DOBSON — After being attacked at two county board meetings, a Mount Airy woman fired back at her detractors recently.
At meetings in May and June of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, three neighbors off Galax Trail just outside the Mount Airy city limit asked county officials to help them get rid of what they called a nuisance property.
Delores Taylor, of Alton Lane, spoke about the neighborhood, which is just up the hill to the west of Northern Wellness and Fitness Center (formerly Pro Health). She said it was a quiet residential area before the Ritter family moved in.
She and two other women told the board of more than a dozen dogs barking for most of the day, dozens of chickens, ducks and a few goats all being kept on less than one acre of property. They spoke of the noise and smell coming from the lot.
Commissioners Johnson and Bill Goins visited the Taylor house and came back sympathetic to the barking they heard while there.
County Attorney Ed Woltz advised that because of rules in place to protect real farms in the rural county, there wasn’t much the board could do to help without infringing on farmers’ rights.
In defense
At the most recent board meeting last week, Crystal Ritter appeared during the open forum portion of the meeting to speak on behalf of herself and her daughter Jenna, whom she said was autistic and needed to write her thoughts down.
Normally the board chairman asks the speakers to limit their remarks to three minutes. With Vice Chair Mark Marion filling in for Chairman Larry Johnson, Ritter stayed at the podium for 28-½ minutes.
“Since the day we move into our 0.83-acre property with just two dogs, our family has been relentlessly harassed, lied to, lied about, and, dare I say, stalked by our neighbors,” Crystal Ritter read aloud.
“It has made living in our home we got with a loan meant for farming and rural living for low-income people torture, and it has gotten to the point I am terrified to be outside by myself and enjoy the very thing I hold dearest in my life: my animals.”
According to Ritter, “When we bought the house, we got a home filled with trash and mice. We did not know this was an issue until we spent our first night in the house and started cleaning it. We found dozens of mouse traps. After doing laundry, we saw them in the basement, and we heard them in the attic.”
She stated that while the neighbors claim that she and her family have brought down the property values, the house was already doing that before they moved in.
The house has 1,700 square feet with a three bedrooms, two baths and a full basement, yet it was only valued at $122,270, according to a tax document Crystal Ritter brought to the board. The full-sized tennis court mentioned by the neighbors behind the house was in such disrepair that it was listed as having no value on the form.
There are other factors in the lowered property values, Jenna Ritter claims.
“The opioid epidemic has also affected it,” she wrote. “There are drug deals in the park, people have tried breaking into houses, and strange people show up in our yard.”
She said unkempt trees have resulted in large branches and even trees themselves falling on buildings and power lines.
“Our street is used frequently by people to dump animals,” she claims. “This is how we went from two to four dogs. … In fact, many of the cats the neighbors describe as feral are not feral at all.” They are house cats who have been abandoned.
After Pamela Bledsoe complained about the property at two county meetings, Jenna Ritter wrote, “The whole time we have lived there, the Bledsoes have always wanted us to adapt to them.
“They complained that we were not sociable. … They complained we had too many cars in our driveway. The complained we had too many visitors and wanted to know who was visiting. They complained that I always had a light on in the window.”
She said the couple demanded changes of her family.
“They threatened our animals harm or to have us annexed into the city limits against our will. The threats resulted in us filing a restraining order against them.”
Ritter admitted to have different types of animals on the farm such as chickens, ducks and goats.
“The animals are the secondary food source for not just our immediate family, but for friends, extended family and friendly neighbors,” she noted. “We struggle with store-bought food due to the variety of food sensitivities and allergies in our family.”
She said she had offered to show the neighbors around the property and explain what her plans for the development of the property are, but hasn’t had any takers.
Instead she said people from animal control showed up because of a complaint about overcrowding of dogs on the tennis court when there were only five at the time.
“We showed them to the tennis court. The officer asked where the rest were. We told him that was it. He told us that the lady behind us, Delores, called to complain we had 50 dogs. We never, ever had that many. After that, we started finding Delores a few feet into our property yelling at our dogs and us while filming.”
With the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction ordinance overturned, and the property part of the county, she wants to be left alone.
“This is just a bunch of nosy, retired busybodies who want the benefits of the city and an HOA (homeowners association), but do not want to pay the fees associated with such,” she wrote. “If someone bought our house for what we owe on it, we would gladly move.”
After Ritter spoke, the board, as usual, took no action and moved on to the next open forum speaker.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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