SWEETWATER COUNTY — If you’ve driven east on I-80 past the RKS airport, you’ve probably seen Sweetwater County’s abandoned vehicle lot – whether you knew what it was or not.

The Liggett family, owners and operators of Auto Recyclers, have been helping Sweetwater County with the abandoned vehicle program since 1979. However, in today’s age of landfill fees and costs to scrap larger vehicles, the lot is operating at a loss.

Several issues have been present on the lot, including cars being stored for years on end, overcrowding, and the costly price of disposing of campers and boats. It’s become a predicament for the county and they will have to find a new lot to store abandoned vehicles, if solutions are not found.

John Liggett, Auto Recyclers owner and operator, said throughout the years, the abandoned lot has been forgotten by many. In 1979, his dad made a handshake agreement to help the county with the lot, but that means there was never a formal contract to look back on.

Since Auto Recyclers has been operating the county’s abandoned vehicle lot, they have been renting it at the same price of $400. John said he has no interest in raising that price, but rather just wants more attention on the lot and to find solutions to current issues.

“It’s not really our problem, we just rent the lot to the county, but we don’t mind helping. We just want to find some solutions,” John said. “Honestly, they asked us if we wanted more money and I said no. If the lot is operated and managed the way it should be, $400 a month is fine.”

However, the amount of work currently being put into the lot by John, plus the cost to get rid of vehicles, particularly campers, motorhomes, and boats – they are operating at a loss.

“We’re not making any money on it,” John said.

A while ago, John and his wife, Megen, made the decision to back out of handling the county lot for a while as the burden was becoming too much. However, Liggett’s dad then stepped back in and took it over. Out of his own consideration to the county, his solution was to move half of the campers from the county lot to his own property on the east side of Auto Recyclers.

“That doesn’t solve any problem, that just ‘kicks the can’ further down the road and makes the problem worse later,” John said.

“He was trying to help out,” Megen said.

Knowing this wasn’t a permanent solution, John and Megen decided it was time to bring the issue to the County Commissioners and find a lasting solution. They had been trying to work through the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, but learned that the commissioners were the ones who could make actual changes in regards to the lot.

“My dad is a really good businessman, but I wasn’t going to sit back and let him be taken advantage of. And it’s not the county taking advantage, it’s taking advantage by omission. The county wasn’t really aware that there was this big of a problem,” John said.

No formal contract between the county and Auto Recyclers was ever made. As mentioned, it was just a handshake agreement. This made it so operations and management of the lot changed in accordance to changes in sheriff, as well as on the commission. Therefore, some of the commissioners were not even aware the lot existed, John said.

After bringing the issue to the commissioners, John said the county’s response has been amazing.

The county did some research on the lot and then John and Megen met with the Sheriff’s Office, Commissioner Jeff Smith, and John DeLeon, Sweetwater County Deputy Attorney, to start working on a plan for solutions. A contract has been drafted which John said should help with consistency moving forward.

However, the consistency of the contract was just one of several issues. And some issues are easier to solve than others.

Solutions in the Works

Part of having a contract is also giving John and Megen the authority to grant access to the lot, deny access, and release vehicles to the owners. John said before the contract, they did not technically have legal authority to do anything with the vehicles, as they are simply renting the land.

“What people don’t realize is that we don’t own these vehicles,” Megen said. “We don’t bring them here, they’re not ours.”

John added that many people will come out and get mad at them for towing the vehicles, but Auto Recyclers does not do towing. They are simply storing the vehicles.

Another issue was storage fees, or rather the lack of. John said the county should consider imposing storage fees that are charged to the owners of the vehicle if they do come to pick up their cars.

“We’ve had cars in here for two years and then someone comes and buys their vehicle back for $65,” John said.

With surveillance cameras surrounding the property, John said the county lot is the cheapest and most secure storage lot around.

Another issue is cars being in the lot or several years. This takes up space and as the cars deteriorate in the lot, it creates a mess and therefore more work for John and Megen.

John said the county needs to make sure the vehicles are cycling through in a timely and organized fashion. The county is already looking into auctions throughout the year to help address this problem.

Before the commissioners were made aware of the issues, the lot was completely full and John was having to park abandoned cars in the lot’s roadways. When the lot is too crowded, it is difficult for them to put more cars in or take them out, creating even more work. However, the county has acted quickly and was able to remove some of the vehicles already.

“The county has been amazing. Since we brought this to the commissioners, the response has been unbelievable,” John said. “They’re understanding of the fact that we’re doing the county a service and they don’t want to make our lives any harder.”

Still In Need of Solutions

An issue that is not as easy to solve is getting rid of campers, motorhomes, and boats that come into the lot. Not only do these vehicles take up a lot of space, but they are costly to get rid of, are mostly garbage, and as they deteriorate they make big messes.

“These campers and motorhomes are more garbage than they are metal,” John said. “By the time you put the labor into it to make it acceptable to go to the landfill, you’ve cost yourself a couple thousand dollars to get rid of that camper, even when you offset the metal.”

John and Megen have looked into several feasible options, including looking at what other states are doing, and they cannot find a solution that works for them. Last year, the Liggetts spent thousands of dollars to dispose of 40 RV’s. John said when the lot is full of campers, it would cost them upwards of $100,000 to dispose of them all.

On top of the costs to get rid of the campers, motorhomes and boats, they often come to the lot filled with trash. That trash then becomes their responsibility to take to the landfill, which means an additional fee.

John said they are also rarely able take parts from campers, motorhomes or boats, as people often cut out the engines and leave the body of the vehicle for the county to deal with.

Not only is the lot full of campers and boats, but they have overflown into the Auto Recyclers yard, which means those are being stored rent free. John said Auto Recyclers does a lot of free services for local businesses, but that they need a solution for the campers and boats are they cannot keep providing this service for the county.

“We do a lot of charitable services because we don’t want to see these vehicles left in the hills,” John said.

John noted that this is a nation-wide issue that every state is having to address. Campers have become much more accessible and popular since the 1990s, and therefore more are being abandoned.

John and Megen remain hopeful for solving these problems with the county’s assistance, but they understand better than anyone the challenges they face in finding these solutions.