By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – The city of Waldport is fining the owners of properties used as a wrecking yard $5,500 a day for violating a variety of city ordinances after they did not obey a cease and desist order to stop using the yard and did not propose a formal cleanup plan.
The city began mailing the notices last week to W.A.M. Recycling and B&R Leasing, which own five parcels of land totaling 3.5 acres on the south edge of the city.
The properties are 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.
The fines started March 28 and follow a March 11 city-issued cease and desist order to Coast Towing and B&R Leasing owner Richard “Rick” Fidlin of Waldport. The order said he had to stop all operations on the properties on Forestry Lane and come up with a cleanup plan.
Four properties have been used as a wrecking yard and vehicle dismantling for decades. Last year, Fidlin bought a two-acre parcel along U.S. Highway 101 from Oregon Coast Community College, graded it and began storing vehicles there.
“We see no evidence that the business has stopped any of its activity,” Waldport city manager Dann Cutter told YachatsNews. “We’ll keep citing him until the properties are rectified.”
Cutter said the city continues to see vehicles brought to the wrecking yard by Coast Towing. Fidlin has also not agreed to professional environmental and wetlands studies and develop plans to clean up the property, he said.
But in letters March 24 and again March 31, Fidlin said he was “working very hard” to clean up the property, questioned why he was ordered shut, and would be asking his attorney to get involved. In his latest letter, Fidlin also said he was installing a “sight-obscuring” fence on the properties.
“Also, as a businessman, I would like to know if a municipal government has any authority to close down a private business without a certified health hazard to the general public,” Fidlin wrote.
Fidlin did not return phone calls from YachatsNews seeking further comment.
In his March 31 letter, Fidlin said he had operated the wrecking yard for more than 20 years without issues with the city until he acquired the college property along Highway 101. He then accused the city of eying the property to “use as a fire station” then came up “with all kinds of violations against my business to a point of closing it down because of nuisance violations.”
But the city never looked at the property for a fire station because it doesn’t have a fire department. Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue – which was looking for a new station location — looked at vacant land farther east on Forestry Lane but decided it was not feasible. Chief Jamie Mason told YachatsNews that the district is only looking at vacant property with a willing seller. The fire district is a separate entity and is working out a long-term lease with the city for its current station in downtown Waldport.
Despite what Fidlin says, the city and its attorney say they do have authority to issue the cease and desist order – and to issue fines and citations to appear in municipal court if the order is not followed.
The city is using its municipal code and sections on junk, trash, solid waste to issue fines of $1,000 a day on four properties owned by Fidlin’s B&R Leasing. The fifth property is owned by W.A.M. Recycling and Jeremy Gainer of Waldport and is being fined $1,000 a day for the code violations and $500 a day for operating without a city business license.
“The city has provided the owners in question with detailed requirements to come into compliance,” Cutter said Tuesday. “At this time, instead of working with the city, they have chosen to excuse their behavior with a myriad of accusations. The city has only one goal – to ensure this property is cleaned up and used within current code allowances.
“The city intends to continue citations until the issues are addressed, or the owner presents a verified plan to remedy the situation,” Cutter said. “Hiding the violations behind a fence is not an acceptable solution.”
DMV, DEQ also involved
Fidlin and Gainer are corporate owners of Waldport All Metals Recycling, sharing a Waldport post office box. But that company was dissolved by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office in 2020.
Gainer is also listed as the owner of W.A.M. Recycling, which was dissolved by the state in 2021. The state also dissolved Fidlin’s B&R Leasing in 2020, but reinstated it on March 14.
W.A.M. Recycling has a state permit to dismantle vehicles, but Cutter said he asked the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles to suspend it because the company is not incorporated with the state. Cutter said Fidlin also does not have a current business license to operate in the city and won’t get one until the property is cleaned up.
Larry Purdy, chief of investigations for the DMV, said W.A.M. Recycling had an active state license when it received a dismantler’s certificate in 2020 and a former Waldport planner signed off on the certificate. The certificate expires at the end of this year.
Because of the dispute, Purdy told YachatsNews that a DMV inspector will visit the wrecking yard to see if it is meeting state requirements on signs, expansion onto other properties owned by Fidlin, and whether the properties are properly screened and fenced.
Purdy said it is rare that DMV suspends licenses if there are problems, but relies on an administrative process to get any violations corrected. If they are not fixed, the DMV can deny a dismantler’s license when it comes up for renewal – which is now every year, Purdy said.
Waldport’s cease and desist order 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 enforcement proceedings under way against Fidlin for not having a storm water permit before clearing the former college property along Highway 101.
Dylan Darling, a DEQ spokesman based in Eugene, said the agency’s stormwater staff has referred the case to its compliance and enforcement office.
But Darling said Coast Towing has told the DEQ hazardous waste program that it has addressed the hazardous waste issues at the property.
“We await confirmation and documentation from the company, such as invoices from the disposal of the material,” Darling said in an email.
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
You really need to get your facts straight before you write your story. For one thing I can honestly say that the people have been working all day every day cleaning up the property, my daughter being one of them. She has been working her butt off, so for you to say nothing is being done, well that’s one lie. I can personally promise you it looks 10 times better than it did. And you say they are still running and never stopped operation, well that’s another lie. They are moving cars around to clean up and that is all. Your lies are hurting some people’s means of feeding their family. You people have got an obligation to tell the truth.
A reporter, reporting what they’re being told by the municipal authorities what is or isn’t happening, isn’t lying, they’re reporting what they’re being told.
According to the story, they tried to reach one of the owners, but “Fidlin did not return phone calls from YachatsNews seeking further comment.”
There’s no conspiracy, but it’s apparent that the owners and the authorities from multiple agencies aren’t on the same page.