HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — With limited land, no impound lot and lack of enforcement, Guam keeps struggling to get rid of vehicles no one wants anymore, mayors said.
An abandoned Chevy sedan has been stripped and left on the side of a road in Tamuning, Guam.
Photo by David Castro/The Guam Daily Post
Residents pay into the Recycling Revolving Fund when they annually register their vehicles, but that’s just a tiny portion of at least $400 needed to haul and recycle each abandoned vehicle.
There are thousands of these vehicles annually, mayors said. But only hundreds of them can be removed with limited funding every year.
Mayors expect to receive the initial $500,000 from the Recycling Revolving Fund before the end of January, for removal and recycling of abandoned vehicles and used tires.
Each of the 19 villages, depending on their need, will be able to remove 40 to 100 abandoned vehicles using purchase orders, Mayors’ Council of Guam Executive Director Angel Sablan said Friday.
For bigger villages such as Dededo, Yigo, Barrigada and Mangilao, the volume of abandoned vehicles will far exceed the available funds to recycle them, mayors said.
“We are working to get the purchase orders to the mayors’ offices by the end of the month,” said mayors’ council resident Jesse Alig, who is also the mayor of Piti. “We appreciate the support of the governor and the Guam Environmental Protection Agency in executing this project to keep our island clean.”
‘They just ditch it’
It’s an all-too-familiar story of how old vehicles end up by the roadside, in the jungle or in people’s yards, said Asan-Maina Mayor Frankie Salas.
“Once they’re tired of driving it, they just ditch it by the side of the road,” Salas said. “If they can no longer afford to pay to fix it, they just abandon it.”
People try to scratch off the vehicle identification number when they ditch their old vehicle so it won’t be traced back to them, Mayor Salas said.
“But then they forgot there’s other parts of the car where their VIN can also be seen,” he said.
Even with the VIN intact, government agencies such as the Guam Police Department or the Department of Revenue and Taxation won’t necessarily devote the time to go after the people abandoning their cars, Salas said.
Solutions
Some mayors said those who make money out of cannibalizing cars and then dumping them for the government to haul and clean up should be assessed fees, if not fines.
Those that have multiple abandoned vehicles every year should be charged after the first or second vehicle, mayors said.
“We will never catch up because cars will be used until they can’t be used anymore,” Sinajana Mayor Robert Hofmann said. “Anyone should be able to call a number with an agency and have a vehicle removed and disposed of regularly, since the funding source is dedicated and paid into it.”
Hofmann, who is also the mayors’ council vice president, said this should be an as-needed service.
Using more government money to get rid of thousands of abandoned vehicles seems the easiest solution, but that also means taking funds from basic services such as public health, safety and security, and education, mayors said.
In Sinajana, there are 40 to 50 abandoned cars that Hofmann hopes will be removed in this recycling fund cycle, along with more than 100 tires.
“It’s a never-ending problem,” Yona Mayor Bill Quenga said. “But sometimes people need car parts so they remove from old vehicles. I understand that.”
Addressing the abandoned cars issue is tough, Quenga said, so he hopes that residents will work with mayors, vice mayors and their staff members.
Safety hazards
Mangilao Mayor Allan Ungacta said it seems like every time one abandoned vehicle is removed, two take its place.
People abandon their vehicles by the side of the road, he said, which poses safety hazards.
Some even ditch vehicles near school bus stops, so the Mangilao mayor has to haul them off to protect the children and motorists.
“People should be charged for arbitrarily placing cars on the side of the road. The VINs are most of the time still there to help track them down,” he said.
There are nearly 200 abandoned and junk vehicles and more than 60 used tires in Mangilao right now, he said.
Only a fraction of them can be removed using the incoming purchase orders, he said.
Like other mayors, Ungacta is worried that when people learn the recycling funds are released, residents will start abandoning their vehicles in public areas for the government to pick up.
There are just so many vehicles abandoned compared to the funds available to remove them, he said.
In Piti, residents should soon be able to request that the mayor add their old vehicles to the list of those that will be removed when the purchase orders arrive.
$1.3M this year
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero on Monday signed a memorandum of agreement between the Mayors’ Council of Guam and the Guam Environmental Protection Agency to initiate the mayors’ fiscal year 2021 islandwide environmental cleanup program.
Up to $1.3 million is allocated for the program, and the Guam EPA board approved the initial release of $500,000.
The Department of Administration is still uploading the $500,000 in the system, before purchase orders can be released to mayors, Sablan of the mayors’ council said.
This time around, mayors will have more time to use the purchase orders for vehicle removal. They have until Sept. 30 to use them, unlike last year when they had only weeks to complete the tasks.
But Guam EPA also requires that mayors or their staff members, as well as the haulers and recyclers of abandoned vehicles, first complete an orientation on the use of the recycling fund before any purchase order can be released.
Sablan said the orientation for mayors and staff was held Thursday, while the one for vendors will be held Tuesday.
