Council embroiled in dispute over 2,700 hours of "compensatory time" allegedly owed to Town Administrator Michael S. Jacobs, a tiff said to be a power struggle between the new mayor and manager.

Angry residents protest Schaeffer-backed plan by Wal-Mart to build a giant warehouse on Wheatleys Pond Road, backed by $1.2 million in state incentives. An opposing petition is signed by 800 people.

Smyrna moves to annex about 500 acres in lower New Castle County despite state and county opposition. Annexation is approved even though state penalties cost the town $2.875 million for street and facade improvements.

Patrick Cahill, who lives next door to Schaeffer on Kates Way, is cited for having abandoned property -- his 30-foot sailboat -- in his yard. He successfully challenges the citation and a later council effort to define boats that can't be readily moved as "solid waste."

Cahill protests the installation of video cameras by Schaeffer, saying they are trained on his bedroom window. Schaeffer denies this and a Delaware State Police investigation is inconclusive.

Dr. Douglas Chervenak, a physician who lives across the street from the mayor, rises in council meeting to ask Schaeffer to resign, but is told he is out of order.

Anonymous posts on a community Internet "blog" refer to Cahill's "character flaws" and "obvious mental deterioration." A later post referred to him as "Gahill."

Cahill files lawsuit asking that Internet service provider Comcast Cable Communications release the identity of anonymous blogger known as "John Doe No. 1" so Cahill can pursue a lawsuit for defamation.

Challengers claim fraud, asking that 69 absentee ballots be invalidated before the election because Schaeffer had been handing them out in violation of town code.

William Pressley defeats Maxey but Chervenak defeats A. Temple Carter. Mullen tops Schaeffer 643-604 in machine-vote tallies, but loses by two votes when absentee ballots are counted.

Smyrna Town Council asks the state Attorney General's Office to investigate the contested election to see if any laws were broken. That investigation has not been finished.

Superior Court rules that the Cahills had established a "good-faith basis" for contending that they were victims of defamation and affirmed a previous order for Comcast to disclose the bloggers' identities.

Cahill and his wife, Julie, are arrested for harassment and terroristic threatening after argument with Schaeffers in front yards of their Kates Way homes.

Schaeffer survives council motion to force him from office, led by Chervenak and supported by Cahill and Councilman Roderick Burritt. Such a vote must be unanimous to carry.

SMYRNA -- However the feud on Kates Way in Smyrna turns out, one thing is certain: The local police won't be getting any more home-baked goodies from Julie Cahill.

The wife of town Councilman Patrick Cahill says that was one thought she recalls from the eight or so hours she spent barefoot in the town lockup after her arrest last month for harassing and threatening the family of her neighbor, Mayor Mark Schaeffer.

The tussle on Kates Way has turned into a very uncivil war, a bitter dispute that has pitted neighbor against neighbor, divided the Town Council, prompted a landmark free-speech ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court and briefly landed the Cahills behind bars.

The latest chapter is expected to be settled Dec. 13 in court, when the Cahills are scheduled to be tried on charges of disorderly conduct, harassment and terroristic threatening.

But the jury's verdict seems unlikely to bring the dispute to a close. And with the ill will showing no sign of abating, the residents of this rapidly growing northern Kent County town appear to be tiring of it.

"We camp with people out of Pennsylvania who ask me, 'How's Schaefferville doing?' " said Francis Hyland, who has lived in Smyrna since 1957.

"All this bad stuff started with that man," Hyland said. Asked whether he was referring to Schaeffer or Cahill, Hyland thought for a moment and then replied: "The two of them. I think it's a damned disgrace."

Terry Berl, a Wilmington native who moved to Smyrna two years ago, loves his adopted hometown. But Berl finds the Schaeffer-Cahill imbroglio to be an embarrassment.

"There are times when I don't tell people that 'Yeah, I live in Smyrna,' " Berl said. "These people are acting like children. We kind of look to them to be our leaders, and this is not what we had hoped for when we elected them."

Relations began to deteriorate when Patrick Cahill received a citation from the town labeling his sailboat abandoned property. Cahill successfully appealed the citation, saying he was repairing the boat.

The incident helped prompt Cahill's successful 2004 run for a seat on the nonpartisan Town Council, and the newly elected Cahill became a thorn in Schaeffer's side.

The rift between the two widened last fall when the Cahills complained that the Schaeffers' video security cameras were pointed at their property. Delaware State Police investigated but said no crime had occurred.

Challenger Gene Mullen won the machine count 643-604, but Schaeffer had handed out absentee ballots to potential voters. When the absentee ballots were counted, Schaeffer eked out a two-vote victory. Mullen has challenged the election in Superior Court; a ruling is expected by month's end.

But even more disturbing to the Cahills were the venomous comments made about the councilman and his wife last fall by anonymous contributors to an Internet Web log, or "blog."

The Cahills suspected the Schaeffers were behind the comments, some of which were laced with obscenities and sexual slurs. The mayor steadfastly denies that he or his family had anything to do with any of the postings on the blog.

The Cahill-Schaeffer situation remains fertile ground for bloggers today, and the discussion boards are rife with rumors about the arrests, the mayor's real estate dealings and the disputed town election.

Although the four bloggers who posted the possibly libelous comments about the Cahills used pseudonyms, their Internet provider was able to pin down the identifying code number of one of them. The Cahills went to court, seeking the identity of "John Doe No. 1" so they could pursue a libel suit.

But in a ruling that drew national attention, the Delaware Supreme Court decided on Oct. 5 that allowing someone to use the courts to force the unmasking of an anonymous commentator on the Internet could chill legitimate political speech.

The Cahills have been told not to discuss the altercation by their attorney, flamboyant Wilmington defense lawyer Joe Hurley, better-known for his defense of high-profile violent criminals.

However, they were free last week to discuss what took place once they were arrested. After giving it some thought, they also agreed to have their photograph taken. Schaeffer said he and his wife, Ruby, were unavailable for a photo because they were traveling to New York to see "The Odd Couple."

"It was surreal, completely surreal," Julie Cahill said of the approximately eight hours she and her husband spent in separate cells after their arrests following an altercation with the Schaeffers.

Smyrna Police Pfc. Brien K. Street wrote that he went to the Cahill home at 6:06 p.m. to advise them "not to have any further contact [with the Schaeffers] by any means, verbal or gestures."

Three minutes after leaving the Cahill home, Street wrote, he received a radio call to return to the same location to answer a report of an altercation.

The News Journal has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a transcript or a recording of the 911 calls that police received, but a response has not yet been received.

According to an affidavit from Street, both Cahills were shouting profanities and gesturing toward the Schaeffers, who were in their driveway. Both had a strong odor of alcohol on their breath, court records state, and both allegedly threatened members of the Schaeffer family.

Although Patrick Cahill said he was shocked to be placed under arrest, he knew the routine: He comes from a family of cops, and he worked closely with the police before he retired from his job as a New York City Fire Department paramedic.

As he was getting into the patrol car, Cahill slipped and fell, suffering several cuts on his face. He said the fall was not a result of any rough treatment: He slipped on the hard plastic of the car's back seat.

The Cahills' newly developed neighborhood on the south side of town, where homes sell for $275,000 or more and the yards are green and tidy, is not exactly a hotbed of crime -- and the arrests did not go unnoticed.

About 2 a.m., both Cahills were removed from their cells and arraigned over a video hookup. They were fingerprinted, their mug shots were taken and they were released.

Had the arrest taken place during business hours, the two could have been promptly arraigned in person at the Smyrna Magistrate Court. But that court closes at 4 p.m., and video arraignments can take longer.

But Patrick Cahill was to have one more encounter with the police. He was arrested about four hours after his release for allegedly violating a no-contact order by running over a newspaper with his mower and directing the shreds toward the Schaeffers' lawn.

The ongoing political and personal clash has spilled over into the Town Council chambers, where meetings sometimes feature angry dialogue and acidic comments.

"We haven't been able to focus as well as we should on the finances of the town. For instance, we also have not been able through that process to communicate effectively with our employees -- hence the desire by a group in the electric department to form a union," Schaeffer said.

"If you're a CEO who's trying to make a decision where to house your company, and you continually read about these ridiculous attacks, you have to have thoughts about moving your company to our community," Schaeffer said.

"I'm more concerned about my family," Schaeffer said. "A couple of weeks ago, my family had their lives threatened. They didn't buy into this. They didn't run for office and they didn't deserve that. It's disheartening."

Schaeffer is viewed as a possible candidate for the state Senate if 80-year-old Sen. James T. Vaughn, D-Clayton, decides not to seek re-election. Schaeffer, a Republican, challenged Vaughn in 2002 and lost.

If Vaughn's seat comes open, Ennis would be the logical Democratic candidate. In Schaeffer's view, that gives Ennis the motive to torpedo his political future.

"The only thing that's going to improve the situation is when Bruce Ennis stands up and tells these guys, 'Enough is enough,' " Schaeffer said. "[Cahill and Chervenak] are active members of the 28th District Democratic Committee, and when Bruce Ennis tells them enough is enough, they'll stop."

"He's not a member of the 28th District Democratic club. And Cahill hasn't come to a meeting, although he's a registered Democrat, almost since he was elected," Ennis said. "I don't know why [Schaeffer] feels I have all this influence on them."

Although some look at the dispute as not much more than a political sideshow, it could have serious repercussions, according to Tom Rice, a political science professor at the University of Iowa who studies the dynamics of small-town governments.

Rice said it is common to see a personal spat on a town council, but "this one seems to have infected the town. ... That becomes a little more serious."

"The social fabric of a town is fragile. To repair that social fabric is hard, very hard," he said."It's the losing side that doesn't want to forget. It can go on for generations."

"Usually, people of that caliber, you're supposed to look up to your leaders," Mowery said. "The way they've been acting, you lose all respect for them. They need to grow up."

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