Courtesy Photos

MANTECA — Sequoia Heights Baptist Church found itself in a fiery dispute with a neighbor Tuesday, March 25 after church workers painted over an angel mural she had put on the church’s side of a shared fence.

Renee Marble said she asked a friend to paint the angel as a tribute to her son, who is in the U.S. Navy, and other soldiers fighting in the war. She planned to keep it on display, in its prominent location looking out onto South Union Road, until the troops were home.

“Our son could be shipping off to Iraq and that was our guardian angel,” said Marble, 47. “What church doesn’t agree with angels?”

While located on the church’s side of the wooden property line fence, Marble said the church should not have painted over it because she and her husband paid for the fence.

Marble said she hoped to fix the dispute by calling CAT Country Radio and local news. But her husband took matters into his own hands, scrawling the words “Paint Dosen’t (sic) Stop An Angel” on the newly-painted slats Thursday, March 27.

Church painters quickly painted over the words.

Pastor Mark Mahaffie said the church had no plans to take action against the Marbles, and hoped to smooth things over.

But, Mahaffie added, the church owns its side of the fence and was within its rights to paint it.

“Several years ago, (Marble) decided to paint a 50-foot angel on our side of the fence,” Mahaffie said. “We know she loves her son and this was a mural for (the troops) so we said, ‘For right now, we’ll leave it.”

But over time the mural deteriorated, Mahaffie said, and the church decided to remove it as part of its current upgrades.

Manteca police spokesman Rex Osborn said police had gotten calls from both parties, but no crimes had been committed because criminal code does not cover fence disputes.

Osborn added that under the “good neighbor fence” rule, both neighbors are responsible for their own sides, regardless of who paid for the fence.