Legal action taken when asbestos not removed before demolition at Indiana site
Art Hicks Jr. of Muncie, Indiana keeps racking up violations and penalties related to the demolition of the former American Lawnmower Factory site. He recently was given a notice of violation by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) for allegedly failing to remove asbestos-containing material from the site before beginning demolition. He is also accused of failing to provide IDEM with written notification of the demolition.
Hicks was fined $10,000 by the Unsafe Building Hearing Authority in April for failing to meet cleanup deadlines. At his meeting with the authority, he made a derogatory comment about communism and made crude remarks. His next meeting with them is scheduled for September 15.
The courts have had to threaten Hicks to complete cleanup of several different sites in the past. It was only the threat of several weekends in jail and a $229,000 fine that finally convinced him to clean up a former auto salvage yard after he’d been ignoring the cleanup order since 2006.
The former American Lawnmower factory site has been identified as one of the 10 worst brownfields in Muncie. A brownfield is an abandoned property that is not being used because hazardous substances are presented or suspected.
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