction, she said.

Anderson also claimed a window and a security light at their house was shot out by a firearm, and that 53 trees and shrubs got poisioned in addition to the fence being burned.

Anderson said her family installed a security camera, and that it caught images of Ringley that alarmed them.

Anderson added that Ringley contacted the school district where her son works and made inflammatory accusations against him.

Anderson said she brought her complaint to the Tool City Council in an effort to gain "peace and to be left alone." Public disclosure of the feud might help end it, she said.

Ringley did not respond to Anderson's comments during the meeting, but he consulted with his attorney who helped the councilman draft a letter to the Athens Daily Review disputing Anderson's account.

The Monitor also published Ringley's response to Anderson's allegations.

The letter published by the newspaper claimed that Anderson's "brief depiction of events is full of inaccuracies, innuendos, false statements and distoritions of timeline."

Ringley claimed the Oleanders stood up to 25 feet high in some areas, and that they grew on the common property line. He previously asked the Andersons to cutback the shrubs to restore airflow to his property and to restore the lakeview, but they refused, the councilman said.

Ringley also offered to buy the storage building and to pay to have the shrubs cut, he said.

Ringley said his contractor cut the shrubs back in 2011 because they brushed against the second-story siding of his house and intefered with workers' renovation of his house.

The councilman said the fence was built contrary to Tool construction codes, and that the Andersons refused to obey an order from the Tool City Inspector to stop construction of the fence.

Ringley denied shooting out the guard light and window, poisioning the trees and shrubs and burning the fence.

Ringley said the security camera violated his privacy because it was pointed at his property and in his home's windows. The councilman said he complained to the school district about the Andersons' son posting YouTube videos about him.

Ringley added that the videos were edited in such a manner as to not reveal the entire incidents being filmed.

One of the videos shows Ringley holding a sign that says, "Eat Me."

Ringley said the Andersons have made numerous complaints to the Tool Police Department and the Henderson County Attorney, but the subsequent investigations resulted in no charges.

The letter closes with a statement defending Ringley's actions. "The Ringleys have from the outset of the disagreement with the Andersons pursued their remedies through the court system. They have not abused the law enforcement community with constant complaints and lost time investigating for imagined wrongs nor have they resorted to comment publicly about what should be a private issue between two parties."

The Athens Daily Review reported that Henderson County Attorney Clint Davis confirmed that a Class C Misdemeanor reckless damage and destruction charge is pending against Ringley in the Justice of the Peace Court. No charges have been filed against the Andersons, the newspaper reported.

 

 

 




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