A north Georgia town is trying to come to the aid of its beloved drive-in movie theater after a disgruntled neighbor is threatening its business.

The Blue Ridge City Council will take up an ordinance at its meeting tonight that would make it illegal to project light without a permit on city property including a drive-in movie screen. The city owns the land the 63-year-old Swan Drive-In sits on. It has been leased to owners Steve and Kathleen Setser for nearly 30 years.

But spot lights from the home owned by Patrick Crain, which backs up to the theater property, began shining on the movie screen late last summer making it difficult to see.

“Some movies it’s much more noticeable. If it has a lot of dark scenes in it, then it will look like trees on the screen,” Kathleen Setser tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

She says a dispute between Crain and her husband prompted their neighbor to make it difficult for customers to enjoy the movie.

“The Crains actually both worked for us in the past. So, he got mad one night and threw his keys down and left and hasn’t spoken to us since,” she says.

Crain tells Parrish he knew when he built his home 17 years ago, it would be located behind a drive-in theater. He says he never had any problems until the Setsers removed a chain-link fence that once separated the two properties several years ago. He denies focusing the spot light on the screen, but says he turns it on to protect his property since the fence is no longer there to keep moviegoers from walking over to his land.

Crain also says the vegetation that had grown over the fence throughout the years used to reduce the noise level. Now that it’s gone, he says you can hear sounds projected from the movie inside his home.

Despite numerous visits by the local police over the last several months, the lights have continued including this past Sunday night.

The Setsers are now installing a 20-foot-high blackout screen between the two properties, attempting to keep the light out.

“It is expensive and if he goes around that, I don’t know what the next step is,” she says.

That’s where the ordinance, if passed by the city council, is expected to help. The first offense would prompt a $500 fine. Subsequent offenses would include a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail.

Crain tells Parrish it could all be resolved if the Setsers would simply put the fence back up.

In the meantime, the community has turned out in droves to support the theater.

“It’s actually made us want to come here more to show that we still care about the Swan and we’re going to continue to love it no matter how mean somebody wants to be,” says Kayla Henry.