Path to salvage yard cleanup
blocked by trucks at gates
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — The cleanup of an illegal Maxim-Southard Road salvage yard that is scheduled to be completed by the township has reached an impasse imposed by the property owner.
Township Manager Bruce Davis announced at Monday’s Township Council workshop meeting that municipal personnel have been prevented from entering the 8-acre site because owner William Lackey has erected a barricade there.
Township Code Enforcement Officer Chris Jackson said that when Howell employees showed up at the property last month to finish the court-ordered cleanup, they found that Lackey had parked a tractor-trailer at the main entrance to the site and a snow plow truck at another access point. Those actions prevented the employees from gaining access to the property.
Township Attorney Thomas Gannon said Howell will go to state Superior Court to seek an Enforcement of Litigant’s Rights order in an effort to uphold a previous court order that gave the municipality the right to complete the cleanup of the property.
The township moved last month to complete the court-ordered cleanup because Lackey was taking too long to finish the work and was in violation of a state Superior Court agreement that established the terms of the cleanup.
Employees from the Department of Public Works (DPW) were going to finish the job with the help of outside contractors who were to remove heavy equipment.
Davis said the township is soliciting bids from two salvage operators to haul away large industrial vehicles and equipment on the property. He said that task is beyond the capabilities of the DPW employees.
Under the terms of the court order issued by Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Quinn more than a year ago and the one Howell will now seek to enforce, the township is allowed to complete the cleanup of the property if Lackey is deemed to not be working diligently to complete the job.
Any costs Howell incurs in doing the job will be recouped by placing a lien on the property or from the proceeds derived from selling the equipment for salvage.
According to municipal officials, the original court order was not going to be enforced unless Lackey demonstrated that he was not going to complete the cleanup in a six-month period that started last fall.
Contending that Lackey had stalled on the progress of the cleanup halfway through the process, officials moved in May to enforce Quinn’s order.
Lackey’s conflict with Howell was the end result of his having spent more than a decade turning the once agriculturally used property into a salvage yard. The property is in an agricultural-residential zone where a salvage yard is not a permitted use.
Neighbors concerned over the possibility of contamination of their well water campaigned relentlessly for years for the township to shut down Lackey’s operation.
The township has been in and out of municipal court and Superior Court over the matter since the summer of 2001.
Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson ruled in 2002 that Howell had the right to enforce the zoning in the area.
Lackey has said his use of the property was consistent with the prior use of the land. That claim has been denied by a relative of the former property owner.