Nightmare Neighbors Rapid Growth Of Region Sparks Rise In Unruly, Violent Disputes

If fences make for good neighbors, some Kootenai County residents could use more timber.

Roger Dunham, 49, might even insist on Kevlar.

Ten days ago, the Athol resident took a .25-caliber pistol shot to the torso, escaping with a deep flesh wound. The shooting, Dunham says, was linked to a neighborhood feud over his push for new development around tiny Hackney Airpark.

Police, land-use planners and some residents say Dunham’s case is typical of neighborhood disputes that are on the rise and getting increasingly bizarre and unruly. Rapid growth, Western individualism and a deep attachment to property are colliding to spark a sort of cul-de-sac rage in Kootenai County.

County planning commissioners - who frequently referee such quarrels - are wary enough to consider using portable metal detectors at their public meetings.

“I’m not that fearful,” said commission chairwoman Jan Scharnweber. “But I don’t want to be stupid, either.”

Ron Flemming, 86, is no longer speaking about the Hackney Airpark incident, but he told police he shot in self-defense when Dunham attacked him with a cane. No charges have been filed.

“A lot of people around here are spreading a lot of rumors, and they don’t like me at all,” Dunham said. “The (shooter) looked at me like he was going to do society a favor.”

Dunham, a former Connecticut resident, rattled some neighbors by pushing to make sure their tiny community airfield is operated like a public facility.

Other longtime residents, like Pamela Ellis - daughter of airport founder Cliff Hackney - argue the airport was always a small private facility and should stay that way.

These residents maintain the shooting and the feud are unrelated and that Dunham just wants sympathy to boost his cause.

“Some people want something so bad they’ll play dirty to get it,” said Ellis, who maintains she bears Dunham no ill will.

Other such disputes abound.

During a feud last year over fishing access at Hayden Lake, one resident was chased with a baseball bat after complaining that anglers had defecated in his front yard.

Two years ago, a Post Falls rancher lost a cow to a bullet wound, after his livestock trampled neighbors’ gardens and ate from their dogs’ dishes.

Earlier this summer, sheriff’s deputies mediated a noisy squabble involving one man’s cackling rooster and his angry neighbor’s air raid siren.

“People are less likely to try to mediate things and more likely to go to fisticuffs,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

The problem, most onlookers agreed, is linked to population growth.

Traditionally rural Kootenai County is growing increasingly suburban, bringing neighbors with divergent attitudes together on ever-smaller pieces of ground. That can lead to friction.

Such disputes also can get personal quickly - in part because rural Western residents hold property particularly dear.

Elsewhere in Kootenai County, suspicious gunfire is linked to a zoning dispute. A pet peacock pecks siding off homes, prompting calls to authorities. Sewer fee rebates almost lead to blows at an Athol City Council meeting.

“Idaho, maybe more so than other areas, has a real interesting attitude about property rights,” Scharnweber said. “It’s ‘I ought to be able to do what I please with my land, and it shouldn’t matter how that effects you - until you’re doing something that affects me.’ Then it’s a different story.”

Post Falls retiree Rosemary Dickson recently feuded with a neighbor whose wandering cattle kept trampling her garden. The frustration was unimaginable, she said.

“When you work on a garden, you’re so proud of it - you go out and talk to it for goodness sakes,” she said. “Then to see it destroyed just makes you want to cry.”

In Idaho, where regulations are few, turning to government often doesn’t help.

In Dunham’s case, a public hearing on some of the changes was continued in hopes that residents could settle on a compromise.

Dickson, meanwhile, discovered Idaho is an open-range state, which means she is responsible for fencing out her neighbor’s cattle.

When frustration leads to thoughts of revenge, independent Westerners often consider handling problems themselves.

Friends have urged Dickson to kill the cows. Other neighbors have joked about pummeling the rancher, she said.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘If I see him in a back alley, I’ll knock his block off,”’ Dickson said. “And if it came down to no witnesses, his word against their’s … something might happen.”

And Scharnweber said people nationwide are so busy and so driven by self-interest they’ve forgotten about community.

Some have grown more comfortable “asking forgiveness than permission.”

“People are losing the skill of how to be neighbors,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo