Taken to the ultimate woodshed, a man sheds light on his compulsive collecting and all the projects he planned someday.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published November 13, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Silvio Rosalen said he had a plan for every stick of lumber in his yard.
He was going to build a woodworking shed. Maybe some flower boxes for his landscaped yard. And barbecuing - he needed kindling on hand for that.
He gathered stacks of salvaged wood from a neighbor in the construction business. He filled his garage with wood, then piled it in his yard, storing planks in wheelbarrows and timber under tarps.
Over the past few years, Rosalen slowed down and the wood piled up. High blood pressure, diabetes and bouts of depression took their toll, he said. The shed he started in 2000 sits half-finished behind his home at 4638 Naftis Lane in New Port Richey.
Rosalen, 62, sits in jail.
"I agree there was a violation, but I had a purpose," said Rosalen, who is serving a 15-day sentence for contempt of court for failing to clean up his yard as a judge ordered.
"It was not for the sake of collecting, collecting and not doing anything."
Rosalen is one of the first people to go to jail under the county's revamped code enforcement system, which sends violators to a county judge instead of a lay-member board. Violators used to face fines and liens on their properties. Now they can go to jail if they fail to comply with a judge's order to fix the problem.
Commissioner Peter Altman questioned last week whether Rosalen's case is accomplishing anything, however. After the deadlines pass and the jail time ends, the woodpiles remain.
"I would prefer not to be on a county commission that prefers to incarcerate somebody," Altman told the Pasco Times last week. "I would prefer to solve the problem we're out there to solve."
County Judge William Sestak ordered Rosalen to clear the heaps of lumber in his back yard in March. Deadlines passed, but the debris remained.
Rosalen said he threw out the rotting lumber, enough to fill two or three pickup trucks, but kept the good wood for his shed. He also held on to the buckets collecting rainwater for his plants and a pair of old bathtubs he converted into goldfish ponds.
He made some progress on the shed but said he had been too tired to finish it. Sestak found him in contempt of court Oct. 13, and Rosalen started his sentence Nov. 3.
"I don't have contempt for the court. I have contempt for this judge," Rosalen said Tuesday from an interview room at the county jail in Land O'Lakes. "He never took it upon himself to say, "There's something wrong with this man. Let me talk to him alone.' "
Rosalen admitted he grew "obsessed with possessions" after losing everything in the breakup of his marriage in the 1980s. The home in New Jersey, the belongings, the three children - everything stayed with his wife, he said.
Rosalen, a Swiss immigrant and U.S. Army veteran fluent in four languages, started snatching up other people's castoffs to furnish his New Port Richey home.
"I didn't have money to buy things," said Rosalen, a former tool-and-die maker who works odd jobs to make ends meet. "I didn't collect garbage per se. I just collected things I could use in the house."
His next-door neighbor, Larry Walker, said the woodpiles are a fire hazard and a breeding ground for rats.
County officials share that concern. They are consulting with the Pasco County Health Department to determine whether the property poses a threat to public health, said Joe Gross, the county's assistant zoning and code compliance administrator.
If it does, the county would give Rosalen 14 days to clean it up, Gross said. If the mess remained, county crews or a county-hired contractor could clear away the debris and send Rosalen a bill for the work, Gross said. The bill would become a lien if Rosalen didn't pay up.
"He's been through our typical process: the warnings, the citations, the orders from the judge, and that hasn't proven effective," Gross said.
Rosalen's sentence ends Nov. 18, and he plans to start working on the shed once he repairs his freezer. He doesn't understand the rush to finish his building project and scrap the wood by someone else's deadline.
He doesn't know why a "sloppy yard" should put him behind bars.
"I have never done a criminal act of any kind, never been in jail," Rosalen said. "I've had a few traffic violations, yeah, but nothing criminal. This is a nightmare."
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com
