By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – The city of Waldport has ordered a towing company to stop its operations on the south edge of town and begin cleaning up its 3.5-acre property.
In a cease and desist letter Friday to Coast Towing, B&R Leasing and their owner, Richard “Rick” Fidlin, the city said the businesses are violating numerous city codes by running an auto and metal recycling business in a commercial zone, not containing rubbish, trash and debris, creating a fire hazard and public nuisance.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which inspected the wrecking and storage yard last October, also has pollution enforcement proceedings under way against Fidlin.
A Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy posted the cease and desist notice on the property Friday. It prohibits Fidlin and his employees from using the site for his various businesses.
The property covers five tax lots and 3.5 acres at the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and Forestry Lane on the south edge of Waldport. It is filled with wrecked and stored cars and recreational vehicles, cranes and other heavy equipment, and piles upon piles of vehicle parts, scrap metal, vehicles, barrels, batteries and other debris.
Part of the property consists of two acres along Highway 101 adjacent to the main site on Forestry Lane, which Fidlin bought from Oregon Coast Community College a year ago. Fidlin promptly began grading it and storing vehicles and equipment on it.
The city believes Fidlin filled in all or a portion of a wetland, which is not allowed except with a state study and permit.
The DEQ is proposing a $600 fine against Fidlin for not having a stormwater permit before clearing the land. Last week it granted him a 30-day extension until April 9 for technical assistance on how to deal with the cleared property.
The city is giving Fidlin 10 days to come up with a proposal to conduct at least two environmental assessments on the property and begin cleaning it up. But there is to be no activity at the wrecking yard other than clearing it out, Waldport city manager Dann Cutter said Friday.
“Our tolerance is going to be very low,” Cutter said. “If he doesn’t come up with a good remediation plan, we will begin citing him.”
Those fines could be up to $1,000 a day.
Owner promises cleanup
Fidlin told YachatsNews on Saturday that he intends to clean the property up and scheduled a meeting Thursday to meet with Cutter to work out a plan.
“My goal is to make it nice,” Fidlin said. “I do want to get it worked out. I’ll spend 100 percent of my time on this.”
But it won’t be easy or quick, Fidlin said, getting rid of years of accumulated vehicles and junk. Abandoned vehicles he tows for various law enforcement agencies have to have liens filed in court before he can truck them to the Willamette Valley for recycling. Tires need to be taken to Portland for shredding, and oil, acids and antifreeze handled carefully.
“It won’t happen in a few days, but it we’ll get it done,” Fidlin said. “We’re going to make everyone happy.”
Fidlin owns a variety of auto-related companies. In addition to the property Coast Towing uses in south Waldport, the company has a yard in the Agate Beach area of north Newport. The corporate owner of the main lot off Forestry Lane in Waldport is Waldport All Metals Recycling, which state records list the owner as Jeremy Gainer of Waldport, with Fidlin as a corporate member.
The state also lists Fidlin as the owner of Alsea Evergreen Futures, which has a large storage area and buildings on Blodgett Road east of the Angell Job Corps center north of Yachats. Fidlin used another company, B&R Leasing, to buy the two acres from the community college district in February 2021 for $170,000.
Complaints but no movement
Cutter said the property has generated complaints for years but the city did not take any action against it other than ask Fidlin to clean it up. When he became city manager in 2020 the city council let him know it wanted more active code enforcement around town. Fidlin and an architect came to the city with plans to construct a building on the property to dismantle cars, but those never developed.
The property got wider public scrutiny once Fidlin bought the land along Highway 101 last year and immediately began clearing it and storing vehicles and equipment there. The city also had a new planner/code enforcement officer in 2021 and began responding more to complaints.
The city’s then-planner/code enforcement officer, Holly Hamilton, and a DEQ enforcement specialist inspected the property last October. The report by DEQ hazardous waste inspector Chris Bayham said there were too many tires stored on the property and there needed to be a closer inspection “with cooperation from the owner or manager” to determine if hazardous wastes, oil anti-freeze, batter acid and mercury were being managed properly.
Bayham said it also needed to be determined if the wrecking yard was complying with federal safe drinking water and pollution standards.
In its own action, the city of Waldport says Fidlin:
- Does not have a current business license to operate in the city and won’t get one until the property is cleaned up;
- Auto and metal recycling is not allowed in commercial zones. “If he was up in the industrial park with fencing we wouldn’t be doing this,” Cutter said.
- The business is violating several municipal nuisance codes for storing rubbish, trash, debris that detracts from the property’s appearance, creates smells or fire hazards, poses a safety risk and could create a health hazard.
Cutter said the city had received complaints in the past, passed them along to Fidlin and “unfortunately, no remedy seemed forthcoming.”
“In 2021, we started investigating with DEQ and other state agencies and exploring further tools the city could bring to drive enforcement of the concerns,” Cutter said in a statement to YachatsNews. “During the course of the investigation, we determined that a simple cleanup was not going to be sufficient, and that the problem seemed to be escalating.
“After exploring the options, and with the consultation of the city attorney, the city proceeded with enforcement which essentially ceases all operations within the city …” his statement said. “The city does not take the closure of a business lightly. Given the evidence, we simply did not see a reasonable path to move forward while operations continued.”
Cutter said that the city won’t start fining Fidlin or his companies if he arranges for professional environmental and wetlands studies and develops a plan to clean up the property.
“We need a good faith effort to fix the problem,” Cutter said. “The city’s goal is to correct the problem. Some people are willing to do that, or walk away, or fight.”
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
