OPINION|
Correction: Elaine Garton is 82 years old. A previous version of this story had the wrong age.
The dispute is over a horse, a donkey and a pile of manure.
But also, in getting both sides of the story, it’s about two neighbors who have each faced more hardship and sorrow than they deserve.
Elaine Garton, 82, is a widow who in recent years has lost an adult son and an adult daughter — one to cancer and one to a heart attack. Her husband, Jerry, died in 2003.
Garton lives on the north side of Farm Road 140, also called Grand Street, at its intersection with State Route MM.
Garton has lived there 56 years. The house was built in 1904. It’s in unincorporated Greene County.
Across the two-lane road from Garton’s house resides a woman, 47, who rents a house that sits on 0.9 acres in the city of Republic. That figure — 0.9 acres — comes from the Greene County Assessor’s Office website. It’s important in this dispute. The parcel is zoned for agricultural use.
This woman fled Arizona — “escaped” is the word she used — to get away from an abusive husband. It was her second abusive relationship, she tells me.
When I ask if she has children, she says no, but has had devastating miscarriages.
I’m not using her name because she tells me she has a restraining order against her ex-husband and does not want him to discover where she lives. I know her name.
She returned to Greene County because her elderly parents live here. She works as a mental health therapist.
She moved into the house she rents on the 0.9-acre lot in November 2022. At the time, she didn’t have either Diesel or Bill — her horse and donkey. They are the ones responsible for the pile of manure.
The woman tells me her landlord told her the parcel was 2 acres; she now knows it is not.
She had been boarding Diesel elsewhere. Then, with the help of her landlord — who once lived on the property — she added Bill.
‘The smell is horrible. The fly situation is terrible.’
The problem, Garton says, is that manure pile in her neighbor’s backyard. It smells bad, attracts flies and, she contends, might be responsible for contaminating her new well with E. coli bacteria.
Garton’s old well went out in January 2023 and she spent $36,000 on the new one, which goes 539 feet deep. That dollar figure includes work like removal of a mature tree, repair of her driveway and new plumbing.
“She has been there 16 months, the manure is stacking up,” Garton says. “The smell is horrible. The fly situation is terrible. I have businesses on my property.”
Garton leases the two buildings she owns next to her home. One houses a mechanic and the other an engine repair shop.
“It is destroying my businesses,” she says. “It is destroying my well being.”
Although Garton used similar words when I interviewed her at her home, the quotes above are from the April 16 Republic City Council meeting. It’s on video. Elaine Garton was there to encourage the city to do something.
She cites the letter of the law
At that meeting, Garton told the City Council that her neighbor was in violation of Republic City Ordinance 210.33, which states in part:
“No person shall keep more than one (1) cow, bull, jack, horse, goat or sheep or any combination of such animals in an outdoor enclosure or pasture, unless such enclosure or pasture shall have an area of twenty-one thousand seven hundred eighty (21,780) square feet for each of such animals (one-half (½) acre.)”
I added the boldface. This means, to me, that you need at least one full acre to keep two animals — such as Diesel and Bill — in Republic. As I said, the parcel is 0.9 acres.
Getting rid of either animal is not an option, the 47-year-old woman tells me.
“All of this has been really stressful for me because my animals mean everything to me,” she says. “Diesel, my horse, really kind of helped me through a lot of grief after losing my last baby. So you know how some people have emotional support animals? He’s like my emotional support animal.”
Says she’s tried to be nice to Elaine
The two women once were friends.
In fact, the younger woman tells me, Garton voluntarily kept the horse and donkey on her property in March 2023.
“She told me I could just bring them over there and leave them while I was gone, because my dad was still really sick. And was very weak. He wasn’t able to take care of them. So I had Bill and Diesel over on her property.
“They were over there two or three weeks.”
The younger woman says she has tried to be a good neighbor. She attended the funeral services for Elaine’s son, who died in 2023. She has made cookies for Elaine.
“I’ve never met anybody that didn’t want to feel seen, heard or understood,” she says. “I’ve tried to make sure that she does feel seen, heard and understood.”
What about all the cow manure?
Garton owns 13 acres of land, which occasionally has cattle on it.
The younger woman tells me she does not believe there is an odor problem, or a fly problem or that groundwater from her backyard has contaminated Garton’s 539-foot deep well.
Instead, she wonders why Garton focuses on her one horse and her one donkey when there are many cows in the area and even, occasionally, on Garton’s own property.
That’s a lot of cow manure, she says.
The younger woman shared with me an exchange of text messages with a party she says is Garton. Here’s a part of it.
Younger woman: How did you deal with the smell of the cow manure behind your house?
Garton: Because I have 13 acres and I am zoned commercial so I can do that. You are a Republic resident. Go to Republic City ordinance on equine allowed within city limits. It clearly states that it is illegal.
Younger woman: I’m asking how you neutralized the cow manure odor. Not questioning zoning laws.
Garton: Cow manure spread over 13 acres is a lot less and not nearly as smelly as horse manure. Why would you think you could just keep piling it up and it wouldn’t get twice as bad?
Younger woman: A lot of it has decomposed. … Why didn’t you report Steve? Steve had 3 donkeys here before and you were living across the street. (Steve is her landlord, who once lived on the .9 acres.)
Garton: No he did not. He kept his daughter’s horse until she moved to the farm and could properly care for it. I am not going to talk anymore. I am blocking your phone. If you are so naïve that you can not smell yourself the stink there is nothing left to say. You can say anything to my attorney who will step in if Republic doesn’t enforce their own ordinances.
Younger woman: Clearly, you aren’t consistent. Don’t text me anymore. I’ve been dealing with hypertensive crisis for months and have been doing everything I can to keep my stress levels down. Your unexpected texts the other night caused my blood pressure to go to 198/120. I’m not willing to have a heart attack or stroke over the stress you create.
Garton: Then move because this isn’t going away.
Younger woman: Why are you so hateful?
Garton: Because you are contaminating the air I breathe and my renters.
A chronology of hardships
I compiled a chronology to help me track events in this dispute.
Garton told me that on April 1 one of her tenants asked her if he was going to have to contend with odor and fly problems next year. One of Garton’s tenants was in the audience when she complained to the Republic City Council.
The next day is when Garton texted the younger woman about the manure pile.
Backing up to January of this year, Garton was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Last year, the younger woman’s father “got really sick, very sick, almost died.”
Last summer, the younger woman was bit by a brown recluse spider.
“I was not able to do as much work,” she tells me.
Elaine Garton allegedly screams from across the street
A few weeks ago on May 7, Garton received test results indicating her new well was contaminated with E. coli. She and her two tenants had to use bottled water and bacterial soap.
On that day, the younger woman tells me, she arrived home from work.
“I looked up and she was running out of her house. She was screaming and yelling at me. I couldn’t tell everything she was saying. I heard ‘horse’ and ‘well’ and I just couldn’t understand because she was screaming and yelling.
“I wasn’t sure what to say. I do have post-traumatic stress disorder. I have been married twice. And both of them were extremely abusive husbands. So when people yell at me I just can’t — I instantly start shaking. I just can’t help it.”
Once inside, the younger woman thought about what had just happened and called police. An officer arrived that day and interviewed both women individually.
According to Garton, the officer asked her, “‘Do you have guns in the house?’
“I said, ‘Hell yes! … I take handling a gun very seriously. If I point a gun at you, you will be dead.”
‘My windows were up and it was very pungent’
Garton reported the problem to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and to Bob Dixon, presiding commissioner of the Greene County Commission. Dixon has been out to her home to investigate.
“One way or another we are going to get this solved,” Dixon tells me. He says he’s been working on the matter with several people and agencies, including the younger woman’s landlord, for some three weeks.
I asked Dixon if could smell the manure when he went to investigate.
“I was in my truck on the road,” he says. “My windows were up and it was very pungent.”
Letter from county: ‘Your property creates a hazard’
Dixon and Springfield-Greene County Director of Public Health Katie Towns sent the younger woman a letter. It also went to David Cameron, Republic city administrator, who provided me with a copy. It states, in part:
“A water well near your property was found to have Escherichia coli (E. coli). Due to the presence of livestock on your property and an accumulation of animal waste, or feces, your property creates a hazard. E. coli and other bacterial pathogens can leach into surface water and groundwater which can eventually show up in well water, especially during periods of heavy rain. Contamination of groundwater with pathogens originating from livestock has been responsible for large disease outbreaks in humans.”
I asked Cameron what the city is doing to resolve this mess. He responded via email:
“Staff have been routinely monitoring the situation, communicating with the renter and complainant, conducting site evaluations, and reviewing the site under the guidance of the City Attorney since it involves questions surrounding the enforcement of the municipal code and since the complainant asserted potential legal action against the City.
“… If the conditions warrant corrective action, the City will take action through Animal Control or the legal department if appropriate.”
I interviewed the younger woman May 15. She told me she will put up a new fence, one farther from the road, meaning her animals won’t be as close to Garton’s home and her tenants. She said she was doing this at her own expense.
I asked her: Why don’t you move?
“The more she harasses me and the more stress she creates for me, the harder it is for me to move because of my blood-pressure issues. I just can’t. Moving right now would kill me. I’m not going to put my life in danger to move because she keeps telling me to move. I don’t think that’s her right.”
This is Pokin Around column No. 184.
