A Warsaw resident expressed his concern Monday with a private drive that has been created behind Pill Box Pharmacy. He said the drive violates his rights as a property owner, and has brought trespassers on his property and increased traffic to the area. During Monday’s city council meeting, Dan Vanderpool, 2204 Dubois Drive, said he wants to build a fence on his property to eliminate trespassers who have used the private drive behind Pill Box Pharmacy, 2206 Dubois Drive, and have entered his property. He said Pill Box is to the east of his home. Vanderpool read a two-page letter expressing his concerns and said this has been an issue for the past six months. He said he has contacted the city regarding the issue. Vanderpool said he has spent $5,000 in attorney, survey and other fees regarding the matter. Vanderpool said he was not aware a private road had been constructed behind the pharmacy until he saw it. He said he has had to move his bedroom from the east room of the furnished basement to an upstairs bedroom and said the basement had been quiet. “Traffic is now at between 500 and 800 vehicles a day, all day, every day,” Vanderpool said. There have been issues of trespassers going onto his property, Vanderpool said. “I have had two young men, I would guess to be about 15, walk from the ‘private’ road behind the Pill Box, down the stone slope and into my backyard,” Vanderpool said. “I have heard much about the right of the Winns to construct a road on their private property, but what about my rights to keep my private property private?” Vanderpool said in order to protect his property, his privacy and to prevent “a tragedy” he intends to install a fence on his property and will go to Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals to make the request. Vanderpool said he is concerned a burglary will happen at his residence and he said he keeps firearms in his home and will defend himself if he needs to. “If I find someone in my house in the middle of the night, I am certainly not going to ask them how old they are, I am going to shoot them,” Vanderpool read from his letter. “I have this right through both state and natural law, and yet, I would find it difficult to live with the knowledge that I had killed a couple of kids who broke into my basement to steal liquour,” Vanderpool said. He said his intentions are to have a fence installed that extends at least six feet above the level of the curb on the private drive installed by the Winn family. He said the fence may need to be as tall as 18 to 20 feet and will need to extend all the way to the creek to eliminate the possibility of accessing his property from the Winns’ property. Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said the board is the appropriate place for Vanderpool to seek the request. Thallemer said he appreciated Vanderpool’s comments, but the details of the creation of the road and making Dubois Drive one-way are planning matters that went through the city’s comprehensive plan that have dated years back. “This is an ongoing discussion to try to come up with some solutions to a very difficult problem, and unfortunately you have been the benefactor of extra traffic coming through,” Thallemer said. Jeremy Skinner, city planner, said Vanderpool will need to apply for a sign permit with the building and planning department before a hearing will be held. The board has cancelled its December meeting, and if Vanderpool files for the sign permit, the request will be reviewed in January.
