By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – Pierrepont Avenue homeowners are making plans to fight the village’s most recent “toilet protest” established in their neighborhood.

The village will just be losing more revenue if it can’t find a way to remove Frederick “Hank” Robar’s third lawn toilet installation, said John Lancaster, who raised the issue at a recent village board meeting.

“It’s a great big middle finger to my wife and I, to our neighbors and local businesses,” Lancaster said.

Lancaster said he and neighbors are meeting to plot out a course of action in opposition to the numerous toilets festooned with colorful artificial flowers at 28 Pierrepont Ave. The toilets are chained to equally colorful six-foot tall posts. Lancaster and his wife Christine live two doors down from the display.

“Evidently he’s angry. When I introduced myself and asked him why, he kind of explained why he’s doing what he’s doing,” Lancaster said.

“I have no beef with you, I told him, so why are you angry with me? You’re hurting my neighbors and our property value, and you’re really hurting the citizens of the village, I said. And he walked away.

“It’s an eyesore, and you can’t ignore it.

Meanwhile, Lancaster said, he and his wife had been cited by the code enforcement officer over peeling paint and needed roof repairs.

“We took care of that. We complied. But even then, a workman’s truck was cited for being on the front lawn while it was being unloaded. What kind of fair enforcement is that? Are we upset? That’s putting it mildly.”

He said neighbors might seek lower property assessments since they believe the value of their homes is going down as long as the toilets remain. Their hope is that that action, or the threat of it, might drive the point home if the revenue the village takes in might be reduced.

“The neighbors and I are discussing it, but we’ll wait until our plans take some form before we make them apparent. We’re not sitting idly by. We’re just getting our ducks in a row.”

Lancaster noted that when he addressed village trustees about the toilets, “Practically the first thing out of everyone’s mouth was we have no money to sue.”

“I’m tired of village government complaining about not having money while letting toilet displays lower property values, keeping people from moving in and starting businesses. I’m not sure when that light bulb will go on,” Lancaster said after being disappointed at the board meeting.

Long-Time Protest

Robar has garnered both support as an artist and derision as a malcontent since his first toilet garden popped up on property he owns at the corner of Market and Pleasant streets after the village Planning Board would not grant a variance to allow Dunkin’ Donuts to build a new store there some years ago.

Robar has planted corn at the site, decorated the toilets with flags for national holidays, and painted the garage in bright colors.

Since then a second toilet garden on Maple Street across from Clarkson University has been put up.

Robar’s most recent expression of toilet humor, if that’s what it is, might have been inspired by having to remove a burned house at 28 Pierrepont.

Robar owns that property, where on Oct. 25, 2013, a fire allegedly started by a student tenant heavily damaged the house there.

“He’s supposedly angry with village government for making him tear down the house there that absolutely needed to be taken down, with asbestos in it,” said Lancaster.

Potsdam Code Enforcement Officer Gregory Thompson confirmed that he forced Robar to tear down the house after an independent engineer concluded the structure was no longer safe and after no response from Robar for a year.

“We had to follow code, and we made a final determination that Mr. Robar was to remove the house,” Thompson said “He had more than ample time to make a decision on his own. We gave him options but got no response.”

“He seems to be blaming the village because they made him take it down in accordance with the village code,” Lancaster said.

The neighbors are no doubt glad the burned house has been removed, but are not happy to see a third toilet “garden” in protest of what Robar in the past has said is unfair treatment from village officials.

To remove the toilets, it would not be as simple as invoking a provision in the village code to cover the situation, because there doesn’t seem to be one, Thompson confirmed. That was tried years ago at the first site, but a suitable provision that would stand up in court was not found.

One writer to this newspaper recently suggested that a part of the code that bans indoor furniture kept outdoors might work, but Thompson said that, according to the building code, a toilet is not furniture.

Lancaster says that they might have success with charging a violation of setback requirements, where anything from garden sheds to fences must be a certain distance from the property line. Lancaster said he believes the toilets are in violation. But just moving the toilets a little could be all that’s required to satisfy the code.

Thompson said he is “exploring alternatives” in discussion with other municipalities in the state to see if any of them have managed to find a solution for anything like this.

“He’s had over 10 years to make his statement, and that’s more than enough time,” said homeowner Lancaster. “Cut us a break.

“I’m a disabled Vietnam veteran. I was shot to pieces and have been in a wheelchair for 48 years with a spinal cord injury. I believe I was defending our rights to free expression, free speech and civil liberties,” he said.

But Lancaster said that means not only a citizen’s right