Vandals tag Rehoboth home

A Rehoboth Beach man whose home was painted with graffiti says it can only be in response to a $342,000 sewer project underway in Rehoboth.

Bruce Hiler, who lives on St. Lawrence Street, said he was away when neighbors informed him his house had been tagged with vulgar graffiti.

Rehoboth police Chief Keith Banks said there are no suspects at this time. On May 20, police responded to Hiler’s home after he was reported outside his house with a gun. Banks said Hiler was distressed, but the gun was not loaded, he was not pointing it at anyone and was subsequently not arrested.

“He was upset about his house,” Banks said.

Hiler has placed a $5,000 reward out for information on who may have spray-painted his house.

Hiler said the only dispute he’s had that could have resulted in the graffiti was a lawsuit he filed in Delaware Court of Chancery that eventually forced the city to install new sewer lines on Lake Drive.

The suit had its roots in 2008, when former Commissioner Paul Kuhns bought the property at 101 Lake Drive. A year later, Kuhns sought to build a new house. With no water and sewer lines on Lake Drive, the pipes serving Kuhns' lot ran underneath the property of his neighbor, Hiler.

The existing lines were capped when Kuhns tore down the structure on the lot; it was recommended that the lines, which had been in place since the 1930s, be replaced.

When the contractor began digging on Hiler's property, Hiler ordered work to stop. Kuhns claimed there was an easement allowing work on the lines beneath Hiler's property, but Hiler claimed the work amounted to trespassing. The two parties went to court, with the city as a third party seeking to maintain the status quo.

Judge Sam Glasscock ruled in Hiler's favor that no easement was in place to allow work on Hiler's property.

As a result of the ruling, new water and sewer lines had to be installed connecting Lake Drive to lines on St. Lawrence Street and Bayard Avenue. Rehoboth Beach commissioners approved a $342,000 sewer upgrade project, which is underway, disrupting Lake Drive.

Hiler said the city has made him out to be the bad guy for forcing them to spend so much money on a project they otherwise did not want to do. He said this could have motivated someone to deface his house.

Hiler said it is the city’s duty to provide water and sewer to its citizens, and the court determined the city had no easement rights on his property.