In Jeff Dinwiddie's absence, Palmer District Court Judge Greg Heath upheld the borough's claim that the estimated 30 dump truck loads of steaming horse manure and grass clippings the contractor hauled to a prominent Valley spot violated its junk and trash law.
An employee at Alaska Trailblazing Inc., Dinwiddie's other business, said he was out of town and expected back Monday. He had initially been expected to return this week, but he extended his absence by a week, the employee said.
According to the borough, Dinwiddie hauled the manure to the Valley from a composting facility he ran in Anchorage near Huffman Road this year. Neighbors there had complained of the smell and Anchorage municipal officials gave Dinwiddie a deadline by which the odor had to disappear.
A few days before that deadline, trucks began dumping their reeking loads at a landscaping business -- Evergreen Landscaping and Nursery -- that he opened on a former potato field at the busy Trunk Road and Palmer-Wasilla Highway intersection.
Complaints quickly started rolling in about that spot too, Mat-Su code compliance officer Kendra Johnson said last week. Rochelle MacKenzie, owner of Krazy Beans Espresso, the coffee shack that shares the potato field with Evergreen, said she didn't complain, but the stench drove her customers away. Justin Weisz, manager of Three Bears, the discount grocery store across the highway, said the smell, at its height in the early morning hours, was enough to make him gag.
The borough gave Dinwiddie a few days to haul the offending manure away. When he failed to, he was slapped with two citations. The second was for running a commercial business without a proper land use permit.
Dinwiddie challenged the citations and the piles remained in place.
Heath sided with the borough on both charges and now the fines are piling up fast. Dinwiddie owes the borough $300 for each citation, plus $20 in court fees and $50 for failing to show up in court.
The ruling opens the door to even bigger fines down the road if the piles stay. Borough code compliance officer Pamela Ness said the borough would fine Dinwiddie $500 for every day he fails to move the manure. He could face another $500 for each day he runs his business without the proper permit.
Ness said Dinwiddie's plan to run a composting facility could work in the borough "if he has an appropriate place to do it."
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