By JILL MCNEAL
6 News Anchor/Reporter
DEL RIO (WATE) - There's trouble brewing in a Cocke County community over bear hunting.
Mary Greene owns five acres off a private road in Del Rio, where she's lived for the last seven years. She moved there for the peace, quiet and privacy, which is why she and some of her neighbors recently put up a sign warning others to stay out.
"For the most part, I think it's pretty well read and people pretty much don't come on the road, but during bear hunting season people come here to look for their dogs," Greene said.
She's had a couple of confrontations already with hunters on the road this season, and then yesterday..."I came home from church and this sign was tacked over our sign and it says 'Bear Hunters Welcome.'"
She took it down immediately. "I realized that someone had to come on my property to do this. It's a trespassing situation. It's not showing respect," Greene said.
Gordon Sexton is president of the Brushy Mountain Bear Club in Del Rio. He said they have written permission from several other property owners on the road to use it.
"We do travel that road when we go to get our dogs or whatever," Sexton said. He doesn't agree with whoever put up the "Bear Hunters Welcome" sign.
"I wouldn't do that and I know probably 99% of the bear club wouldn't do that, but sometimes in anything you go at, you have some people who would," he said.
Still, Sexton says bear hunting has been part of the culture here for generations. "I've lived here all my life. A lot of great people have moved into our community and we get along fine with them. I've attended church with Ms. Greene. I have no hard feelings toward her, but she needs to kind of live and let live," he said.
Bear season runs through Wednesday.
"I came home from church and this sign was tacked over our sign and it says 'Bear Hunters Welcome,'" Mary Greene said.
