Residents weigh in on Superior salvage yard

Concerned citizens and landowners met with the Mineral County Commissioners Tuesday to discuss a proposed salvage yard in Mineral County.

Donald Mellen has asked the commissioners for a license to operate a salvage yard on his property on the East side of Superior.

More than 15 people came to the meeting to either support or fight the license.

“This is going to seriously devalue my property,” said Rick Miller.

Miller owns 50 acres of land adjacent to Mellen which he said he plans to sell when he retires.

Mellen admitted that he has already been using his property for junk vehicles but they have all been cleaned out and he wants to continue his business by the book.

“I feel that I did let it get out of control because there were some things I did not understand. Since then we’ve been getting it in compliance with the laws and every is squared away,” Mellen said.

Mellen said that since there are businesses operating on much of the property adjacent to his, there should be no problem with the junkyard.

“I feel that once we get our fence up and are in compliance with the law that we should have no problem,” Mellen said.

Mellen said he has been living on the property for six to seven years and between November 2007 and June 2008 he collected over 130 cars on his property from local residents who needed to get rid of them. He said that he needed to collect that many vehicles in order to get a wrecking company, JB Junk, to come out and dispose of the cars.

Mellen said all of the vehicles were removed three weeks ago but he does not plan to gather that many vehicles on his property again. He said that he plans to have no more than 20 cars at a time and he will transport them himself to salvage yards out of the county.

Gary Lewis, an adjacent property owner, said that he could see oil spills and smell gas and oil coming from the property during JB Junk’s crushing operation and worried about the effect the junkyard could have on the environment.

“We’re on the same water table and if they bring that stuff in and keep dumping it in it’s going to end up in the ground water and my place is going to be totally useless,” Lewis said.

Jason McLees, another adjacent property owner, was also worried about the environmental impact of a salvage yard.

“I kind of worry about the damage that’s already been done and the fluids that have already leaked out of the cars,” McLees said.

Mellen said that he is handling all of the fluids properly and is getting his business up to code.

“We are taking care of this and we’re not asking for anyone’s help. We’re taking care of it all on our own,” Mellen said.

Dan Fowler, who used to run a salvage yard in Mineral County said that he did not think Mellen’s proposal would work out because in order to operate they would have to prove where all of their groundwater is going.

“The expense of that is astronomical. When the state told me I had to do that, that’s when I got out of it and luckily got out of it without spending a fortune,” Fowler said.

He added that they would also have to ensure that all of their fluids were disposed of by a licensed disposal company.

Mellen said that JB Junk was supposed to take care of the fluids removed from the cars but instead they left it in barrels on his property. He said that he is disposing of the left over fluids thought Felstet Waste Removal.

According to Mineral County Planner Tim Read salvage car prices are at an all time high and many people have come through Mineral County in the past four months collecting junk cars.

He said that under the Montana Junk Vehicle Program, land owners with more than four “junk vehicles” on their property that are in plain view of a public right of way can be asked to remove the vehicles.

Several adjacent property owners complained that the addition of a junkyard would decrease their property values. Even though Mellen would have to post a fence around his property to hide his operation from public view, many people said that because the proposed yard is in a low valley, there is no way for them to completely hide it.

“Over the years it has turned into nothing but a total eyesore and disaster for the whole community, the whole county as far as that goes,” said Lewis.

Sally Miller said that she was very concerned about how much the salvage yard would devalue her property.

“This affects me greatly. This affects the rest of my life, whether I’m going to be on food stamps or not, is how it affects me,” Miller said.

Donald Mellen’s brother, William Mellen, said that the salvage yard would be good for the county and accused those protesting it of only thinking of themselves.

“That’s the way this whole county is, we don’t care about what’s good for the county as a whole, we only care about what does us at the minute,” said William Mellen.

Mineral County Commissioner Judy Stang said that she agrees that there needs to be a salvage yard in Mineral County and that Mellen is providing a valuable service, but she is not sure that Mellen’s property is suited for the operation.

“I think that it’s an important decision and I think that everybody deserves their day in court so I think they deserve that we come out there and look at it,” Stang said.

The commissioners said that they would look into the regulations further and have the property looked at to see if the salvage yard is a feasible business. They said they would announce another meeting when they had decided whether or not to grant the license.

Read warned Mellen not to continue junking cars in the area without a license.

“Until Licensure is approved, the state is going to take a very hard nose about any more junk vehicles showing up there,” Read said.