HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Elizabeth Toves Kang has been trying to get old vehicles left by people unknown to her off of her CHamoru Land Trust lot in Dededo.
Calls and visits to the Dededo Mayors Office have been futile, she told The Guam Daily Post after seeing a local company pick up abandoned vehicles that looked to be marked for removal.
“They always tell me no funds, no funds. And look at they’re going to take these cars,” she said, waving at a towing company removing abandoned vehicles on the side of the road in Dededo. “And I’ve already been waiting three years.”
The Guam Daily Post called the Dededo Mayor’s Office but was referred by Mayor Melissa Savares to Mayors Council Executive Director Angel Sablan whom she said is overseeing the program.
Sablan said in a situation where a landowner has abandoned vehicles left on their property, they first have to notify their respective mayors.
“If it’s on private property the resident must sign a waiver of liability to release the vehicle,” he said, adding that Dededo is a very large village.
“They only get a max of 100 cars whenever funds are available. Dededo has exhausted their allocation. The only cars being picked up by my office now are those abandoned on village streets,” he stated.
“Right now almost every village has exhausted their (purchase orders) for abandoned vehicles. We have removed close to 1,000 vehicles to the processing centers since March of this year.”
Sablan said at this stage, he would recommend the resident get a receipt of when she requested the removal and go back to the mayor’s office. The next round of abandoned vehicle pick-up is expected to start again soon, he said.
But Kang said she’s been to the mayor’s office at least three times in the last three years whenever she hears the program is up and running. She’s also signed papers letting them know that the abandoned vehicles “were set on my lot and they’re not my cars.”
“The last (conversation) they told me to pull it out — why am I going to pull it out when it’s not even my cars,” she said.
“I feel disgusted,” she said, adding how her property used to look “really nice.”
“I had a bulldozer come out and make it nice,” she added. “It’s so ugly now…and I don’t want the Land Trust people to take my land. I want to build me something but I can’t build…when there’s a lot of cars that’s not even mine.”
Kang said the vehicles showed up shortly after she cleaned the lot.
She said whoever is dumping the vehicles is ramming the chains she placed in hopes of securing the area and to let people know the lot is private property.
“And I can’t even do anything because they’re abandoned those cars…and I think it’s more than six,” she said.
She added that in addition to the abandoned vehicles, she’s also discovered old tires discarded on her property.
EPA recourse
Nicholas Lee, Guam Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson, said EPA recommends to property owners who find abandoned vehicles on their lots to first go to their respective mayor’s office for assistance with disposal.
If that doesn’t work, then they can call Guam EPA and they would track down the last known owners of the vehicles to remove them.
There have been instances, however, when they’ve contacted the registered owners of the vehicle, only to find out that the vehicles were sold to another person who didn’t register the vehicle, he said. Guam EPA will then have to track down that person.
When asked if previous efforts have typically worked out for private landowners, Lee acknowledged that’s not always the case.
New program in October
Sablan said they will be starting a new cycle of picking up abandoned vehicles in October, which is the start of the new fiscal year.
The Mayors Council typically announces the start of the program for the year.
However, Sablan added a reminder that the vendors won’t pick up vehicles filled with trash because recycling centers won’t accept vehicles with trash in it.
March is when the funds were first made available to mayors.
Sablan said currently they’re concentrating on white goods and green waste with the funds they have available. That process will end Sept. 30.
Dededo resident Elizabeth Toves Kang points to the junk vehicles dumped on the lot provided to her by the CHamoru Land Trust.
