RALEIGH — A substantial portion of Rime Frost Road, an access point to N.C. 105 in Watauga County, was washed away following Hurricane Helene, preventing families from using their vehicles to leave by car and requiring them to walk on foot through the portion of the road that was damaged.
A News & Observer article detailed a family that was being denied alternate access down from their home to a main highway by another family through the use of a gate and farm equipment blocking it.
The story is mainly from the perspective of Glen and Florence Davis, who live on a 10-acre horse farm at the top of the road with Davis’ son, William, their daughter-in-law, Meghan, and three grandchildren, aged 2,4 and 7.
The N&O reported the family denying access was North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) and her husband, Tom.
The N&O also characterized the families as having a “longstanding feud” involving legal and property disputes and the Davises said they were denied access to an alternate roadway because of those past disagreements.
The Foxxes, however, say they are not blocking access to the alternate route, J H McLean Road, because it is not legally controlled by them.
Off of J H McLean is Winding Trail, which is an extension that crosses to Rime Frost. On Winding Trail, there is one piece of property between the Foxxes and J H McLean Road. The Foxxes have a previously erected gate on this extension, as it is used to store landscaping equipment and other pieces of machinery. This section is the only portion of road on the Foxxes property with a locked gate other than a gate near their home installed after someone attempted to walk up to their home several years ago.
The Davises’ access to J H McLean Road is currently blocked by another neighbor’s locked gate. The Foxxes have a right of way through the property to J H McLean but do not have the legal authority to grant right of way to another party.
“I cannot stress the following enough: the Davises do not have unanimous permission from these multiple properties to access this,” said Foxx’s Communication Director, Alex Ives, in response to NSJ questions about the alternate road access. “Their entire story of having unanimous permission to do so is pure fabrication.”
North State Journal reached out to Florence Davis for comment about the Foxxes not having legal authority to grant access to the alternate road as well as the gate being in place before the storm hit.
Davis said they had a letter from J H McClean and Winding Trail property owners dated Oct. 16 that granted them “one-time” temporary travel down that road which the Davises could use to put their cars near N.C. 105. She indicated that letter was shared with the Foxxes through their respective attorneys and the Foxxes’ attorney sent a letter back requesting the Davises get a contactor estimate to repair the road with 80-20 deposits that follow the road maintenance agreement previously established.
That maintenance schedule, which is the most recent dispute, was tied to the paving of Rime Frost Road. The case wound through courts for about five years and ended up at the Court of Appeals, which, in its ruling, outlined maintenance cost sharing of the road, with the Davis family responsible for 80% of the costs and the Foxxes 20%.
Davis also claimed the Foxxes used J H McClean to move some of their equipment without permission “about two and a half weeks ago,” which would have been before the Davises received their one-time access letter.
Another court case is likely over the storm repairs for Rime Frost, with Davis indicating they believe the 80-20 maintenance structure won’t apply.
“According to what I have just found out, and I won’t reveal my sources on that, I can just say that it is a judge who used to be on the Court of Appeals and he kind of clarified building a road back is not maintenance,” said Davis.
According to the N&O, the Davises “had hoped not to get into past issues with the Foxxes when discussing their current battle, and were quick to point out that their relationship with the couple wasn’t always this vitriolic.”
Virginia Foxx told the N&O that if the Davises had fulfilled “even one legal obligation,” she’d work to resolve the current issue.
Florence Davis has previously taken the dispute public, penning a Feb. 20, 2024, letter to the editor to the High County Press complaining about their legal disputes.
The Foxxes contend there would be a liability issue should they grant access to the route, and the N&O article cites a judge in one of the legal cases being concerned that if a ruling weren’t made, the two families would “renew their injurious behaviors.”
The conflict has, in the past, escalated to physical threats.
North State Journal was provided with a video dating to 2023 that shows Glen Davis threatening Tom Foxx.
In the video, Davis can be seen approaching individuals on the Foxx property, including a sheriff’s deputy. He yells, “I’ve got a gun. If Tom Foxx comes down here, I’m gonna shoot him.”
When Davis is told he is trespassing, Davis yells, “Good, you son of a bitch.”
North State Journal was told by the Foxx camp the incident occurred in the same area of the Foxx property the Davises are seeking to cross, and that a deputy was present because of a Davis family member allegedly being intoxicated and upset about contractors and Foxx family friends being in the area.
“Well, there were threats thrown back and forth. It was back July 4, two years ago, there was an incident that happened,” Davis told North State Journal. “And I’m not going to get into it. They can use it if they want to.” She said Tom Foxx had also “offered comments back.”
The video of Glen Davis making the threat was also provided to the N&O, but the outlet did not include it in their reporting.
The Foxxes say the past legal disagreements and threatening behavior give them legitimate liability concerns. Those concerns also apply to the Davises argument that the blocked gates are a safety hazard, especially with three young children. Virginia Foxx said she promised to allow emergency vehicle access if it were ever necessary.
N&O’s initial article points to social media posts by William Glen Davis on Facebook (Oct. 4) and Meghan Davis on TikTok (Oct. 9), both of which describe the danger of walking on the damaged section of the road, seemingly blaming the Foxxes for having to travel across it.
The main video posted by William Davis on Facebook shows the washed-away section of Rime Frost Road, and the TikTok by Meghan Davis makes a similar statement about traveling across the portion of road with her small children. She also claims the Foxxes wouldn’t “come together” after the storm damage, and that the Davises received a letter requesting money be contributed to help repair the road.
In her TikTok video, Meghan Davis said the request to help pay for the road repairs “felt a little like being held hostage.”
There is also a question about the N&O’s initial tip on the conflict.
The first version of the N&O article points to a “report” the paper says it received as the impetus for the story. The report is referenced near the very beginning of the story, and the first version of the article had no link in the text:
“Two weeks ago, McClatchy received a report that U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, was preventing seven people from driving off their property at the base of Grandfather Mountain after the collapse of a road she owns with her husband, Tom.”
The report turned out to be an email tip from Nan Alexander, the spouse of 45-year veteran News & Observer sportswriter Chip Alexander. Nan Alexander is the sister of Florence Davis.
The first version of the N&O article did not link to the redacted email but was inserted the following day after Foxx and Ives insisted.
Ives told North State Journal the N&O admitted the source of the article was the report from their employee’s wife but wanted to run it as based on social media posts.
“When I spoke to the N&O after they requested comment, I was told that they wanted to run a story on this dispute based solely off public posts on Facebook and TikTok, not because someone had tipped them off,” Ives said in an email.
The version currently on the site reads, “Flo Davis’ brother-in-law is a sports reporter at The News & Observer who did no reporting for this article.”
“The News & Observer has been caught dead to rights,” Foxx said in statement to North State Journal. “It’s a typical election-time hit piece against me that was predicated on the political animus of the family of one of its longest-serving employees. I engaged with the outlet in good faith, thinking they were interested in the truth, only to find out they were hiding this family relationship the entire time — and only disclosed it reluctantly after my staff exposed the Observer’s deceit.
“This hit piece disregarded the facts, hid damning evidence, and propped up the voices of those who peddle misinformation for personal gain. Serving my constituents is my top priority, and I will not let those who are behind this hit piece succeed in sidetracking me from doing so.”
Nan Alexander, a registered Democrat, sent a second similar email, this one to the Watauga County Democratic Party (WDP).
That email was obtained Oct. 11 by Watauga Watch, a blog that posted an Oct. 24 article by J.W. Williamson. Williamson has served as secretary of the WDP.
The Oct. 11 email was sent four days before the Foxxes said the N&O reached out to them and two days after the N&O received information from Nan Alexander on Oct. 9.
Williamson redacted the names in the email, but the author is described in the same way as the N&O redacted emails as the “wife” of “a N&O sportswriter for over 45 years.”
Nan Alexander declined to speak with North State Journal on the matter.
Davis told North State Journal that she didn’t know about Alexander’s letter to the WDP.
“Let me let me just clarify because somebody else asked me this and I just want to make this perfectly clear. This is not political and doesn’t have anything to do with politics,” said Davis. “It is unfortunate that this has all happened right before an election. But my husband and I, my family, we are not political.”
Davis added, “It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not Virginia Foxx stays in Congress or not. It has to do with being a neighbor … being a good neighbor.”
Despite the Davis family complaining about the high cost of fixing Rime Frost Road and telling the N&O they were at an “impasse” with the Foxxes over the matter, the Davises began repairs themselves on Oct. 25, just one day after the N&O published its initial article.
Davis told North State Journal they had a contractor that “came up and dumped a load of rock and dirt combined” in the area where the road was washed away so that they could temporarily use their cars to get to the main road. The Foxxes said the contractor dumped mainly dirt in the area of the hole and along the adjacent pavement.
The Davis family also contacted Samaritan’s Purse, which is heavily involved in Helene recovery and rescue efforts, to ask them to rebuild Rime Frost Road.
The Foxx camp told North State Journal that a representative from Samaritan’s Purse called Foxx to ask why this request was being made and if it was legitimate.
The interaction with Samaritan’s Purse was also not included in the N&O’s reporting.
