Court slams brakes on cleanup

By ROBERT FARLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 25, 2001

OZONA -- After more than three years of legal battles, Pinellas County began removing vehicles from John Schestag's property Wednesday.

First a Saab, then a 1959 pickup truck, then a Cadillac Eldorado.

But neighbors who had long complained about the dozens of old boats and cars on Schestag's property on Orange Street had little time to rejoice.

Shortly after code enforcement and towing company workers arrived Wednesday morning, Schestag headed to the federal courthouse in Tampa and hand-wrote a nine-page complaint saying the county's move was illegal and improper.

At 3:50 p.m., Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich issued a temporary restraining order stopping the cleanup until a hearing at 11 a.m. today.

County officials say the boats and cars on Schestag's two properties amount to junk and are illegal on residential property.

Schestag contends his property has been used commercially for decades, and the boats and cars are part of a restoration business.

"They don't call my boats and cars boats and cars, they call them debris, trash and refuse," he said.

When 15 citations failed to get Schestag to clear the property, Assistant County Attorney Jewel White Cole filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court to force Schestag to clear it.

In November, a judge ordered the county to have the property cleared, and to bill Schestag for the job.

Schestag filed a motion for a rehearing but was denied. He appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, and a hearing on that motion is pending. In the meantime, Cole decided to move forward with the lower court order to clear the property.

Cole said she's confident Schestag's motion for a rehearing will fail because it was not filed within the required 10 days.

Cole said it will cost about $13,400 to remove the boats and cars. She estimated it would take about two days to remove about 18 vehicles from Schestag's property. Cole said another company is scheduled to come to the property on Monday to crush all of the inoperable boats and haul them to a landfill.

"It is an illegal search and seizure and confiscation of my property," Schestag said. "I haven't had my day in court."

Schestag said he thinks the county's actions are fueled by his stated intent to use the two properties as the site for a halfway house for former prisoners. He also contends county officials have purposely scheduled hearings when he is getting cancer treatments. His complaint in federal court includes several letters from doctors saying Schestag is battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma and that the stress of the court cases is harming his recovery.

"They are literally killing me," Schestag said.

Schestag said he will ask the court today to return the vehicles at the county's expense.

Pinellas County Code Enforcement Supervisor Larry Lara said the vehicles were impounded but had not been destroyed. He said only inoperable or unregistered vehicles will be removed.

"Most of these (vehicles) have been around a very long time," Lara said. "Some of them have grass growing up through them."

County mosquito control officials also were at Schestag's property on Wednesday to work up a plan to remove hundreds of tires stored there."

Harold Hatcher, whose property abuts Schestag's, said he was glad to see the county finally take direct action to clear the property.

"It shouldn't have taken this long," Hatcher said.

Carl Jackson of Ozona said he isn't taking sides, but as a former junk dealer, he understands the desire to collect old cars and boats.

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