Community Corner
Ross Brothers to Appeal Fine for Not Removing Lawn Decorations & Toys
The judge had threatened the brothers with a $3,000 fine but reduced it.
Squirrel Hill magistrate Hugh McGough Wednesday fined Robert and William Ansell $1,250 for not fully complying with his order three weeks ago to remove offensive signs, lawn debris, seasonal displays at garbage from their property at 109 Fairley Road in Ross Township.
Robert owns the home in which his brother, William, resides.
The judge had threatened the brothers with a $3,000 fine but reduced the fine because the offensive signs had been removed.
"The township would have preferred complete compliance but we’re happy with what we got today," Ross Township Assistant Solicitor Anne Sweeney told KDKA-TV.
Not only are the brothers going to appeal the fine, Bill Ansell indicates he plans to put up more decorations and lights.
"I’m going to continue putting it up, get ready for light up night.," he told KDKA-TV. "Freedom of expression, you could put up whatever kind of display you want up, right?"
Disputes among neighbors on Fairley Road have existed since at least 2005, when William Ansell erected an elaborate Christmas light display in his yard.
Robert Ansell accuses the township of shutting it down.
“It raised a lot of money for children’s hospital and Salvation Army, and to see it go this way? This is a township that bullies people,” Robert Ansell told KDKA.
But the township maintained back in 2010 that it never asked Ansell to stop the light show.
"We are not prohibiting him from having his annual Christmas lights display. He has had it for a number of years, and we have not ever tried to stop him from having it," former Township Manager Wayne Jones told KDKA TV in 2010.
An attorney for one of the neighbors said the lights are certainly not the issue now.
"You have rusty lawn chairs on your property, a urinating Santa Claus, a virgin Mary with a knife through its head, those are the types of things we are talking about," attorney Kenneth Fryncko told KDKA.
The Ansell brothers have 30 days to appeal Wednesday's ruling, something they indicated they will do.
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