The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk save these 150+ trucks

a buddy of mine emailed this too me. It looks like they're in Washington State somewhere...

It's really sad when crap like this happens!
But it might be a chance for someone to pick out their next project....

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2005/08/16/local_news/01news.txt

Save us and our hobby from government meddling.

This is an extreme case and involves more than just vehicles but they are going to apply it to the guy who has one truck he's working on and a parts truck, too. We, as hobbyists, need to be contantly aware of attempts to pass these ridiculous laws.

Imagine, a vehicle sitting way out in the county somewhere might have a mercury switch in it. My God, the whole county is at risk. We better crush it and send it to China.

And you people sit idly by arguing about Chevy vs Ford. We need to get together with the Ford guys and the Mopar guys and all the rest and stop this kind of nonsense.

so what can be done about this? i mean unless we know someone high up in washington state i don't think we can stop it... maybe help her sell the parts?

and as for the mercury thats rediculous. every other home i step into has mercury bulbs in them. if you take off the cover to the old dial thermostats there is a mercury bulb which is for the temperature reading... bah.

we should fix this. theres almost 9000 members on this site... any ideas?

The same thing is happening in Kansas. To hold the hounds at bay one guy turned his collection into a museum to get them off his back.
He charges a nominal fee to people who want to see it and he does not sell parts off the vehicles. He will sell you a whole one though.

That's a good idea..She could make it "Ms Thompson's Outdoor Antique Museum", and have a not for profit setup where she just asks for donations to stay away from taxes..Any bolter live close to her? Steve

She is in North River, Wa, which is 100 miles SE of Seattle

SOunds like the woman is out in the sticks, and her pile of old iron isnt hurting anybody.

On the same token, she's sitting on it thinking that she's got a gold mine.

Sure, there are probably alot of good parts out there, but i'll bet the vast majority of it is total crap you'd have to pay somebody to take away.

At any rate.. it's her stuff, on her land, and it's not like she's got it sitting out on the road.. I say leave the poor woman alone.

As far as any enviromental impact her collection may have, anything that was gunna leak out of those trucks would have done so 30 years ago.

I'm with Cletis. This is obscene; threatening an old woman with $173k A DAY in fines????? Whose idea of justice is that, exactly? If anybody has some bright ideas, count me in.

Call or e-mail the reporter listed at the end of the article and see what sort of information he has that wasn't included in the article. He may have something that could help.

I agree, it's a shame to go after the lady like that and it's a shame to have all that iron rusting away, too. I'm sure a lot of it is junk and should be disposed of properly but I'd guess there's some real gems in there, too. I'd be interested in helping in whatever way I could.

I think we're going to be seeing more of these types of things as people buy vacation homes outside urban areas and the cities push into the hinterlands and they suddenly get concerned with the "environmental" damage (read that 'eye sore' and affect on property values) these represent. It seems they aren't concerned until they have to look at them. Oops, I'm letting my personal opinion out--oh well.

I'd like to drive down there and help her out, but with 11 trucks in my yard I don't want to attract any attention....

I'm with Houston54, kinda'. I think she should get a bunch of friends together one weekend, all with a gallon or two of a different color of paint and cut 'em loose. They can express themselves artistically on those "blank canvasses", paint 'em up, put political statements on them, whatever you care to do, then you just call it freedom of speech. If you put the right messages on them you might even be able to get our beloved ACLU to take her side in the fight. That would do it! Because no self-serving politician with plans for reelection would ever stand in the way of such an upstanding organization as the ACLU!

the gov. don't seperate 1950's cars and 1990s cars. so a pile o cars from the 90s is scrap and so is from the 50s. a laws a law in their eyes. but we can't let them thrash all these awesome peices of history! a museam might not be a great idea due 2 changing the zoning and what not for a little old lady to do... but there must be a way... the gov obviously wants them gone. if we figrue out an efficient way to clean up her property the local gov will most likely extend the deadline.

i like the idea of having some people paint them. but not turn it into a museam just say that its art and not junk and that charging her for it would be the oppression of the creative mind HAHA... such BS but it could work with a good enough lawyer...

The local authorities seem to have tried to hook her up with a way to get rid of it, sounds like at least two outfits were intrested in taking it off her hands for scrap. (i.e. wouldn't cost her anything, might even be a few bucks in it for her)

But she hops on eBay and sees a few pieces might be worth premium jack, and now she dosen't want to give it away, and she's afraid to cherry pick and sell for fear of being labeled a "salvage yard".

This happens all over the country.. I know of at least two places within 30 miles of me that make this womans 150 cars look like a 7-11 parking lot in comparison.. i'm talking personal collections of junk cars that are dozens of acres in size.

The owners are convinced all the stuff they have is worth mega bucks just because a few pieces have sold on eBay for more than scrap, and they're waiting for that big money payoff to drive in and cut 'em a check for a million bucks.

These people are packrats, and most times won't sell when you make them an offer because they figure, "If he's offering me $300 it must be worth more".. but what happens is the stuff just sits there and rots away.

Sure she might have some glass thats worth a few bucks.. but who's going to pull it? Take photos? List it on eBay? Answer questions for seller? Box it up and ship it?

In my opinion, if she can find somebody to come out and clear up that mess and not have to pay them to do it, she outta jump on it.

I don't agree with the law in her area (and in many areas). I think a public nusance is something that effects the public.. not some old junk cars sitting way out in the middle of somebodys 100 or more acres.

I mean, really.. how is it a nusance if you cant even see it from the road? How close is her nearest neighbor?

If this was somebody collecting junk in the middle of town, it would be a different story.. and its not like she just woke up one morning and aquired all that stuff.. it's been there for YEARS... why is it all of a sudden a problem?

[b]"Anything they can dispose of and make an extra buck is fine with me," he says. "The bottom line is, Oct. 1 is the deadline for everyone to have their vehicles abated. You know, there's all kinds of scenarios out there. There's an imminent public health risk those vehicles pose. Some of them still have mercury switches in them. Then there's all the oils, the various fluids, and it poses an imminent hazard to the watershed out there.[/b]

What a bunch of gobildy gook! Imminent hazzard to the watershed! Sorry guy, by the looks of the vehicles most of the fluids are gone.

On another note, let's all lodge a protest with the writer of this column and see if she can get national coverage and stop the wacky goverment from invading her property. Any locals out there know of this property?

BTW, I think she lives in Cosmopolis Washington in Pacific county.

I tried to view this property from the satelite but could not get close enough. .......g

If I lived closer,I think it'd be worth spending some time there getting an inventory and actively marketing some of the more valuable vehicles,in exchange for a few for myself,or a small percentage of the sale profits.
I'm still thinking of the museum idea-why wouldn't that work? Might have to move some of the cars to make it more accessible,but I'll bet it could work. I don't think zoning would be an issue,and if she continued to downsize by selling cars as possible,so much the better. At least,as a museum,she'd get a bit more time to move things out.
Speed

Oh, The Humanity,
I woudn't be surprised if there is some hidden agenda, like after so many days she'll owe enough that they can sieze her property (and that of other close by neighbors) to be sold to a developer or a large farming conglomerate and therefore generate more tax revenue (not to mention typical kickbacks) for the county and state!! It's all about the money and votes (and votes=money) as very few politicians give a rats a$$ about the environment except as an excuse/means to increase the revenue base :mad:
Sorry for the rant, but we really need to keep an eye on "future history" to see how the government in general is raking us over the coals and setting up to rake us even harder in the years to come.
Gene

For the few of you that thought I was full of it last year when I warned you about this type of crap going on, go to Google and look up "agenda 21", "smart-growth", and "limited-use zoning". This tactic is part and parcel of what I described to you about a year and a half ago, and several of you said "bah, there's no government conspiracy here!". Guess what, boys and girls, it is, and it all boils down to private property rights. Think that principle applies only to your house, you are woefully and sadly mistaken.

Google this NOW and you will see I am 100% right here.

Patrick, you are right. Endangered species act, wetlands act confiscates property or makes it useless for property owners too. A new trend for public planning agencies is to use satelites to check your property for building violations. I have a client in Danville California who had to pay a fine for removing a tree over 8 inches before he got his permit to expand his swimming pool area. This program is available to all planning and building departments and will be considered standard in afew years.

GMoniz has hit the nail on the head! I happen to own a home in Alamo, CA, one town north of Danville. The CC&R's for the neighborhood are ridiculous. I have so many oak trees on my property that I had to take a few out so the others could grow bigger and more healthy. I'm just thankful that I've got really cool neighbors who watch out for us. Noone said a word because they knew the "Oak Tree Nazis" would surely fine us. We have a neighbor who owns an Arabian horse breeding facility and they've been there for 40 years. In the past 15 years a bunch of houses have gone up all around them and now these idiots who bought the new houses are complaining about the horse property due to the smell, flies, etc. What a bunch of crap! If it weren't for the people who own the horse property, the new people wouldn't even own their houses. Sometimes I get so screamin' mad I can't even think!!!! I better stop ...

You know, thats probably what happened.. some tree huggin' hippy pinko probably moved in and happened to notice during their weekly talk with the trees that there was a pile of evil industrial byproduct hoggin' up all the trees air, and decided to pen a strongly worded letter. (penned with soy ink and written on hemp paper, no doubt)

I'm all for trying to establish a balance with nature.. but i'm also all about an individuals personal property rights.

If they have solid data that suggests this womans junkpile is contaminating the watertable, then yes.. she needs to clean it the heck up.. otherwise, leave the lady alone.

I have been talking to an elderly owner of a boneyard near me for the last two years. He has at least one example of a 1970 3/4 automatic pickup with the correct pumpkin to give my 1 Ton a 4.10 ratio. He always tells me that he is waiting for his Son to help him move some things and then he will get it for me. I phoned him the other day and he said that he is not selling parts anymore because he is too old! All his cars and trucks are going for scrap!

All you people trying to dream up ways to help this lady are just peeing on a forest fire. This case is already gone. There are things you can do to help stop the disease though. But you have to get active to do it.

Here are some organizations I found listed in Hemmings.

Coalition for auto repair equality This site lists pending legislation by state and federal that affect our hobby. The coalition strives to insure anti-motorist legislation is not passed.

Citizens Against Repressive Zoning From their website: We commenced because of the many anti-automotive zoning codes and regulations foisted upon neighborhoods by unelected bureaucrats, which impacted the founders who all were car collectors and found these rules unreasonable and often illegal and unconstitutional.

This page from Classic Industries\' website has a very good article plus lists more organizations.

Let's get involved.

I agree with Fumblin, they should have to show hard data, that an enviromental risk does really exist. If that was their real concern, they would do more good to study each individual (potential risk) and offer a possible solution that would either eliminate or minimize each.

In my opinion, it is more about them trying to regulate something that is none of their business. If she and her junk were there first, she should have grandfathers rights, and they should leave her alone.

Now if there is real contamination that is spreading or is at risk of being spread to adjoining properties, that would be an entirely different situation.

The governmental agency that is flexing their muscle, had better have all of their ducks in a row. Because the way I see it, unless they have studied each and every other property for the same contamination risks, they are harrasing this woman, and should be sued for doing so.

The fact that she and a few others have been singled out, points to "Property Owner Profiling" based on their "outdoor collections or accumulations" that some view as being ugly and unattractive and therefore must be causing enviromental damage.

I would bet, that there is more continuous contamination from leaky vehicles, occuring daily in many Wal Mart parking lots accross the country. The difference between the two, would of course be that any contamination on her site, would most likely soak into her soil, and probably remain there for hundreds of years. Whereas parking lot runnoff occurs at each rainfall, and washes away into storm sewers, directly and immediately places all connected waterways at potential risk.

Gas&aspark, it is happening here also, there are rich greedy people(walmart?) here also. The tiny towns that can't mantain the streets they got wanna annex land all around for more Fed tax dollars. Then they start on the "improvements", one very poor family had to buy a lawnmower since they are "in town" now. I have lived out here 30 yrs & they never owned one, had animals to keep grass down(they are gone also, they had "improper" fencing). These folks lived like folks did 50 yrs ago, 2-3 acres of garden etc. Seems they should have that right. Brian

I'd use satelite imagery to locate large caches of old vehicles in my surrounding area, but out here, the images aren't that sharp.

I can make out canals, paved roads, and of course the missle silos, but since out here its mostly corn and pastures, they don't bother offering detailed images.

Fumblin46, you almost got it right. It was probably reported to the authorities by the pot growers who trespass on her property or those who ignore the no trespassing signs and stroll through her property like they own it, it happens to us all of the time with our property in St Helena. We even had some people on horseback open the gates and ride their horses on the property without permission and then argued with us when asked to leave.


BTW I found the address of the woman and will try and contact her, she lives near Olympia Washington. .....g