When Deborah Perez moved into her home on Fort Street in East Providence, she probably didn’t expect she would have to deal with artillery battering down on her property like it was a literal fort during the Revolutionary War.

But as she stood up to address the East Providence City Council on May 7, she brought along bags and Tupperware containers full of evidence with her to demonstrate she wasn’t exaggerating when she made the claim that her house was under almost constant siege — maybe not by explosive ordinance, but by golf balls.

“I sit in my living room and my house is just getting banged, which is unacceptable. My property has been damaged. I am unable to go into my front lawn to do my weeding because of the golf balls that come flying,” Perez told the council. “Getting into my car, my driver’s side door, my daughter was putting my granddaughter in the passenger side to put her in the carseat, and a ball ricocheted off of 288 Fort St. and hit my door. That’s close to me.”

Fort Street makes up the northern property border of Met Links, the 9-hole golf course that was built as part of “The Met”, a large, mixed-used development currently going through permitting to be built on the site of the former Metacomet Country Club.

Perez’s home at 300 Fort St. sits at a particularly unfortunate location — directly in the line of site of both the fifth and sixth hole of the course, and vulnerable to shanks and overkill shots from golfers approaching either one. Just since Aug. 7, 2024, she said, 59 golf balls have hit her home.

The issue has been an ongoing source of frustration for Perez, who said to the council that she has had meetings with the golf course supervisor, as well as representatives for the owner of the whole property, Marshall Properties, Inc., and while assurances have been made, such as potentially putting up a net to guard Fort Street from errant balls, nothing has actually been done yet to address the problem.

“Marshall Properties was taking about a redesign with golf holes. That hasn’t happened,” she said. “It’s been back and forth with different types of explanations, as far as ‘Yes, we’re going to get a net.’ ‘No, we’re not going to get a net.’ ‘The net will be put up in two weeks.’ ‘Well now we’re getting an engineer to look at the problem.’ ‘No, we’re not getting a net.’ So I can’t get any straight information from them.”

Perez said one argument she heard was that the golf course pre-dated the houses on Fort Street, which while true doesn’t take into consideration the large number of deteriorating trees that had to be cut down in recent years.

“Right where all of us are getting hit, there used to be these massive trees that would soften the blow,” she said. “So the balls are just coming and coming and coming.”

The members of the council concurred that the situation was not sustainable and that something would need to be done. Council President Bob Rodericks said that they would reach out to Marshall Properties to discuss a solution.

“We’re asking you to be a good neighbor, to put up some netting, or if you have a better alternative,” he said.

“There are solutions. This is 2025,” concurred Council Vice President Frank Rego. “The nets are really a good solution.”

Patricia Resende, chief of staff for Mayor Bob DaSilva, said that the administration spoke to the East Providence Police Department about the issue, who then spoke to the golf course manager.

“We have been in touch with MetLinks. They are aware of it…They said they’re working on it,” Resende said.