Jay Heller knew the acre on the end of Harvey Street in Rio, Wis., was filled with five old, rusting fuel-storage tankers and huge blocks of concrete when he bought it in February from the Soo Line Railroad. He thought it was a good business decision.
Heller purchased the property to expand his business, Heller's Recycling Service, which had been growing the past three years while being run from a storage area just 50-feet away at 219 E. Harvey. But Heller's acquisition hasn't helped him prosper, in fact, it might turn out to be the catalyst to his business being removed from the village.
After 25 residents signed a petition complaining about the noise coming from Heller's property, the Village Board gave him three weeks to remove all salvage/recycling material from the land, stating the business he was operating was "in contravention of village ordinances."
The ordinance makes it illegal for anybody in the village to buy, sell, gather, deliver or store old iron, paper, rags, or other material commonly called "junk." If enforced, the ordinance would put an end to Heller's plans and his business.
Heller hopes to keep his business running, stating the noise is temporary and the ordinance isn't legal because it's too broad and doesn't allow for any type of recycling, including dropping off cans at the grocery store.
Heller's company collects large pieces of copper, aluminum and other metals to clean them, separate them and make them more pure, and sell them for profit. To do this, they have to use heavy machinery to cut through the metals.
"I can't help the noise right now," he said. "I had to clear out all the trees and I have to continue running my business so I can feed my family. But it's temporary. I plan on building two buildings to do all of the work inside. Once those buildings are build, they might be able to hear noise if they're outside, but it will be minimal and I'm willing to work with them so I don't disturb them."
Heller, who is the father of one of the teens killed in the Jeep-train collision this past May at the Williams Crossing in Otsego, already filed a notice of claims with the village surrounding its possible liability in that event, and hasn't ruled out taking the village to court over the junk ordinance.
Board president Russell Sunde Sr. says the ordinance is perfectly legal.
"He does a service, this is something everybody recognizes," Sunde said. "He gets and provides people with a place to take (junk). It's just he can't accumulate it.
"The other difference is recycling material which is picked up (by Columbia County) has a container and the volume of material is totally different."
A Rio Shopper employee said the company's records show Heller's Recycling Plant has been advertising with it since April 1999. Heller said he's been running the same business for three years and, while he doesn't believe the board's decision correlates to a possible lawsuit against the village, he does question why it's putting its foot down now.
Sunde says the company has expanded lately and the citizen complaints forced the board to take action.
"As far as I know, he hasn't accumulated materials (in this amount) until he acquired his current property and started collecting it there," Sunde said, when asked about the timing. "And we didn't have any citizen complaints until now."
Robert Risguard, who lives close to Heller's property, said he signed the petition in hopes of getting the noise to stop, not so the business would be terminated.
"Whether or not he's been doing it for three years, the noise just started," Risguard said. "I can understand the tearing the trees down. The noise I'm complaining about is when he brings his truckloads of metal and puts it in these tankers. If he puts up buildings and the noise stops, that's fine."
Ken Price, who lives on Roosevelt Road across from the residents who started the petition, says he doesn't want the company to be placed there even though he doesn't hear much noise.
"He provides a service, but when a junkyard gets close to home, it makes a difference," Price said. "If you had to live next to it and you had the noise, I think you'd say the same."
"He's a nuisance," said another man who lives on Roosevelt and asked to remain nameless. "What he was doing is a nuisance and everybody along this (street) has put money into their homes and we're afraid of having a junkyard in our backyard. It would take away from any money we've put into our home and it would affect our property values."
But Heller, who owns a house at 124 W. Harvey, says the board is probably going to zone the land for commercial use -- the board will vote on this at the Aug. 5 meeting -- and the property will be used for some sort of business.
"Any type of business is going to bring property costs down, but that's all that can be put there," Heller said. "I plan on making this look nice, putting up a fence and putting bushes around the outside. I don't plan on storing any materials outside the buildings. Everything will be kept inside." -Portage (Wisconsin) Daily Register