A neighborhood wrangle over rocks and mailboxes – and what can be allowed in a county-owned right-of-way – provided the centerpiece of last week’s Putnam County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Tom Frey lives on Lakemore Drive, a short, lightly traveled, dead-end residential street on the peninsula between Lake Oconee and Lick Creek. His home lies on the inside of a curve, the far shoulder of which is quite narrow and slopes downhill toward several lakeside homes.
At the front of the Frey property lies a driveway, a mailbox – and a half-dozen or so “decorative stones,” as he calls them, placed within a foot or so of the road and about 10-12 feet apart. The stones are not huge boulders, but they are not small either – roughly the size of a microwave oven to a large cooler.
Frey said he cuts the grass on the right-of-way, as do many other homeowners across the county. Basically, it constitutes part of the landscaping for his house.
Frey’s complaint originated sometime back when resurfacing of Lakemore Drive left it with a ledge somewhat higher than before. Contractors and landscaping trucks, especially those with trailers, were parking on the inside of the curve and often left large ruts. He and the drivers spoke, sometimes with choice wording, and that is when Frey placed his stones along the roadside.
The county’s public works department eventually told Frey he had to remove the privately-owned stones from the right-of-way, in the name of maintenance.
He appeared before the council seeking a variance to allow his decorative stones to remain. To bolster his argument, he asked, “What about mailboxes?”
Frey had checked into vaguely worded state regulations and county ordinances which seem to allow mailboxes in the right-of-way; however, with posts no larger than four inches square. And then he presented photos of brick or concrete-enclosed mailboxes the size of small broom closets, arguing he was being singled out.
“Buckle up, everybody should have to abide by the same law,” he said.
Frey’s appearance before the commissioners was a request for a right-of-way permit, a variance to the county bylaw. The commission was on the verge of denying his request by a 3-1 vote before they changed to tabling the matter while county attorney Barry Fleming researched it further.
Fleming’s law firm specializes in representing entities of local government. “In 28 years, I have researched a lot of different topics, but I have to say I have never researched mailboxes,” he said.
In a separate matter, the commission did approve another right-of-way issue that allows two Windstream firms to lay fiber-optic cable along several Sinclair streets in southwest Putnam.