Last Updated: November 12, 2011

Chances are if you live in the American Heritage neighborhood of Cottage Grove near the park you know Edie Rose. 

The 68-year-old can strike up a conversation with a complete stranger with ease and she always has plenty to talk about.  She has lived in her home on American Way for 35 years, much of that time with her husband Dennis and their four children.  Dennis Rose passed away in 2001, and the children are all grown and moved out with families of their own.  Since her husband’s death, Rose has had her share of hardship, battling diabetes, a disease that has left her wheelchair bound and until recently in a Middleton nursing facility. 

Rose, who spent about one year in the facility, recently moved back into her home.  A home that several months ago her son Rob Rose (who owns a construction business) said might have to be torn down due to a water line leak that left knee-deep standing water in the basement of the unoccupied home for several weeks.  Rob spent several months working after hours with help from his brother Rory Rose and a few others to correct the water damage and clean out what amounted to more than 40,000 pounds of clutter (books, magazines and other materials) that had accumulated in the home through the years. 

The water line break also caused the well pump shared by Rose and neighbors Nancy Kobus and Greg Giesfeldt to work continuously during that time resulting in its failure and ultimate replacement.  The cost to Rose, according to Kobus was $1,400 for shared well costs and the pump replacement.  In addition, Rose is also being charged $500 by the Town for cleanup costs to bring her property within ordinance compliance.  To retrieve the $500, the Town placed a tax lien in the Rose property. 

This seemed to be at the gist of why Rose came to the November 7 meeting.  But it was tough to tell at first what was the target of her frustration as Rose started on what culminated in a more than emotionally infused speech that verbally attacked everyone from neighbors and Town Board members past and present to her own children.

“I’d like to thank you for allowing me to come and air my two cents,” said Rose as she wheeled herself up to the Board table and proceeded to thumb through her briefcase of loose-leaf papers and a yellow legal tablet with large cursive notes scratched on its pages curling up at the bottom.

Rose stated to the Board members and those in attendance, “I’m 68, I’m white, I’m free, I pay my taxes and I think I should be heard.”

While at the nursing facility, Rose said she had heard that several different people in Cottage Grove were saying different disparaging things about her.  Not being specific, it was difficult to pinpoint who she was referring to, but she did make negative references to some neighbors. “People I thought who were my neighbors and my friends very sadly I learned were not and are not.”

What was discussed during those Board meetings that occurred last spring where she said she was disparaged actually focused of issues of the Rose property, with no evidence of personal attacks and ill remarks against Rose.  Kobus attended several of the meetings and the only thing that could have remotely been construed as a negative remark toward Rose was her frustration with the situation of the negligence regarding unpaid well pump repairs and water bill.  Other than that there seemed to be genuine concern coming from Board members, neighbors and her family regarding her health. 

Rose went on in her speech, explaining how her mailbox had been knocked over three times by someone in a red truck about three and a hlf years ago.  Her accusations seemed to allude to it being a Town-owned vehicle to which Town Chairman Kris Hampton said the Town does not and never did own a red truck. 

Her accusations of harassment spanned from the current Board to past Board chairmen Silvan Kurt and Eugene Skaar.  While her thoughts seemed disjointed at times, her voice carried in the room with great clarity and diction that moved without notice from a sad and mournful tone to sharpened anger—her recurring theme always coming back to a request to be left alone to live her life. 

“I want to know what it takes to live in America. In the United States of America, with that flag and that Wisconsin flag, to get some respect,” said Rose, adding emphasis to her voice as she pointed at the U.S. and state of Wisconsin flags standing at the front of the room behind the Board.  “I don’t care if you like my looks.  I don’t care if you don’t like my voice.  I don’t care if you don’t like any damn thing about me, but leave me alone,” she said, her voice steadily rising in volume throughout the statement. 

Beyond the mailbox accusations, Rose also accused the Town of removing items from her yard without her permission.  Hampton was quick to respond, saying that anything he or the others onsite for the cleanup removed was only done with her permission.  She also vented her anger about three vehicles being towed from her yard.  Two cars and van that sat in her driveway for several months unmoved or attended to and needing updated license plate tabs.  She even came to the point of alluding to the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the Town, referencing a letter she claimed to have received from the Town that she said made her sick when she read it.  In a follow-up email interview, Town Clerk Kim Banigan said that she was uncertain of the letter Rose was referencing. “She made an open records request, and I can't think of anything I gave her that should have caused her to react that way.”

Hampton said that the point of the clean-up conducted by the Town was to bring Rose’s property into compliance with the Town’s nuisance ordinances.  “You do have to have some responsibility for the maintenance of your property,” said Hampton.  He explained to her that the cars that were towed away were towed away by order of Dane County because of a zoning code.  Rose said, her voice beginning shudder, that she would have licensed them but couldn’t get out of the nursing home.

Rose’s frustration level was evident throughout her speech.  Whether she was reaching out for attention or if her words were actually an earnest request to have the right to live her life in her home as she saw fit is uncertain.  For now all there is are her words to go by:

“I just don’t know what it takes to be left alone for whatever time I have left.  I’m asking you. Are you Christian? Are you Muslim? Are you Mormon? What are you?  Let me live in my house as long as I have.  My mother only lived to be 71.  I have terrible diabetes, and I will live alone as long as I can and you will not force me from my property.  That house and that land belong to me.”