GLENWOOD - There's a saying that good fences make good neighbors and now, that could be the solution to curbing aggressive panhandlers in the Glenwood area.

Many of these panhandlers live under the bridges heading into Springfield but this is ODOT property and they say it's time to draw the line.

It's a scene drivers along Franklin Boulevard in Glenwood encounter every day: panhandlers. They are at their windows, stopping them on foot, and waiting at the bus stop. "This is a really aggressive type of panhandling," says Andy Vobora of the Lane Transit District. "It's really some rough talk and comments back to the customers."

Although it is legal, it is affecting nearby businesses and most of all, traffic. Joe Harwood with the Oregon Department of Transportation says, "The panhandlers in that area have become so aggressive we've had some people actually run that light."

The problems on the road start under the nearby bridges where many local homeless live and that's where the Department of Transportation thinks it has the solution.

"More or less we are going to put up a rectangular fence under the bridges," says Harwood. This would be an eight foot cyclone fence and it would block off land used for illegal camping in an area Sheriff's say, they frequent far too often. Just moments after we arrived, three sheriff's cars were called out to the scene. "There was somebody laying down up here and they weren't sure if the person was passed out," says Lieutenant Byron Trapp of the Lane County Sheriff's Office. "And now you can see we've got three staff out here."

To those who live here, these plans literally hit too close to home. "It's a hard deal," says Homeless Mark Veilleux. "This is like 15 years we've been here," says Homeless Thomas Lee Helt. "Where are we going to go?"

The City of Springfield, ODOT, and the Lane County Sheriff's Department hope a fence will force panhandlers to relocate but both sides admit it's not a permanent solution. "This is probably a partial solution to this location," says Trapp. "Obviously the larger issue is homelessness and where do these people reside?"

Helt says he doesn't want to leave his home under the bridge but has an idea of where he will go next. "Now they're going to fence us out," he says, "Well they're going to have a hard time doing that because there's another bridge right down the road."

The propsed fence will cost an estimated 20 thousand dollars and is still in the approval process. ODOT hopes to have it built before the end of the year.