Neighbors caught up in netting dispute

Ed Hura is angry. He doesn’t like his neighbor, Brian Kluth, and nothing is going to change it.

Kluth has done everything he can think of to patch things up with Hura. He’s appealed to him directly. Extended his hand. Written to Hura, apologizing and offering financial restitution.

Hura’s response?

“I wouldn’t shake his hand,” Hura said. “I won’t talk to the guy. I have no use for him. When he came to my house, I told him to leave. I threw him out. And I slammed the door in his face.”

It started about a year ago, when Kluth built a sports court in his yard for his children and those in their Pinon Valley neighborhood. He erected nets above his 6-foot privacy fence to keep balls from flying into the street, sidewalk or neighbors’ yards.

Aha! You are probably thinking Hura hates the noise from kids playing basketball or jumping on the trampoline.

“I have no problem with that,” Hura said. “A lot of people have children. The play area has never been a problem with anybody.

“It’s the netting,” Hura said.

He hates the netting Kluth strung on poles extending 5 feet above his fence. Make the area seem industrial, he said. It’s hurting his property value.

Doesn’t matter that Kluth got permission from the city Planning Commission.

Hura hates it so much he helped circulate a petition, gathered 50 signatures and paid $160 to appeal to the City Council to force the nets down.

And it doesn’t matter that Hura and Kluth are not next-door neighbors. Hura lives around the corner from Kluth.

Nor does it matter that Kluth’s immediate neighbors approve of the court and nets.

“We’ve always gotten along great with the Kluths,” said Nancy Kost, who lives next to the court. “His nets are protecting us, our cars and anybody passing by in the street from balls that might come flying over. I don’t know why anyone would object.”

Kost’s views were echoed by many neighbors.

But Hura was not swayed, even when Kluth accepted his idea to put the nets on telescopic poles, which would only go up when the kids are playing.

City staff rejected the use of nets, and Kluth appealed to the Planning Commission. The commission OK’d a variance allowing Kluth to put the nets up on telescopic poles when the kids are playing ball.

Then Hura appealed to City Council, which upheld the Planning Commission.

After all the official action, Kluth wrote Hura a letter of apology last week and included a check for $160, to cover the cost of Hura’s appeal.

“It’s a very cordial letter,” Hura said. “I’m going to send it back to him in pieces. I can’t be bought off. I’m too old to worship money.”

Kluth, a pastor at an area church, is saddened by the yearlong conflict.

“I feel no ill will toward him,” Kluth said. “And I want to be a good neighbor.”

Kluth said the nets probably will never go back up. Even though he has the legal right.

“There’s a Bible verse that says: ‘As much as it depends on you, be at peace with all people’,” Kluth said. “I seek to be at peace with all people. That’s my goal. That means the nets probably won’t go back up. That’s how I choose to be a good neighbor.”