Don Shrubshell photo

Frank Davis walks yesterday on a $10,000 cover over his filled swimming pool to demonstrate its strength. Davis said he installed the cover and a temporary fence to keep anyone from falling into the pool. He plans to put up a permanent fence.

Although Angela Anderson’s complaints about a neighbor’s swimming pool spurred new fencing rules in Boone County, she still hasn’t gotten what she really wants: a permanent barrier around the pool next door.

Don Shrubshell photo

Angela Anderson, with 23-month-old son Brayden, contends the pool near her property line at 1251 Cedar Grove Blvd. is a threat to the safety of her children.

For more than a year, Anderson has complained to county officials that her neighbor’s in-ground pool poses a safety risk to her three young children, ages 23 months, 4 years old and 7 years old. The pool is just across her property line, within sight of her children’s backyard playground equipment.

"I can’t live with the constant fear that in a split second I could turn my head and one of my children could be injured," she said yesterday.

In November, her concerns prompted the county to pass a law requiring a 4-foot fence around pools. The county then sent a letter telling the Andersons’ neighbors, Frank and Lena Davis, they had to put up a fence.

Construction delays held up building a permanent fence, the Davises said, so in March they put a temporary plastic construction fence around the pool, which also has a $10,000 pool cover to keep out wandering children.

"I want to put up this fence just as much as she does," Lena Davis said.

But that hasn’t satisfied Anderson, who said the construction fence is flimsy and sagging in spots. She doesn’t believe the fence would keep her kids out if they were determined to get in. "The wind blows, and this thing’s coming down," she said.

The Davises said the permanent fence would be in place in three to six weeks. "She wants it now, and that’s all there is to it," Frank Davis said.

The Anderson and Davis families live in a small wooded subdivision on Cedar Grove Boulevard, which connects to Route WW about two miles east of Highway 63. Relations between the neighbors have never been good - the families say they’ve been feuding since almost Day One about the pool, tree trimming and the property line. It’s only gone downhill from there.

"I’ll never speak to them again - never," Frank Davis said yesterday.

The argument about the pool fence has again caught the attention of county leaders. Northern District Boone County Commissioner Skip Elkin said he shares Anderson’s concerns about the temporary fence.

"To me, that doesn’t pass muster," Elkin said.

However, the chief of the county’s building department said the temporary barrier does comply with county regulations. The ordinance "doesn’t define what material has to be used for a fence," said Stan Shawver, director of the county’s Planning and Building Inspection Department.

To Elkin, that’s a flaw in the law.

"Apparently this fence, though it’s a plastic fence, meets those technical requirements, which to me is another loophole, for lack of a better term, in our regulations," he said.

Elkin said he thinks there should be permanent fences around pools from the time they are completed. He said he would seek another county regulation to make that clear in the law.

"I’m going to do everything in my power to expedite this," he said.

Elkin said he would bring up the matter tomorrow at a county commission work session with the Planning and Building Inspection Department at 2 p.m. in Room 243 of the Boone County Government Center.

Anderson said if the rigmarole leads to one thing, she’ll be satisfied. "I just want a fence," she said. "I’ve always just wanted a fence."