Fri 04 Aug 2006

Kingston Whig-Standard

Bitter spat ends as house bought by neighbours who forced duo to sell

by Rob Tripp

Don't like your neighbours? Buy their house.

Jacques Saelman did it yesterday in Kingston, purchasing for $78, 000
the small bungalow owned by his next door neighbours on Division
Street, Sylvia and Dennis Hill.
Saelman has called them "the neighbours from hell."

The Hills - Sylvia, 58, and Dennis, 57 - watched quietly from the
back bench in the public gallery of the county courthouse as the home
they've lived in for 30 years was auctioned out from under them
because they have failed to pay roughly $70,000 owed to Saelman after
he sued the Hills for harassment and won four years ago.

"They got what they wanted," Sylvia Hill said in an interview minutes
after the auction ended. "They bought their judgment."

A rental truck appeared in the Hills' driveway at 568 Division St. on
Wednesday and was still there early yesterday.

"We're just out," Sylvia Hill said. "There's still stuff in the house."

She and her husband would not answer any other questions or offer any
explanation for their failure to pay the debt that could have
prevented yesterday's sale.

In previous interviews, they said they could not afford to pay the
judgment and would have to leave the house if it was sold.

They conferred after the auction with real estate agent Ernie Sparks,
who sat with them during the sale.

Once Saelman fulfils the conditions of sale, including paying off
debts on the house, the deal will close and the Hills will have to
move out.

Prospective buyers were told yesterday that a $50,000 mortgage
remains on the almost 900-square-foot bungalow as well as $6,000 in
unpaid taxes.

The auction should put an end to a bitter, sometimes bizarre eight-
year feud that featured allegations of herbicidal homicide, trench
digging, videotaping and threatening acts with garden implements.

Saelman, 74, and his live-in partner William Wuerch, sued the Hills
in December 2000 after two years of feuding with them, seeking
damages for mental distress and the loss of enjoyment of their home.

The judge concluded the Hills mounted a "campaign of harassment" and
ordered the retired couple to pay Saelman and Wuerch more than
$27,500 in damages, plus cover the legal costs of the civil suit.

The Hills have not paid the judgment, which was issued in May 2004.
In addition to winning the lawsuit, Saelman obtained a writ of
seizure and sale, a legal document that allowed him to force the sale
of the house to recover the money owed.

Saelman and Wuerch would not answer questions after the sale.

"We have no comment," lawyer David Hurley said, as he left the
courtroom with the pair.

During the auction, Hurley bid on Saelman's behalf, competing with
just one other interested buyer, an older man who wouldn't give his
name.

Just four people registered to bid.

Auctioneer Tim Potter stoked the bidding with a stream of
incomprehensible banter, pushing the bidders up, at first by
increments of $2,500 and then by steps of $1,000, until Hurley bid
$78,000.

When the other bidder shook his head and refused to go higher, Hurley
turned to the man, seated on the bench directly behind him, and
chatted.

The man still refused to budge and could be overheard saying that he
would not go higher unless he could see inside the house.

It's unclear how Saelman will recover the money he is owed unless he
is able to sell the house for more than than the total of the auction
price and the debts.
The condition of the three-bedroom house is unknown.

The Hills, who agreed to a number of interviews with The Whig-
Standard last month, would not allow a reporter inside the home where
they raised three children.

They have maintained that the civil trial held in April 2004 was
unfair and biased against them and that they did not harass their
neighbours.

"They didn't even prove any of it," Sylvia Hill said, in a mid- July interview.

The Hills represented themselves and Sylvia Hill was their only witness.
Mr. Justice Charles Hackland referred to her evidence, in his written
judgment, as dishonest, at times incomprehensible, and not credible.

He said there was reasonable suspicion that the Hills used liquid
herbicide in 2003 to kill sunflowers on their neighbour's property.

The judge also accepted the evidence of dozens of strange encounters
between the neighbours in which Mrs. Hill used a rake or other garden
implement in a threatening and intimidating way.

Hackland accepted that the Hills often dug trenches and pits on their
property, filling them with water in a bid to flood the yard of their
neighbours or destabilize a wood fence Saelman built.

In addition to the finding that Saelman and Wuerch were harassed, the
judge also imposed a permanent injunction, severely restricting the
actions of the Hills.

It barred them from harassing, swearing at or shouting at their
neighbours; prohibited them from posting signs on their house;
ordered them not to dig trenches capable of carrying water within
three metres of the property line; and stipulates that they cannot
come within 10 metres of the property of their neighbours, except to
drive along Division Street, enter their driveway or to pass along
the sidewalk, "without loitering or communicating, or gesturing, or
signalling" to their neighbours in any way.

Yesterday, as Saelman and Wuerch smoked on the sidewalk near the rear
door of the courthouse, the Hills walked past, within arms length of
their neighbours.

No words were exchanged.

rtripp@thewhig.com

© 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved.

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2006-08-03 06:16:00

Salade à l'herbicide à Lévis

(INFO800) - Les policiers de Lévis demandent l'aide de la population
pour retrouver des malfaiteurs.
Durant les nuits du 12 juin et du 24 juillet derniers, ils ont
introduit un puissant herbicide dans le système d'irrigation des
Serres Belles Saisons à Saint-Nicolas, ce qui a détruit la production
de laitue des frères Johanson.

Le méfait est évalué à 500 000 $.

http://tinyurl.com/ln2pm

   ======================

Thu 03 Aug 2006

Moncton Times & Transcript

Police probe poisoned hay ;

It could be weeks before police know the chemical compound used by
vandals to destroy a farmer's hay crop in the Keswick area.

RCMP Cpl. Claude Tremblay said yesterday soil and vegetation samples
as well as photographs of the dead field of hay on Sugar Island are
currently being analyzed.

He said it could take several weeks before results are known.

Last week, Arthur Versloot, owner of the Versloot Dairy Farm, and his
father discovered 10 hectares of hay was poisoned.

Damage and repairs are estimated at close to $20,000.

Tremblay did confirm a chemical agent was used to destroy the crop.

Meanwhile, the Versloots said it's business as usual on the farm and
they are confident they can work through the challenge.

© 2006 Times & Transcript (Moncton)

   ======================

Thu 03 Aug 2006

Lexington Herald-Leader

Owner suspects pesticide in deaths of pet goats

By Steve Lannen, CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU

For Iris Doty, a disturbing mystery is unfolding.

At Butterfly Hill, her plot of land just off U.S. 25 south of
Sadieville, three young billy goats have died in the past two weeks.
One also mysteriously grew ill and died two years ago.

The Hope Center social worker said she suspects weed killer sprayed
around an AT&T power station's fence that abuts her land could be the
culprit. The goats could have eaten the poisoned weeds, she said.

One goat first took ill July 24, the day Doty saw a landscape
contractor working around the fence, she said.
A second goat died over the weekend and the third died Wednesday
morning, each essentially experiencing kidney failure, Doty said. Six
other goats still appear healthy, she said.

Yesterday, an AT&T spokesman in Atlanta cast doubt on the theory that
the company's weed control is to blame. Roundup was last sprayed
April 24. Since then, contractors have cut down the weeds each month
with just a weed whacker, said Aaron Bedy.

AT&T would compensate Doty if it is found responsible, Bedy said. But
later, after a review of records and talking with representatives in
Kentucky, he said, "They don't feel like it's anything they've done."

He said the small, nondescript building is a regeneration station,
which boosts signals sent over the company's fiberoptic network. It
is surrounded by a chain-link, barbed-wire fence.

Hoping for an answer, Doty took the third goat's carcass to the
University of Kentucky's Livestock Disease and Diagnostic Center on
Wednesday. Yesterday, investigators visited her place, collecting
evidence and taking photographs.

Results from the goat's autopsy won't be available for a week to 10
days, Doty was told.

Bedy said someone on AT&T's behalf will also visit the area to
further investigate.

Doty hopes the UK results will explain what happened.

"It tears us all up. They're family pets," she said. "There's
something there, and I want to find out why."

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