Bedford board satisfied with Mulch King progress

TEMPERANCE -- Bedford Township is ready to work with a local business to help it move forward from its past compliance issues.

During its June 7 meeting, the Bedford Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to take no legal action against The Mulch King, located at 110 Smith Rd., in Temperance. The 7-0 vote follows a long-running exchange between the board, Bedford’s Building and Planning Department and Andrew Nycz, owner of The Mulch King, over numerous compliance issues.

During its May 10 meeting, the board voted to give Nycz an ultimatum – either bring the business into compliance by June 1 or face legal action, including possible suspension of operations. Points of contention included a large supply of salt storage onsite being ineligible for retail sale, high piles of mulch and materials, and a structure that had not yet been approved by the planning officials.

Bedford Planning & Zoning Administrator Jodie Rector appeared before the board during the meeting to give an update on Nycz’s progress. She said that the department did a site visit on June 2 to check on progress.

“At that time, for several of the items, the site had substantially come into compliance with the site plan,” Rector said. “There are several items – minor items – that need to be addressed.”

Rector explained that even though Nycz was not 100-percent in compliance at the time of the visit, she felt that most of the necessary progress was made and did not want to make the call for immediate legal action.

“We felt that the best action was to bring it back to the board (and) advise of all the items that had been brought into compliance,” she explained.

Among the remaining minor issues to resolve is finalizing compliance approval for the building used to store Nycz’s salt supply. Rector’s office issued a temporary Certificate of Occupancy during her June 2 inspection of the grounds until the work is done.

Rector also explained that Nycz will be allowed to keep his current salt supply as long as it is only for personal use.

Trustee Joe Gore raised questions about the amount of salt still being stored, suggesting that the nearly 1,000 tons currently onsite is much more than needed for any kind of personal use.

Trustee Rick Steiner said that he shared Gore’s concern about the amount of salt onsite. Steiner added that Nycz had around 500 tons of salt onsite before taking another shipment of 500 tons in December. Steiner said that when he asked about the additional order for salt that he could not sell, Nycz answered that he could not cancel the order at that time.

Township Supervisor Paul Pirrone noted that Nycz’s personal use also includes salt used for his snow-plowing business.

“He could go through quite a bit in a season,” Pirrone said.

Rector said that she had spoken to Nycz about this concern, and after legal consultation, she determined that using salt for snow plowing was allowable.

Acknowledging some previous confusion about the salt bin structure, Rector said that the storage building was in the site plan, but retail sales of any salt are strictly not allowed.

Rector said that Nycz has satisfied other requirements, such as material pile heights. She reported that he has brought down all pile heights under the 12-foot threshold but explained that some leaf and brush piles have some flexibility for exceeding that height while they are prepared for creating mulch.

During the meeting’s public commentary time, Lambertville resident Ken Gonyea asked why the contention between The Mulch King and the township was not an issue when the business opened.

“There has been a lot of time spent talking about Mulch King the last few months,” he said. “Why was he ever allowed to open before he got declined? Andy would have never opened if he was not in compliance. I don’t understand why there’s been so much money and time spent going back and forth. If he wasn’t in compliance, he should have been shut down 4 ½ years ago.”

To answer his question, Pirrone said that it was a board decision to let him open out of necessity, since the board had been receiving complaints about smells coming from dumpsters that were previously housed behind the Bedford Township Government Center on Jackman Rd. Pirrone said that allowing The Mulch King to open provided a place for people to bring their brush and yard waste.

“This was an option for residents to keep being able to dump their leaves and grass and sticks without putting the dumpsters in the back again,” Pirrone said. “The dumpsters were a hazard (and) they were a liability, and Andrew was kind enough to open his facility for us to be able to utilize.”

Pirrone then added that despite the help that The Mulch King provided, the board did not anticipate so many compliance issues.

“We didn’t know it was going to turn into this,” Pirrone said. “Nobody did.”

Steiner acknowledged that The Mulch King property has undergone substantial improvements recently.

“The site does look a heck of a lot better,” he said. “It’s starting to look nice over there.”

“From day one, nobody on this board wanted to shut him down,” Steiner added. “That was not our ultimate goal. The goal was to get the property in compliance, and it shouldn’t have taken the ultimatum of ‘either do it, or else.’ It should have been done years ago.”

During the meeting, several board members noted that they would need to vote to stop any possible legal action, since its May 10 vote directed that Rector and the planning department should do so had Nycz not satisfied the compliance requirements by the deadline.

Attorney Martin Kamprath, working in partnership with Township Attorney Phil Goldsmith, helped clarify whether or not a vote was necessary, and he shed some light on why Rector and Goldsmith had not taken legal action immediately.

Kamprath explained that, after visiting The Mulch King site on June 2, Rector met with Goldsmith to discuss how to proceed next. Kamprath said that his office did not see a need to take swift legal action, since Nycz was so close to being fully compliant.

“At that point in time, Phil didn’t rush to the courthouse with a violation,” he said. “The site has come into substantial compliance.”

Rector said that while she was grateful that the site has been brought into compliance, she could not make a final decision because the site technically was not in full compliance on June 2 as directed by the board.

“However, I feel that the applicant has done his share of work and the board has done their share of work,” she said. “We should try to move forward with these minor amendments.”

Rector said that, moving forward, the building department has clearly advised Nycz that anything not produced onsite, such as wood chipping and other mulch products, cannot be sold at retail.

Rector added that she told Nycz that he should reach out to her department if he has any questions about what is or is not allowed.

“We can work together and make that determination before he brings the items onsite, so there is no more product being brought on that he cannot sell.”

“I’m glad to see that he’s this close (to compliance),” Pirrone added. “Hopefully, you can go out there…and see that it is completed and be done with it.”

Trustee Todd Bruning echoed Pirrone’s satisfaction with progress.

“I’m happy that we’re there.”

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Bedford board satisfied with Mulch King progress