SAN ANTONIO — After fighting more than a year of skirmishes, some east side neighbors are about to declare victory.
A storage yard, they say, was fouling the area with the stench of five acres of portable toilets is about to be flushed out of the Willowwood neighborhood.
Calling his neighbor to report the good news, newcomer Bill Howell said "This is the kind of news that's going to spread like wildfire."
Grinning broadly, Howell said he knows the more than 100 families who live nearby are relieved.
"We were excited to hear about that," Howell said.
Patsy Muriel agreed that she is glad to be rid of what she said has been a nuisance.
“We were getting a lot of dirt coming into the house, a lot of dust and I started getting allergies,” Muriel said. “That has a lot to do with it because all the dirt was coming into our houses and we had to sweep and mop every day.”
Neighborhood president Alonzo Jones said United Site Services on Belgium Lane, just a bit north of the Frost Bank Center, has been under scrutiny for more than a year.
“We are feeling good that we finally got this removed because it was very awful, a very awful smell. A very awful environment. We don't need that. We're trying to bring our environment up,” Jones said.
Online records for the code compliance division indicate the company has been cited for not having proper operating permits and other violations.
Records show the company has been given extensions and had numerous unsuccessful inspections.
“CPS went ahead and turned the power off because that is what they told them would happen, but they wasted all their time, got their power turned off and continued to be fined. A big business. They could care less about the little people on the east side,” Jones said.
Jones, who has invested many hours in pushing the fight forward, said “It definitely did take longer than we thought. It is nine months after the ruling for them to leave or pave the parking lot, which they didn't do.”
Jones said all along the way, the company has treated the neighbors shabbily.
“Keep in mind, they told us we need to move after being here 60 years, we needed to move,” Jones said of his neighborhood, which has been a haven for east side leaders for generations.
“We have some of the attorneys and early civil rights leaders that were involved in things in the 50s and 60s here in San Antonio and quite a few landmark individuals who have passed on now. They fought to keep this neighborhood up so we're just trying to carry it on and do what our parents brought us up to do,” Jones said.
Neighbor Jacquelyn Ali echoed the sentiment.
“We have a lot of people who have been here over 60 years,” Ali said.
Giving up during the long wait for action, Ali said, was never an option.
“A lot of times these companies come into your neighborhood and if you don't say anything they'll be allowed to do whatever they want and that's not something we thought our neighborhood deserved,” Ali said.
“The company asked for an extension after they had eight months to respond,” Ali said.
Ali expressed gratitude not only to the city staffers who have kept them informed, but also to team members in the District 2 office.
“We want to thank our neighbors and our community for sticking with this and hopefully we can monitor what comes in,” Ali said, looking to the future of the land.
As for the company’s reaction, at a previous hearing, the firm's attorney said they believe they're doing nothing wrong.
"Our position is that we're operating legally," the attorney told the board, as he asked them to not be swayed by emotion.
United Site Services is closed for the holiday weekend and was not available for a current response. We will report their response if they reply when the work week resumes.
Moving forward, Muriel said “Everybody knows each other here and looks out for each other.”
Other neighbors said they are proud of what they have accomplished.
“I was thankful that our neighbors stood together through this fight and it wasn't a one person, a two person fight. It was the whole neighborhood coming together and it just felt like we reached a milestone,” Ali said.
Anyone interested in learning more about the code compliance process can visit the city’s website.
Here are some previous stories about the conflict: