East Dundee drawn into neighbor ‘nonsense’
East Dundee is poised to insert itself into a battle between two feuding neighbors — one of whom is an ex-village president and the other who is running for office.
Monday night, acting on a recommendation from Police Chief Terry Mee, the committee of the whole gave preliminary approval to change three ordinances that deal with negligent driving and damage to village property. It now moves to the board for final approval next Monday.
With objections from Village President Jerald Bartels and Trustee Paul Van Ostenbridge, the board agreed to add language to the laws that includes penalties for damaging private property.
Former Village President Dan O’Leary, trustee candidate Patrick Clarke and their wives are locked in a three-year feud that O’Leary says started as soon as he asked Clarke to stop his dog from defecating on his property. The families share an easement. O’Leary says the Clarkes repeatedly and deliberately drive into planters, trees and sawhorses on the O’Leary property and gun the motor and spin the wheels so gravel flies onto their land.
“If we’re guilty of something, it’s telling him to stop,” O’Leary said.
Clarke said his beef with the O’Learys started once they built a garage he believes wasn’t up to code. When he started asking questions about it, O’Leary got the village to “clamp” down on him by threatening to fine him over a storm drain he’d installed on the easement, Clarke said. A disorderly conduct citation for his wife, Allison, after a run-in with the O’Learys followed and was later thrown out of court.
The O’Learys took the Clarkes to court over the property damage issues but later dropped the suit. The Clarkes are now suing the O’Learys for emotional distress, invasion of privacy (they say the O’Learys have several cameras trained on their house) and abuse of power. The case is up for a status hearing Thursday.
“He gets away with pretty much anything,” Clarke said of O’Leary, who was village president from 2007 to 2009.
Mee says he can’t count the number of times police have been called to deal with the property matters. Trustees supporting the amendments said the changes would hold people accountable for destroying private property and hopefully end the local drama.
“I think the idea that anybody can go ahead and inflict any sort of damage on private property because our codes don’t specifically address it, there’s no consequence, I mean that’s absurd,” Trustee Jeff Lynam said.
In his objection to the proposal, Bartels said the village should wait for the case to play out in court and doubted trustees could do anything to end the “nonsense” between the Clarkes and O’Learys.
“I believe the village is now looking to legislate on private property, as opposed to public property, to satisfy the needs of a former village president,” Bartels said.