Holiday Wreath Creates Community Kerfuffle

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – A Florida woman is crying foul after she says her condominium association threatened to fine her for hanging a traditional pine branch holiday wreath on her front door.

Donna Sozzio, who lives in West Palm Beach’s Lands of the President condominium community, reportedly faces $100-a-day fines for keeping the wreath up, the Palm Beach Post reported. The story about the woman’s alleged violation of community policy broke late last week.

By Monday, its seems Sozzio had a change of heart about her wreath. Rather than face the wrath of the condo association – and its fines – the paper reported she took it down. Citing a violation of her religious freedom, Sozzio has since hung an American flag from her door to replace the holiday wreath, the paper reported.

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While Sozzio told the paper she feels she’s being “bullied,” the condo association insists it’s well within bounds with its no decoration rule. Florida law says religious objects can be attached to door frames as long as they aren’t bigger than 3 inches wide by 6 inches high and no more than 1 ½ inches in depth.

Whether the association will impose fines for the flag on the door remains unclear.

The wreath hoopla isn’t the only condo association run-in to make news out of Florida in recent months. In November, a Destin condominium community’s decision to demand dog DNA to help ferret out poopers whose owners don’t scoop created quite a stir in that community.

Pet owners were so distraught by the development they brought the issue to the local media. A resident was quoted by the Northwest Florida Daily News as saying proposed policy, which would put the financial burden for testing on pet owners, was “invasive” and “over-reaching.”

File photo