Grand Junction – Dean Van Gundy looked over the rusty junked cars, the flatbed loads of beat-up refrigerators, the bales of squashed metal, the lines of tow trucks and the boisterous, sign-waving crowd ringing City Hall on Monday morning and declared it all gave him a warm feeling.
“Right here,” he said, holding a hand over his heart.
Van Gundy, whose family has operated the Ampco Inc. salvage yard in the heart of Grand Junction for 77 years, is not feeling any similar warmth toward city officials.
He blames them for putting the only full-service salvage yard between Denver and Salt Lake City out of business and, in the process, leaving northwest Colorado with a potential pileup of wrecked cars, used oil-field parts and dead appliances.
Thus the Monday demonstration that clogged all the parking spaces around City Hall, raised a cacophony of hooting, hollering and honking, and brought out towing-business operators, mechanic-shop owners and other salvage dealers in solidarity.
“We were double-crossed. You plan on something and then they pull the carpet. This city will feel the pinch in a few days,” said Van Gundy, whose business takes in more than a dozen junked cars and a ton of aluminum cans daily.
The Van Gundy family closed their 6-acre salvage yard to any new materials last week after the Grand Junction City Council voted to deny Van Gundy’s request to rezone adjoining property where the Van Gundys had planned to move their business.
The Van Gundys had sold their property along U.S. 50 to the city recently to make way for a new parkway that is under construction. The Van Gundys’ sale came with an option to buy 1.5 adjoining commercially zoned acres from the city. The Van Gundys planned to buy 3.6 acres more from an adjacent business and move their business once the land was rezoned as industrial.
Dean Van Gundy said he had already spent $200,000 on planning, bonding and an environmental assessment for the new location before the council voted 4-3 to deny the request for industrial zoning. The new salvage operation was going to appease critics who said the operation was an eyesore, he said.
Van Gundy called on friends and business associates to show their displeasure with the city.
Dozens showed up, pulling up in their tow trucks and depositing a loaded industrial Dumpster outside City Hall at daybreak.
Dave Murphy, owner of Any Auto Wrecking, said he no longer will have a place to take the wrecked cars that he has salvaged for parts.
“The city has basically fired the garbage man, the way I see it,” Murphy said.
City Council members stayed away from the gathering that included demonstrators’ calls to passers-by to deposit their junk on council members’ lawns.
City Manager Kelly Arnold said it will be up to the council to reconsider its ruling. Arnold noted that Van Gundy’s agreement with the city made it clear the land had to be rezoned for the move to be possible.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or at nlofholm@denverpost.com.
