Robert Frost might have had something to say about this, as a fence near the public boat launch at Neachen Bay has done anything but make good neighbors.

After years of insisting the 4-foot fence was encroaching on public property, East Side Highway District had crews appear at the site on Monday and remove it from owner Chris Walsh's yard.

"I'm not in the opinion I want to give public property to a private individual," said Commissioner Terry Sverdsten. "We wanted to get it out of the way."

But the issue hasn't been cleared as easily as the barrier.

Walsh is vowing legal action, citing a 2009 email from the district's attorney promising the fence would not be removed without notice.

Although Walsh did receive a letter from the district warning of removal, he added, he had disregarded it due to an approaching mediation hearing over the matter.

"I'm going to get as much compensation as I can," Walsh said, adding that the fence cost $5,000 to install. "Because this whole thing didn't ever need to escalate to this level."

Walsh, who lives on Caribou Ridge Road nearby, purchased the 96-square-foot parcel by Lake Coeur d'Alene three years ago for his family to recreate on.

He fenced the property to ward off intrusive members of the public, he said. Folks would have skirmishes on his property in front of his family, he said. Some would use their private dock.

"People were so obnoxious, we didn't end up with any choice," Walsh said.

The highway district soon notified him that the fence was encroaching on Neachen Bay Road, and needed to be removed.

The fence reduces access for maintenance vehicles on the road, Sverdsten explained.

"There is a public dock on the end of the road, so it (needs) a large enough area for us to turn our snow plows around," he said. "There's more involved than just having it fenced."

The two parties have gone back and forth in the ensuing years. Walsh has resisted removal because of his concerns over recreators' behavior. His attorney, John Magnuson, contends there isn't adequate documentation of the road's true width.

The county canceled a mediation hearing scheduled for last week, Magnuson said.

Walsh suggested the removal was a final blow from the district's outgoing commissioners, Jimmie Dorsey and Dick Edinger, who are in their final week in office.

"This was vindictiveness," the real estate broker said. "It wasn't hurting anybody."

Sverdsten said that was not the motivation at all.

"The road into that public dock has been a concern for a long, long time," he said. "I don't think there was any special push by the outgoing commissioners to bring this to a head."

The other commissioners could not be reached for comment.

Anyway, this will top the agenda at next Monday's district meeting, Sverdsten said, when the new commissioners take their seats.

"They've got an issue right away," he said.