Updated 12:10 p.m. Dec. 13, 2017, to note actual location of homeowner's property.      

By CRAIG FREILICH

NORWOOD – A Norwood man is complaining that a neighbor across the road from his River Road house is harassing his family with a kind of demonstration of disrespect that will sound familiar to local residents: a toilet with flowers and flags planted in it.

Mark Bellardini says his neighbor, Roger Willmart, has placed the protest prominently across from his house, which he says could diminish his property’s value.

He believes the move is a protest related to police activity along the road about three years ago.

At the time, there was a traffic and speed check with “a large presence” by state authorities in the 35 mph zone on the River Road, “and many tickets were given out,” Bellardini wrote in a letter to Potsdam Town Supervisor Rollin Beattie.

Bellardini says he believes Willmart holds him responsible for the speed check.

“Mr. Willmart seemed to think, and he told people, that it was me that had the law on the road,” Bellardini wrote. “That created some tension between us.”

Mark Bellardini is chair of the St. Lawrence County Democratic Committee.

Roger Willmart is known locally as the organizer of annual motorcycle runs for the benefit of Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley.

The situation has escalated with the addition of a roadside sign that says “Wanted Used Toilets,” presenting an implication that there will be a toilet “garden” along the road similar to the ones that Potsdam property owner Frederick Robar developed some years ago to protest village planning board decisions that denied his request for rezoning of a Market Street lot so that a donut shop could buy the property and build there.

The village tried to get Robar’s multi-toilet protest on the property removed on grounds that it violated the village code, but he won a court case asserting that the display was not a violation but was artistic expression.

Since then Robar’s Market Street display has been expanded and more have cropped up on other parcels he owns.

But Bellardini said that, in his case, “To place a toilet in front of someone’s house when you own a mile of road frontage and say it’s art is just a flat-out lie. It’s harassment.” He called it “a disrespectful and aggressive move.”

“The village of Potsdam may have lost their case against toilet ‘art’ but that case was not directly harassing or disrespecting an individual family – there is no reason to allow this to happen.”

In addition, Bellardini said, “I don’t think it is unreasonable to ask for a reduction in our property’s assessment and taxes if some resolution can’t be found.”

The letter became a point of some discussion at Tuesday evening’s Town Council meeting.

In the discussion among councilors and Town Attorney Frank Cappello. there was uncertainty if there was an actual violation of law such as harassment or disorderly conduct.

“There is no local law preventing it and I don’t believe we should make one,” Cappello said.

Attempts to reach Bellardini and Willmart for comment Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

While Mark Bellardini indicates in his letter that the property is in Norwood, Norwood Village Clerk Nancy Berger advises that the actual location is not in the Village of Norwood but in the Town of Potsdam near Norwood. Berger acknowledges that Norwood might be the Bellardinis' mailing address.