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Previously:

• Defendants Plead Guilty, One Sentenced, In October Assault of Solid Waste Director At Landfill

• Following Solid Waste Director's Assault, Staff, Residents Tell Commissioners The Former Landfill Has Become A 'War Zone'

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Nearly six months after its director was assaulted, the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority will assume ownership of the property associated with the crime — one that has long been a source of problems for staff monitoring the Crescent City Landfill.

But though the price tag on the tax-defaulted parcel at 2550 Old Mill Road is $5,000, DNSWMA Directors anticipate further costs to clear away the blight and secure the property.

“As I was in court on the hearing for my assailant at that time, and as the court was in recess, I received word there was an RV on fire on that property,” Director Tedd Ward told authority directors on Tuesday. “The burnt-out hull of that RV still remains on that property and will need to be removed.”

The DNSWMA Board of Directors unanimously approved a Chapter 8 Sale of that Old Mill Road parcel. The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors must also approve the sale as will the State Controller, according to Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara M. Lopez.

In a Nov. 16 email to Ward, Lopez mentioned an executive order halting the sale of foreclosed homes. But, she noted, the property is “bare land and no one is being evicted.”

According to Lopez, the owners owe $52,069.04 in back property taxes. She said they have up until the day before the sale to pay their back taxes and prevent the transaction.
On Tuesday, Ward said the amount of those back taxes was now $58,000.

On Oct. 8, Ward sustained broken ribs and a collapsed lung following an encounter with Sparky-Lee Wyatt Phillips and Wendy Lannett DeWolf on Heights Access Road near the landfill. Both pleaded guilty in December to robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. During the encounter, Phillips had stolen Ward’s house keys.

Following the assault, residents living near the former landfill described the 167-acre county-owned property as a “war zone” rife with illegal bonfires, gunshots, accumulated trash and other debris.

The vandalism and theft has jeopardized habitat restoration work in the area, Tolowa Dunes Stewards director and Ward’s wife, Sandra Jerabek, told directors at an Oct. 22 meeting.

Solid Waste employee Kyra Seymour, who inspects and oversees maintenance at the landfill, told directors that she had encountered people coming onto the landfill with rifles and stated one of them pointed a rifle at her.

Ward’s attack could have happened to any DNSWMA employee, Seymour told directors on Oct. 22.

On Tuesday, Ward said the 2550 Old Mill Road property is on eof the primary ways for people to access the landfill. He said he couldn’t give a cost estimate as to how much property fencing and gating would cost the authority, but he said the parcel will be managed as part of the larger landfill.

New DNSWMA Director Darrin Short, a volunteer firefighter with the Crescent Fire Protection District, said he responded to the RV fire that Ward spoke of.

“It appears there’s quite a few squatters on that property,” Short said. “We are kind of jumping in with both feet into a situation that is going to be cumbersome for awhile, but there’s still value in creating that buffer to Heights Access Road.”

Both Short and Ward suggested using K rail to close the property to trespassers.

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