PANAMA CITY — Although the plague of rats and roaches streaming from a former dump has decreased, the community that dealt with the vermin for years say there still is work to be done.
Neighboring residents and city officials agreed the $50,000 Panama City put up to clear the towering mounds of trash on the Coyote Disposal Facility at 2101 E. Ninth St. was one of the most worthy expenses in the city’s history.
Residents filed various nuisance complaints over the years with little response to the insects and rodents roaming the streets, prompting health and public safety concerns. Despite recently removing the trash, residents say that mending the years of neglect is far from over.
“We consider that money well-spent,” John Bruce Sr. said of the city’s contribution. “They’ve gotten rid of where they were breeding, but the problem is still there. You still have the buildings for (pests) to take shelter, and those shelters could bring snakes looking for a meal.”
Earlier this month, Panama City commissioners denied plans to commercialize a property at 2209 E. Ninth St. for being near the former Coyote dump. Port City Investments applied for the change, and representatives of the company declined to comment at the time. However, neighboring residents objected to the change without specific plans for what would be developed on the land.
“What would benefit this community are more beautiful houses,” said James Barker, one of the residents. “Create an oasis of houses that would improve the community.”
Barker and Bruce also raised concerns about traffic endangering children near the entrance of Joe Moody Harris Park.
After commissioners denied the land-use change, Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki instructed the city’s attorney to try to recoup the money spent on the cleanup by placing a lien on the Coyote property. However, he said the city probably would be last in a long line of other creditors.
“This guy, from a business standpoint, was a scoundrel, to put it mildly,” Brudnicki said of Coyote’s owner in an interview. “We’d love to recoup something, but he probably wouldn’t pay Jesus on a court order.”
Attempts to contact owner Todd Schweizer for comment were unsuccessful. Phones were no longer in service for Coyote Land Co. in Navarre.
Three government agencies collaborated in June 2013 to get to dump cleared after the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) deemed it an environmental hazard and closed it in August 2011.
Coyote Land Co. operated the 19,300-cubic-yard dump, along with four others around the state, and was supposed to clear out all the waste after it was shut down. It didn’t happen.
Almost a year later, Bay County and the city each agreed to cover $50,000 of the cost to remove the waste. DEP bore the rest of the $680,000 bill and cleanup concluded in October.
Brudnicki was wary of a lien, which could land the property in the city’s possession and open a trove of costly issues the city would have to correct. With the city considering placing nuisance fees on property taxes, Brudnicki said the city likely could recoup the money while avoiding taking the property in lieu of payment.
How much the contamination has limited development of the properties surrounding the former dump is difficult to determine because DEP has not taken groundwater assessments recently. But whoever approaches the city for a development order would need to be vetted by the neighboring residents, Brudnicki said.
“Anything (neighboring residents) say is going to affect the commission’s decisions because for so long they were burdened with that problem,” he said. “I would hate to see anything go in there that would be unsightly, loud, dirty or negatively impact that neighborhood again.”
Single-family homes would be ideal, residents say, but something simple in the meantime would be a step in the right direction.
“As much foot-traffic as we have in this neighborhood, I would imagine sidewalks would be priority number one,” Bruce said.