Neighbor Dispute Causes Problems On Pleasure Island

Some property owners on Pleasure Island say they're fed up with a neighbor trying to create new land. The neighbors say what the man is doing violates state law.

That's the sound of Sabine Lake gently lapping on the shore-line, but for some land owners, it's also the sound of erosion.

"We're all lost land, you can see mine too and everywhere down here. Bulkheads saved it," says Dannie Gaudet, a neighbor.

Dannie Gaudet and Susan Miller used bulkheads to keep the water from eroding away their land, but the man who owns the property next door didn't bother. Until now.

"They brought in several trailer loads of bulkhead materials. They just sat there. We were excited he was going to build one," says a neighbor, Susan Miller.

Miller says what happened next is where the problem began.

This is property owner, Jerome Webre, seen here from a Port Arthur City Council meeting last year. He was denied a permit to run an RV park on this property because he didn't have enough land.

And that's what has his neighbors worried. Webre built his bulkhead out in the water, and then filled in with dirt, adding land to his property.

But Miller and everyone else we talked to says you can't do that. Once you lose land to erosion, what's underwater belongs to the state.

"The General Land Office came out here and stood in the water in her boots and said this land belongs to the state of Texas. Don't proceed any further. Stop now," says Miller.

The neighbors say the office has made several visits to tell him to stop, but on Monday, there were still trucks and workers.

Miller said she began taking pictures of the progress, but it only took a few weeks.

"I don't see Mr. Webre should be excused from what everyone else is having to do," says Miller.

Miller says all of the residents have had to move back their bulkheads when erosion occurs, but she believes her neighbor is violating the law by moving in the other direction.

KFDM tried several times to reach the property owner and the Army Corps of Engineers.

KFDM also sent an open records request to the General Land Office.

No information was received from both..