Auto Recycling eNewsletter
 

For immediate release – February 2007

Written and published by Mike Gibson and Ron Sturgeon, autosalvageconsultant.com, email to email Mike Gibson. To register for future free issues, visit http://www.autosalvageconsultant.com. Don’t forget to watch for our management articles monthly in Recyclers Power Source Magazine, or posted at our web site.

This Month’s News

Police blotter: Stolen vehicle sold to salvage yard, by Jordan Schrader, STAFF WRITER, Citizen-Times.com, January 30, 2007

WOODFIN – A Leicester woman is due in Buncombe County court today after law enforcement said she sold a stolen 1990 Jeep to an auto salvage yard. Melissa Rose Anderson got $198 for the vehicle at Woodfin Auto Salvage, officers said in warrants. Anderson, of Julian Acres Drive, was charged with obtaining property by fraud. She was released without bond.

BARGAIN BUS STOPS, The Portland Mecury, February 1, 2007

TriMet is putting its defunct transit mall shelters—the mushroom-shaped glass-and-metal pergolas—in the recycling bin. Anfield & Sons Metal Recyclers in Northeast Portland will dismantle the shelters and send the metal to Schnitzer Steel Industries (the glass will be "pulverized," says TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetsch). The recyclers reportedly paid $750 for the shelters, far less than they cost to build in 1977 (one source pegged the original cost at $100,000 each, based on inflation, but the Mercury was unable to confirm that number by press time). TriMet is keeping one shelter, at SW 5th and Salmon, which may become a newsstand.

Vehicles removed from former site of Amy’s Auto Salvage, by David Little West Central Tribune, February 02, 2007

WILLMAR — All inoperable and junked vehicles have been removed from the site of the former Amy’s Auto Salvage, 503 state Highway 40 S.W., members of the Willmar City Council’s Community Development Committee were told Thursday evening. Amy’s Auto Salvage closed and vehicles were removed after the council, on Sept. 5, overruled Planning Commission approval of an application for plan review. The plan review was requested by business owner Amy Meyer of Cambridge. One day after the council acted, Meyer and business partner Doug Skaug were notified by letter from City Clerk-Treasurer Kevin Halliday to “cease and desist’’ operations. The vehicles were not immediately removed, however, because Meyer and Skaug appealed the council’s decision. But the appeal was denied Oct. 6.

The owners of the property, Paul and Virginia Wearda of Willmar, were notified by a Dec. 20 letter from planning and development services director Bruce Peterson to have all vehicles removed no later than Jan 19. His letter said the Weardas, as owners of record, were responsible for the ultimate removal of the vehicles. The letter said the storage of the vehicles violated zoning ordinance exterior storage regulations that require vehicles not in use to be properly licensed and screened from adjacent land and streets. Peterson told the committee that all vehicles were gone by Jan. 22.

Committee member Jim Dokken said confusion arose on the part of citizens who attended the Planning Commission hearing when the plan review for Amy’s Auto Salvage was discussed and approved. Owners of neighboring businesses were opposed to the salvage yard. “I think it’s important whenever a public hearing is held that the public have some basic education on what the proper questions are for them to raise at these public hearings. For most of them, it’s probably the first time that they’ve had any exposure to government,’’ Dokken said. “Unless they have some basic idea of what they’re being asked to approve of or not approve of, most of the time what I hear is what difference does it make if I come to the meeting because you already got your mind made up and my being there isn’t really important.’’

Peterson said the confusion stemmed from the fact that Meyer and Skaug claimed that before they entered into an agreement with the Weardas to use the property that city staff had told them that what they proposed was acceptable. “The confusion was that staff had really told them that here is what the ordinance requires, that there was a land review process that they had to go through,’’ he said. “It was a permitted use, but it was a permitted use with either conditional use permit review or with full formal plan review.’’

Peterson said the confusion led Meyer and Skaug to make the investments and proceed with business before they went through the formal approval process, which included approval by the council. “On a conditional use permit or plan review, it has to be approved through the council consent agenda and the council is free to pull it and act on it separately. And that’s what they did in this case,’’ he said.

Meyer, in an interview Thursday, said Willmar citizens were outraged by the council’s action. Meyer and Skaug say they felt they had approval from the city to proceed and spent $75,000 to set up shop. Removal of the vehicles will bring the total closer to $100,000, she said. “We laid it all out for the city what a wonderful business we were, how we were going to do exactly what needed to be done to make that business a very successful business and in compliance with what the planning and zoning commission laid out for us,’’ Meyer said.

Meyer and Skaug had said they would sue the city, but Meyer declined to discuss a possible lawsuit.

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