Haines Borough Manager David Sosa is fining property owner Paul Nelson for failing to comply with the assembly’s order to remove improperly processed glass fill from his Skyline Estates lot within 10 days.
Nelson has complied with the assembly’s directive to cap the site’s foundation, which contains the illegal fill, but he hasn’t completely disposed of the rest of the fill on the property, Sosa said.
Sosa said the borough will fine Nelson $300 per day until removal is complete.
“My initial decision is that the job was not completed in the timeline established by the assembly, so based off of that I directed (the) planning (department) to issue another fine of $300,” Sosa said in an interview Tuesday.
Sosa said a member of the facilities department will check on Nelson’s property every day until the fill is removed.
Mayor Stephanie Scott said she asked Sosa to consider asking the assembly to give Nelson an extension. “I know that (Nelson) has been working hard to achieve the standard and I’m just wondering if the 10-day timeline was made somewhat arbitrarily by people who had no knowledge of what it would take to remedy the situation,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
“I know the manager is worried about the borough standing firm in its efforts to get people to comply with reasonable rules and he doesn’t want to signal that the borough won’t stand firm,” Scott said. “I’m wondering if justice needs to be tempered a little bit here because we may have set a timeline that is too stiff.”
At Tuesday’s assembly meeting, though, Sosa didn’t ask for consideration of an extension and informed the group he had made the decision to impose the maximum $300 per day fine.
The matter came before the assembly this month after Nelson appealed a decision by planning and zoning technician Tracy Cui ordering Nelson to cease dumping immediately and to correct the violations.
Numerous Skyline Estates residents turned out at the June 10 assembly meeting to testify that Nelson’s fill contained large, jagged shards of glass, plastic bottles and other illegal materials.
The Department of Environmental Conservation issued Nelson a cease-and-desist order last year after receiving complaints about the fill and conducting a site visit. Nelson stopping accepting glass at Acme Transfer for a time, but then posted a sign stating only “clean glass” was allowed to be dumped in the pit.