For the past month, every time 70-year-old Auriea Mosley looks out of her back door, she sees mounds of dirt, concrete, broken glass and metal piled in her neighbor’s backyard.
It isn’t unusual to see garbage dumped on 1422 W. Burleigh Street, which has been vacant for several years, said Mosley. But this time, she was fed up.
When Mosley saw a yellow construction truck piling on more debris on April 13, she hopped in her car and followed the truck to the Lower East Side, snapping photos and video.
“They got all beautiful brick homes over there,” Mosley said. “Grass is all nice and neat. It’s just perfect, the way I wish my neighborhood was, but we get more dumping over here than anybody.”
Mosley posted the photos of the truck on NextDoor, hoping someone could identify the owner. She had no luck, but the next day, Mosley said the contractor approached her and told her he had permission to dump debris there. However, he did not identify himself or his company, Mosley said.
Out of ideas, Mosley reported the piles of waste to the Department of Neighborhood Services. She said she never heard back. Speaking to Public Investigator last Friday, Mosley said she remains unclear who left the debris there and whether they are being held responsible.
“People think they can just do whatever they want,” Mosley said. “They ain’t got to worry about this community.”
Public Investigator contacted DNS that day about Mosley’s situation.
Unbeknownst to her, DNS responded to her complaint by mailing a solid waste violation to Trudie Johnson, the owner of 1422 W. Burleigh Street, demanding the 60-year-old clean up the waste within the next 24 hours or face a hefty bill.
But Johnson told Public Investigator she does not know who dumped the debris on her property, which has been vacant for years. She has already paid a handful of fines due to dumping on the premises, with the highest fine being $1,035 in 2021, according to city records.
DNS spokesperson Jeremy McGovern said the agency since learned the large mounds of dirt and concrete were left by Brew City Wrecking LLC, a company based in Oak Creek. The city hired Brew City Wrecking to raze the city-owned property next door to Johnson at 1426 W. Burleigh Street.
The city ordered the company to clean up the debris immediately, according to McGovern. The mounds of debris have sat outside for over a month, which McGovern said is “way too long.”
McGovern said DNS is determining whether to take further action, which could include canceling its existing demolition contracts with Brew City Wrecking for the Burleigh property and others.
“The City of Milwaukee holds all of our contractors to high standards of behavior and accountability,” McGovern said in an email.
The department also rescinded the citation it gave to Johnson, he said.
By 4 p.m. on Friday, the dirt and concrete had been moved over to 1426 W. Burleigh St. and left for the weekend, swarming with flies, a Public Investigator reporter observed.
When reached Monday, Brew City Wrecking owner Robert George told Public Investigator he was stockpiling dirt to give his excavator a lift to reach the top of the house and dumped the debris on Johnson’s backyard by mistake.
“I did put the dirt on the adjacent property in error, but I did rectify that,” George said.
George said he hopes to have the property knocked down and the site cleaned up this week. He denied telling Mosley that he had permission to dump debris on Johnson’s property.
Mosley remains skeptical that the waste will be cleaned. She said when George first confronted her, he claimed the debris would be removed last week.
“The only reason they moved that is because you’re talking to me, and me talking to the neighborhood services,” she said.
North side neighborhoods are often hotspots for illegal dumping
Mosley and Johnson grew up in the Borchert Field neighborhood on the city’s north side. They now own the homes their parents raised them in.
“It was beautiful,” Johnson said. “Every open lot that you see used to have very big families in there. We had two-parent households. It was a very nice place and safe to live.”
Over the decades, the area took a turn for the worse, they said. Elders in the neighborhood passed away. Many houses fell into disrepair. The neighborhood has since become a target for residents and outsiders looking for a free place to dump trash, drawing rodents and bugs, they said.
McGovern acknowledged that majority Black neighborhoods, especially in Aldermanic District 6, have disproportionally carried the burden of the city’s illegal dumping for years.
After mounting resident complaints in 2019, the Common Council gave DNS and the police department the authority to issue citations for dumping and also established a portal and a reward program for people to submit…
Read More: Borchert Field residents call out city-paid contractor for illegal dumping