Joe Davis’s battle with Bloomington officials over what they call junk and he calls building materials and treasures came to a head this week when city workers and a lawyer arrived to initiate the process of removing items that filled four dump trucks.
As the abatement ordered by Bloomington’s Board of Public Works and supported by a court ruling issued Tuesday morning continued, Davis shouted at and antagonized Fire Dawgs workers hired to carry out the court order as they loaded items and debris into four trucks.
City attorney Christopher Wheeler and program manager John Hewett from Bloomington’s Housing and Neighborhood Development department stood by as the process continued throughout the morning amid shouting barrages from Davis directed at them.
He repeatedly called Hewett a “master abator” and accused the city workers and Fire Dawgs employees of stealing valuable and coveted building supplies he had accumulated over several decades. Among the items removed were historic windows from a renovation of Indiana University’s iconic Collins’ dormitory years ago.
There also was a good amount of old lumber, metal sheeting, a dilapidated cement mixer and more that was hauled away to the landfill. Davis was frantic and upset, using his cell phone to pan the scene, filming what was going on.
“It’s a great day for theft in beautiful Bloomington,” Davis said standing on the flat bed of a 1965 Ford pickup he said he’s had 25 years and is trying to get running. “You’re stealing my stuff! Look at that metal you are stealing. You are destroying my metal. These are my building materials. Put down those windows! You cannot take these things. Those are my tools!”
The removal of items continued throughout Tuesday morning. Two uniformed Bloomington police officers stood on the property, warning Davis to stay back and let the workers do their job.
“I don’t know how many years it’s been we’ve been trying to work with Joe to get his property cleaned up,” Wheeler said as he stood nearby. “The board of public works ordered the abatement, and we are removing non-compliant items.”
He cited Title 6 of Bloomington city code, which addresses the accumulation of refuse and solid waste on residential properties in the city.
Davis said he intends to find a way to stop the ongoing abatement, despite the denial of his emergency appeal to halt the city’s action. He ran to the justice building Tuesday morning and filed an emergency handwritten appeal that in the end was denied by Monroe Circuit Judge Emily Salzmann.
“It was not until this morning that I heard from my kitchen, the sounds of my perimeter fence being torn apart,” David said in an email response to questions Tuesday night. “Seeing what was happening, I then ran, as fast as I could to the Justice Building to file a new emergency Injunction.”
He lamented the lost items, things he has collected and kept for current and future building projects. “Among the items that were stolen from me today by the city were all the building materials that were going into my permitted two-story carport-solar structure,” he said.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heralt.com or 812-318-5967.
