OBSERVER Photo by Natasha Matteliano Dunkirk Police Chief David Ortolano was going to intervene after a resident started swearing at city officials. The individual chose to leave on his own.

A Dunkirk resident came with a complaint but was asked to leave after he starting yelling at the latest Common Council meeting.

Greco Lane resident Tom Logan spoke during the privilege of the floor section of the Dunkirk Common Council meeting on Tuesday. He spoke mostly of his complaint about water run-off from his neighbor’s shed roof.

Starting off his complaint, Logan mentioned that he had spoken to the council once before, in 2017, concerning a problem with his neighbor’s shed. Apparently, the neighbor’s drains were directed right on Logan’s property and he and his wife were upset about it.

“I contacted a lawyer because her downspouts or drains are aimed directly at my property,” said Logan. “He said that was illegal.” According to Logan, nothing was ever done about the issue.

He then continued on to explain that a couple years after his initial complaint, the same neighbor added an addition onto their house, which provided more roof space, according to Logan, which presumably moved the drainage over onto Logan’s property even more.

Logan then tried to explain what happened most recently with his pool liner, but did not speak very clearly. “The liner in my pool has so much water underneath it from their drains that it pushed the liner up,” he said. “The pool cover came down (and held the water) because of the melting snow on top of the cover. My neighbors turned me in for having a mosquito hazard, even though they said they never did.”

According to Logan, he received a letter from someone telling him he has two months to take care of the mosquito hazard. Logan apparently called the person who sent the letter and told him the cause of the issue was because of the neighbor’s drainage from their roof. In Logan’s words, the person who sent the letter said that the laws for the drainage were not clear, which is when Logan told the person that it took his attorney “one second” to tell him that the drainage from his neighbor’s shed was illegal.

Logan then explained that the person who sent him the letter came to his house and examined the issue. “I purposely did not mow my lawn so he could see from their down spouts right to the shallow end of my pool, that the grass was twice as high as anywhere else,” he said.

“Then eventually, he told them that they had to do something about their downspouts. Well, they took the extensions off from my property, but the water still ran down, just as illegal as it was before,” said Logan. “And then rather than deal with that, no, they put up a fence so they couldn’t see us, which shouldn’t bother me or my wife, but I’m just sorry it wasn’t 20 feet higher.”

After that statement, Councilman At Large Paul VanDenVouver addressed Logan. “Mr. Logan, I have to address this: if you’re going to ask a question, ask a question tonight. How can we help you out?”

During his privilege of the floor, Logan was slurring his words, making it hard for many to understand what he was saying. He progressively became more belligerent after VanDenVouver asked him to ask the council a question if he had one.

Now yelling, Logan said, “The questions I’ve got are, why have I been discriminated against because of my health and my age? And why was I not awarded my first Constitutional right of freedom of speech when nobody would listen to me? And this is a predetermined, premeditated and the city aided and abetted to a felonious crime that’s cost me $5,200 I don’t have.”

Logan then stated how he cancelled two prescriptions in the last month, continuing after, that he has had heart problems since he was a teenager. He continued to list off of his health issues throughout his life, before VanDenVouver stopped him.

“Mr. Logan I’m going to have to cut you off. I’m sorry to hear all that with your health and the problems you’ve had, but your three minutes are up and I will address that with the department and the council.”

Logan then cut the councilman at large off, saying, “Well I’ve already given letters to the mayor and I even showed him my medical records and he won’t even look at me.” Trying to continue while now slamming on the podium, Logan started to say, “My neighbors said that I was a threat to them–“

VanDenVouver then interrupted, “All right, that’s enough, you’re done. Just take a seat please.”

Logan started yelling even louder, trying to speak more, but was interrupted by VanDenVouver for the last time, “No, no, you’re done.”

Police Chief Ortolano then rose from his seat and pointed Logan toward the seating area, telling him to take a seat multiple times, when Logan then erupted with even more yelling, “I don’t want to talk to you! You have been the rudest, most unprofessional person I ever dealt with.”

Ortolano plainly replied with, “Thank you, have a nice day, have a seat.”

Logan then stormed out of the room with his final words being, “Kiss my (butt).”

VanDenVouver provided a bit more information about the situation telling the council and audience, “Try to do a guy a favor and give him a little extra time and that’s what you get. Make sure you mark that guy’s name down; he’s not allowed in here anymore if he’s going to act like that.”