A 70-year-old woman is threatening to stop eating to save her beloved gazebo, reports the Philadelphia Daily News. She’s even willing to chain herself to the structure if she has to.
Sea Isle City resident Louise Clemente, along with friends and family, built the gazebo in Clemente’s backyard as a memorial to her late husband a decade ago and the city has wanted it down ever since, Clemente tells the Daily News.
Sea Isle officials say the gazebo is higher than the city’s 15-foot limit, Clemente says it’s not, maintaining that the memorial is only 14.98 feet. In fact, she says the city gave her a permit to build it.
“The only thing the city is looking for her to do is lower the elevation of the gazebo by approximately 4.89 feet," city solicitor Paul Baldini tells the paper. “The last thing we want to do is show up with a crane. If we really wanted that thing down, we would have taken it by now.”
Clemente, however, feels the city will someday take extreme measures to move the structure from her yard – either bulldozing it or moving it to a public place in the small shore town.
“We just want her to bring it into compliance, she knows that, Baldini tells the Daily News.
