Man’s Return To Property Could Revive Confrontation

Sat., Dec. 27, 1997

Associated Press

A man who was jailed after an armed standoff over an unpermitted septic system is back home, but the legality of his residency remains in doubt.

Sherwood “S.C.” Schantz said this week he considered himself a full-time security guard for the farm implement business he runs at the site on Washington 508 near Interstate 5 about five miles southeast of town.

“I’m moving back on the damn property whether they like it or not,” Schantz said Monday.

His residence looks like a mobile home, but he maintained that it is really a storage unit.

“As far as I know, everything’s legal,” Schantz said.

Doug Jensen, the Lewis County sheriff’s chief civil deputy, isn’t so sure.

“I have a sneaky suspicion he’s simply going to occupy the site and see how the county responds,” Jensen said Tuesday.

“That’s what he told me about a month ago,” Jensen said. “Courts will generally look at such action as subterfuge. (He) would probably be well-served by getting legal advice.”

Schantz, who has been at odds with county officials since he installed the septic system without a permit in 1991, also could be concerned about foreclosure. He says he owes about $1,500 in back taxes on the building.

Schantz had been living with a friend before he returned to the site Monday.

He was released from the county jail after a two-week stay that ended when supporters and sympathizers raised $50,000 to bail him out in September.

The dispute over the septic system resulted in unpaid fines and legal battles that escalated into an armed confrontation with sheriff’s deputies Sept. 5.

During the standoff, nuisance abatement crews disconnected the plumping and electricity, tore out septic lines, smashed the 1,200-gallon concrete septic tank and filled it with sand.

On Nov. 14 Schantz was sentenced to a year on probation after charges were reduced from intimidating a public official and unlawfully displaying a firearm to obstructing a public servant and resisting arrest.

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