Good fence, feuding neighbors

HUDSON - A Hudson woman is standing her ground, saying she is protecting her property and she is doing it with a big fence -- the only problem is, that fence runs right down the middle of the road.

Barbara Ryals built a fence on the south end of her wooded property last month in Hudson.

"It's marking the edge of our property line," Ryals said.

There is just one problem, the property line and now the fence sit right smack in the middle of Houston Avenue, a private street.

"I think it's ridiculous," said truck driver Todd Phillips, as he waited to reach a landfill at the end of Houston Avenue.

He's not alone in his dislike of the new fence. Timothy Altman runs Gator Paintball and says some of his customers have a difficult time reaching his business for fear of oncoming trucks coming down the single lane.

"How would you expect a big truck or something coming with a trailer to back up that length of distance?"

Others complain it's actually dangerous.

"I think it's forcing everyone funneling down a road so it creates a big issue," said Rick Fernandez.

Ryals says the problem started when operators of a landfill slowly started expanding Houston Avenue onto her land. Then she says the landfill built its own fence on her land, then locked her out.

"They have also put up barricades at the eastern end and fenced off the eastern end, and so I can't access my property," Ryals said.

Calls to the landfill's attorney were not returned. The landfill is, however, under court order not to touch the fence. Huge sections of it were vandalized not long after its instillation.

Ryals acknowledges erecting a fence in the middle of a road is unusual. But she says the road does not belong on her land in the first place.

"It's really about fighting for all the private property owners out there. You can't take property because you feel like it," Ryals said.

Ryals is now suing the landfill hoping to get the fence and road it build on her land removed. No trial date has been set.