‘Spite fence’ divides neighbors

Or is the driveway the real issue?

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Monticello businessman Russ LaSpina, who has operated First Class Formal Wear in the community for 23 years, always had a dream of owning his own building. The day after Memorial Day, that dream came true. He and a partner, Anthony Porpora, who owns Big Ben Jewelers, bought a building on Broadway. The building was formerly home to Frankie’s Bar, and it needed quite a bit of upgrading and renovation to make it inviting to customers. The partners poured a lot of resources into sprucing up the place, including the installation of three large display windows that look out over the parking lot to Mountain Mall, which is located next door.

But as the two men were still decorating the display windows, the owner of Mountain Mall, Samuel Backer, put up a large fence, blocking virtually the entire view of the windows to cars and pedestrians on the street and in the parking lot.

“What possible benefit could it have?” asked Porpora. “It’s a spite fence.”

LaSpina also thought it was a spite fence. He had rented a store for more than 10 years at Mountain Mall. He always paid his rent on time, and had good relations with the owner. But when he decided to move into his own building, LaSpina said, the owner of Mountain Mall took it personally and the fence was erected.

But Samual Backer, Mountain Mall owner, who also owns Apollo Plaza in Monticello and the former Sullivan’s Mall in Liberty, said it’s not a spite fence. “Why do I need his thousand bucks a month, or whatever he was paying,” asked Backer. The disagreement, he said, is about the driveway.

The parking lots of the formal wear building and Mountain Mall were connected for decades by a dirt driveway, which was used mostly by truck drivers. When LaSpina and Porpora took title to the building, they decided to repave the lot and pave the driveway.

Backer said, “It’s on my property. I told them not to do that.” So he put up a fence that blocks both the driveway and the windows. Backer said the driveway creates unsafe conditions for customers who go to his mall. LaSpina and Porpora said the lack of a driveway between the two lots causes people who wish to go from one lot to the other to drive out into Broadway, and that’s less safe than if the driveway were open.

The driveway issue aside, local authorities seem to be siding with LaSpina and Porpora. Monticello Police Chief Doug Solomon sent a letter to LaSpina saying the fence concerns him because it prevents his officers from seeing inside the jewelry store to check on “suspicious activity.”

The village manager, Richard Sush, said as far as he can tell, the fence is legal. He said, however, for Backer, “It is ill-advised from a community relations point of view.”