Michael J. Elsenpeter wrote a wonderful letter to the editor last week and I just wanted to thank him for the empathy and wisdom that letter showed. There’s been many people who have stopped by and / or shared their anger with me over what this new city council has done. When Mayor Lynn Kissock signed the order for junk masters to start stealing and/ or destroying my possessions, to hold for ransom at the tune of a quarter of a million dollars, it blindsided me because with the first bid which was so way out of line, our city attorney assured me that in no way the city interested in “bankrupting or destroying me.” Turns out to be pretty far from the truth.Our mayor and the council were advised this would fall back on the taxpayers, at least in the short term, but as one city administrator said, “They just don’t care!” For starters, apparently no one vetted junk masters to get a correct count on the number of cars to be taken….”50 cars @$450 each.” Why wouldn’t that have caused alarm. As a former council member recently said, regarding this council, “why would you throw one of your own council members under the bus?” Of course, that wasn’t referring to me but instead to a good friend on the council who had an altercation with a town baseball legend, who was allowed to read his letter to the editor, to the council at the 5-minute open forum. No matter, why would anyone put a resident of our community through two weeks of hell costing thousands upon thousands of dollars, to clean up a perceived “junkyard,’ when that resident is a continually complying fellow council member with the best interests of our community at stake too? One of the condescending council members made the statement, you have made progress but it’s too little, too late.
I don’t understand why this new council is not required to honor past commitments I made with other councils, to do what even I agreed needing doing, to avoid court. At the museum/ flea market, I purchased trailers for temporary outdoor storage, removing piles of boxed tarped items from pallets to those newly purchased trailers. I expanded and completed the flea market stockade privacy fence. I repeatedly asked, “…what more do you want me to do. List 5 items you need me to have done that we all can agree on. May I purchase two 40-foot container units to place south of the stockade, like are used around the city by others, for outdoor storage.” I had leads on two at $2000 each. Our code enforcement officer, Tracy Reimann, was to check if that latter item would conflict with any of our ordinances and when I brought the matter up again, he said it did but couldn’t show me which ordinance it conflicted with. He stated he was unaware such units were all over our community than said, “I guess we’ll have to ask the owners to remove them.” He never responded to why my flea market inventory of mowers and items inside the stockade had to be kept inside a building, yet the lumber yard and lawn mower implement dealer in town didn’t have to house their inventories, accordingly. At my home I moved my woodpile, from 7 feet from my house to the required 10 feet, replanted the road construction city portion of a destroyed screening hedge in front of my home, to once again screen that area from street level public view. I was told screened areas preventing street level viewing was a satisfactory way of dealing with perceived nuisances. Somehow, that took on new meaning with this new council in that businesses and homeowners apparently now need to screen from elevators, drones, and/ or other aerial viewing. Throughout this whole process, I was told I could not bring a request for ordinance reform to the floor without a second council person agreeing to have this done. So many have stated our antiquated and unfair nuisance ordinance is long overdue, for replacing. The League of Minnesota cities provided me with a simple 7–8-page “model nuisance ordinance” for the council to review and hopefully accept. No way apparently because this council likes their twice as long ordinance, to lock people into expensive lawsuits and chaos. This council has no concern about spending taxpayer money frivolously, as my experience with them has shown. Our mayor says if we’re not required to get bids to get the best deal, we should move forward with one bid.
So, folks, there you have it. I have been way too busy trying to save my flea market inventory, museum static display treasures, and simple possessions that I have spent thousands of hours sorting, inventorying, and/ or securing. The heavy-handed intrusion by junk masters has destroyed so many things. At the museum/ flea market, they came in and literally took anything “that could potentially harbor vermin.” Of course, we all know that means the court will look the other way as they pick and choose what they want to take and while on occasion, they’d concede to allow something to be retained, way more often, the answer was, “…no John, we’re taking it”. They pushed collector licensed vehicles around like routine junk, springing frames and running tires off their rims, etc. They almost succeeded in taking the huge SOO LINE sign that once stood over the trestle south of town but with the help of three volunteers, we saved it for future restoration and placement. My son’s two large box trucks that he loaned me for temporary storage were hauled away, despite his angry and threatened retaliatory response intentions. The donated Viking RV was loaded and taken. I stood my ground on their taking the “thrifty van” airport people mover and two huge safes, which they still argue that they have the right to take. They took the Dr. Smorstock memorial bench by the museum entrance, but I managed to retrieve Dr. Smorstock’s shingle. The bench was apparently destroyed along with a beautiful plate glass table, also by the pop machines, scattering glass all over the sidewalk. No seating was allowed to remain for pop customers to sit down on and enjoy their Pepsi. All concrete urns and flowerpots were taken and destroyed…. Apparently, a total of 35 dumpsters were filled… not with garbage or junk in violation of the nuisance ordinance, but that instead could quickly add up to a hefty poundage total. Contrary to their contract with the city, while so many things were being destroyed, I begged the sheriff’s dept to intervene when I got little help from the city administrator or the city attorney. They said they couldn’t help but encouraged me to take lots of pictures, which I did. Like I said, two weeks of hell. One stretch was a 48-hour one, with no sleep. At home, I was told if it’s not nailed down or hanging from your home, we’re going to take it. All my storage cabinets, several which I quickly fastened to the spiral staircase, attached to my house, were taken with thousands of dollars’ worth of aftermarket car parts and lubricants. I was allowed to keep one huge picnic table but all slabs of granite on that table and on others, were taken. Since they get paid by the weight, it appeared they were looking for steel / iron and concrete / rock, to keep their thumb on the scale for self-serving reasons. One of the ten dumpsters was filled with concrete brick and rocks. The brick from my screening outer wall at the entrance to my home for at least the last 10 years, was toppled and taken. All my picnic tables with cat cages on them were taken from my front yard. They even threatened to take Cuddles and the boys, “condominium” – you folks who so often stop by to visit them, will understand. Weed whips and hundreds of dollars’ worth of garden and lawn maintenance tools were taken. The excuse for destroying so much was that if things were piled over the walls of the container units, the front-end loader would pack everything down so they could “plastic wrap” that unit effectively. Finally, I want to thank those of you who offered and delivered help during this horrible time I went through. The caddy remarks on Facebook of me being a “hoarder” (not a collector) and the gleeful thumbs up by some of you “gawkers” can be overlooked. Even you “vultures” looking to benefit with a fire sale purchase or an outright donation, when a man is down, can be overlooked because I have had volunteer help arrive daily and at the most opportune times. There are so many good people in this community and in this world. Two of these volunteers came for two weekends, from Hastings, of all places, expecting no pay or gas money. Imagine that? We rescued a lot and were able to get it out of Maple Lake to my home in Hasty, where a very understanding township board took note of what was happening, expressed their concern for my efforts and wellbeing, yet simply asked that I abide by their county enforced ordinances. Obviously, that is something I intend to do but “Haack haters” definitely have caught their ear. Those in town who allowed me to place endangered items on their lawn or parking lot (areas) were threatened by our code enforcer with citations for being good Samaritans. Anyway, it is hoped that I can finally return my trailers back from the elevator to my loading dock, south of my building. There are so many wrongs that need to be righted, and I look forward to my August 16 court date with Judge Tenney. Projecting beyond that, I look forward to my appeal with the MN Appellate Court, perhaps even the MN Supreme Court. I have spent hundreds of hours in the Wright County Law Library where they have also been so helpful. I’d like to repeat Mike’s final comment in his letter. “When will they come after you…..” Yes indeed, they say I’m a test case. When you read this, the deadline will be over, filing for a new council. I have filed for council, but I understand two new people have also filed so between now and tomorrow, the question will be, are these people truly interested in ordinance reform and the drastic reduction of unnecessary legal fees and taxpayer financed clean up fees. If I can say yes to that, I may withdraw my council application and file to give you all a choice for Mayor, you all knowing how opposed I have been to this entire debacle that was so unnecessary and not something one should, without careful vetting, permit to go forward under pressure from a self-appointed vigilante business community spreading fear and hysteria or a few out of the closet Haack haters doing all they can, to make things happen like have been happening here.
John Haack
Maple Lake