SILVANA – James Deming’s front yard has a maze of machinery, hardware and hundreds of castoffs most people would send to the dump or Goodwill.
But for Deming, most everything is a useful treasure.
“I don’t like to get rid of anything that’s got a use,” said Deming, 79. “I bought the stuff and it’s mine.”
The scrap wood? “Good for tying down a load in a pickup.”
A stack of old tires? “They’ll do a good job holding down the plastic on the roof.”
The truck engine in the driveway? “It shouldn’t have to go to the dump. I don’t think it’s that bad of an engine.”
Deming has amassed his collection over 40 years. He paid either bargain prices at sales or stores or found it on the side of the road.
Snohomish County officials take a stricter view of Deming’s collection.
“It’s very clearly a junkyard. Almost the entire five acres is covered in junk and we think it’s pretty dangerous,” said Craig Ladiser, director of county planning and development services.
“We want this guy cleaned up.”
Such collections are a growing concern in rural areas as new housing developments are built near once-secluded properties piled high with possessions, said Mike McCrary, county inspection and enforcement manager.
“As people move out into the rural areas, we see this occurring much more,” McCrary said. “Many of the complaints we get, people are concerned about property values.”
Someone complained to the county about Deming’s property in February. Since then, officials have been trying to persuade Deming to clean up.
Failing that, Deming has racked up more than $10,000 in fines dating back to April 19.
“I don’t think it’s right, especially for a poor person,” Deming said.
Deming agrees he needs help getting rid of some of the garbage. However, the building supplies and machinery on the property are perfectly usable.
And his two Ford pickups are in the middle of delicate engine transplant surgery.
“It ain’t a junkyard, it’s my stuff,” he said.
He jokes that the maze of cages, bins and bedframes serves as a security measure.
“A burglar has to get around all this stuff and he won’t make it,” he said.
Still, Deming admits he’s a pack rat. His house is full, too.
“Almost anybody that was raised in the Depression that was poor will not get rid of anything,” he said. “I save string if it’s good – even if I won’t use it.”
Deming was born in 1928 and grew up in Edmonds. He said he served two years overseas during the Korean War and later worked for Boeing and selling Electrolux vacuums door-to-door.
He moved to Silvana in 1968.
For years he tilled farmland until his tractor broke down.
He never married, and now spends his days caring for his golden Labrador retriever, Nutmeg, and Chihuahua, Sam.
He said he collects about $800 a month between his Social Security and Army pension.
What little he buys, he said, he wants to keep.
Deming can’t even toss old light bulbs or trash because he canceled his garbage service. He said he did it because he prefers to pay his bills in person, and the garbage hauler’s offices moved to Bothell – too far to drive.
Deming said money is tight. He subsists on a gallon of milk a day mixed with strawberry Quik and protein powder.
“That’s what keeps me alive,” he said. “That and fruit bars for my fruit.”
He wears three pairs of socks to cushion his painful calluses. He struggles with diabetes.
A tour of his property shows his best intentions yet unfulfilled.
Deming’s property is just one of 150 to 250 complaints the county gets a year for properties littered with cars or other junk.
Most property owners clean up voluntarily.
For the rest, the county has a $150,000 budget to pay for forced cleanups. The bill then gets tacked onto the property as a lien.
Last fall, the county got a court order and spent $22,500 to haul tons of debris and junk cars to the dump from a Monroe property.
Word of the county enforcement spread to other property owners on the county’s short list, and they quickly toed the line, McCrary said.
Deming didn’t answer the county’s letters, McCrary said.
Deming has a hearing next month with the county hearing examiner. Depending on how that goes, the county might take steps to seek a Superior Court order to truck away Deming’s belongings in garbage containers.
Deming dismisses the county’s concerns that public safety is at stake.
“It’s not going to hurt anybody, unless it blows away in a storm,” Deming said.
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