By By NORMA LERNER / Edwardsburg Argus
CASSOPOLIS – A four-year old court order to clean up a dump site in Jefferson Township has resurfaced. This time it's in federal court.
Arnard and Pauline Ottman, owners of property on 23970 Evan St., filed a Motion for Contempt that seeks to enforce an injunction against the township in connection with a discharge the Ottmans received on Aug. 9, 2006.
Filing the motion on behalf of the Ottmans was attorney John Magyar of Dowagiac dated June 23 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan.
The Ottmans claim they are unable to pay legal fees incurred with the cleanup on their property where tons of trash were hauled away by Best Way Disposal, Inc. of Kalamazoo, in addition, to pay a bill to pay $17, 500 to Best Way Disposal for hauling it away.
Best Way filed suit against a local excavator Jerry Austin of Cassopolis who was hired to clean up the trash. He in turn filed suit against Gerry Hart, a Jefferson Township official, who Austin claimed he had agreed to pay for the containers if Austin provided the crew and the equipment to fill the containers. This was recently paid by Jefferson Township, but it has since billed the Ottmans to recoup its cost. The Ottmans had operated a junk yard on their property for well over 30 years.
The township claimed the Ottmans have 30 days to pay the cost of containers used in the cleanup or the township would file a lien against their property.
The Ottmans filed a complaint for declaratory relief in Bankruptcy Court in 2006 asking that the lien placed on their property be declared a judgment lien and not a tax lien. They declared their property value had decreased due to the buried waste and asked to have their property without the lien.
That relief was granted to them after they paid approximately $128.
According to court proceedings, in 2007, a visiting judge from Michigan's 53rd District Court ordered both Austin and Hart to clean up the burn pit of about 200-by-40-foot about 12 feet deep on the Ottmans' property. This involved digging up the buried trash to be hauled away. The debris included old cars, farm machinery, metals, building materials and other trash, according to court records. The materials were placed in dumpsters contracted to Best Way Disposal and hauled away.
The Motion asks the court to find Jefferson Township in contempt and to award actual attorney fees and punitive damages to the Ottmans.
Hart is also a member on the Cass County Building Authority.