PORT ANGELES — Gales Addition residents said they won a major battle in a war against nuisance properties on Thursday.
Neighbors looked on as Clallam County road crews bulldozed and cleared a notorious, garbage-infested lot on Ryan Road. Some said they had been hoping for action for 20 years.
A woman lived under a tarp amid rats and piles of trash on the east side of the condemned house at 2422 E. Ryan Road, said county officials.
The county gave notice on June 2 that the property was in violation of the solid waste code, which started an abatement process that resulted in the removal of nearly two dozen truckloads of trash.
“Every neighbor walking by has got a big grin on their face,” Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said. “That tells you a lot.”
The woman who owned the property, Catherine J. Gray, signed a voluntary abatement order that the county received on Monday.
The Sheriff’s Office estimates that there were about 1,000 rats on Gray’s property. The county hired a pest management service to put traps and rat poisoning on the condemned property.
Gray was not present as a county excavator packed about 20 loads of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, glass, dead animals, yard equipment and random personal effects into a county dump truck.
Although he doesn’t know where Gray went, Peregrin speculated that Gray’s son, who lives in the Seattle area, picked her up.
Doug Elzner, Gray’s immediate neighbor to the west, said he’s had problems with his adjacent yard for about 20 years.
“It was affecting the whole neighborhood as far as I’m concerned,” Elzner said.
As the crew worked, Elzner stood on his roof with a video recorder to document a day he thought he would never see.
He said the abatement process has been stalled for years.
“Like I said, this is something that should have been dealt with years ago, but it just didn’t seem like we could get that far with it,” he said.
“I was really surprised to see them take it so far [on Thursday], which is a good thing because there is a lot of garbage there.”
The neighborhood east of Port Angeles “won a little bit of a battle” with the cleanup, Elzner added.
“It’s a great day in this county, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Gray was given 30 days notice to clean up her property or face action under the solid waste law. Rather than going to court, she signed the voluntary abatement order in the presence of an attorney.
A Clallam County inmate work crew removed the trash from in front of the street-side fence on Wednesday. County crews also removed three junk vehicles from the front of the house to give the heavy machinery room to work on Thursday.
Elzner’s well-manicured property draws a sharp contrast to Gray’s yard on the other side of his fence.
The smell of cat urine mixed with other trash was so intense that Elzner was forced to keep his windows shut year round, he said.
Gray kept several cats in a pen in the back yard, Elzner said, and the odor permeated well past his property.
Dawn Morgan, who lives down the street from Gray, said she was relieved that the county stepped in.
“It didn’t affect us as much as it did the other neighbors because we didn’t get the stench like they did,” Morgan said.
“But it’s very relieving. I’ve been dealing with it for 14 years.”
With no electricity or water, the house has not been occupied for years, she said.
“It’s a health violation,” Morgan said. “She was living there and going to the bathroom in the back yard.”
Peregrin said Gray had a tunnel that led from the front fence to the enclave where she slept.
“She kept all of her waste on the property,” Peregrin said.
The undersheriff said Gray had been exercising at the Clallam County Family YMCA, where she also showered.
“It’s a tragedy for her,” Peregrin said.
“But, it’s also a mark on the neighborhood, and for the good people that live in proximity of it.
“She is a very intelligent lady. She is a very articulate lady. She did an admirable job of stating her case. But this is well beyond the point of no return.”
Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman, whose district includes Gales Addition, said Gray’s property posed an “egregious violation” of the county’s solid waste code.
“Obviously we want to respect the property owner and their privacy,” Chapman said.
But Chapman, who watched part of Thursday’s cleanup from Elzner’s roof, said because of the public health risk the property “had to be cleaned up.”
In the coming days, the county will obtain a warrant from a Superior Court judge to enter the house to inspect it.
If the house is deemed to be structurally unsound or poses a health hazard it may be destroyed, Chapman said.
The county will bill Gray for the cost of the cleanup. The cost could not be determined on Thursday.
Chapman thanked Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke, Sheriff Bill Benedict, Code Compliance Officer Rich Sill, Block Watch Coordinator Al Camin, the county road department, chain gang and neighborhood volunteers for their efforts in the nuisance abatement.
Locke said the property has a history of fire code violations, but it took the solid waste determination to put the cleanup into motion.
In most cases, owners of nuisance properties work with the county to come into compliance, Chapman said.
“That neighborhood has literally been under siege by a dump, and today they see some relief,” Chapman said.
“It was a good day for that neighborhood.”
Three years ago, neighborhood residents formed a block watch to fight crime and code violators. Community policing, which has expanded in Gales Addition this year, put the onus on county lawmakers to enforce their nuisance codes.
Since code enforcement can find itself at odds with individual property rights, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Doug Jensen in April proposed a Nuisance Abatement Committee to prioritize junk properties and narrow the state’s definition of “public nuisance.”
The idea was to give the county more legal authority in dealing with dilapidated properties. The committee has not yet been formed.
Elzner said the cleanup may provide incentive for others to improve the neighborhood.
“We’ve got some good neighbors around here,” he said.
“I take pride in my property, and I also take pride in the whole block, too.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
