WEST HAVERSTRAW - Helaine and Michael Nemeth bought their house on North Wayne Avenue in November 2016, but it wasn’t until several months later that things began to stink.
The smell of human waste and portable toilet cleanser wafted from the property behind theirs and soon covered their house, cars and clothing.
“It’s just gotten so bad that I couldn’t take it anymore,” Helaine Nemeth said Wednesday from her living room. “There’s a constant odor.”
A light mist fell Wednesday afternoon and the smell from the portable toilet company, John To Go — which village officials claim comes from the company cleaning and storing the portable toilets outside the warehouse — was not apparent in the air.
But Helaine Nemeth said the smell is always worst on Sundays and municipal holidays, and despite complaints to the owners, the village mayor and board, the building inspector, police and health department, nothing has been done.
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“We’re waiting to see what happens,” Helaine Nemeth said. “We’re still smelling it every day. The conditions are awful back there."
Michael Nemeth said it’s ruining their quality of life.
Helaine Nemeth added: “I can’t have a normal life inside my home. I can’t even have people over during nice weather to have a barbecue because it stinks.”
John To Go, which abuts the Nemeth’s home, sits in an industrial park on Carol Avenue and rents out portable toilets for events and construction sites in New York and New Jersey, according to its website.
One of John To Go’s owners, Abe Breuer, said Wednesday that he is aware of the issues and sympathetic to the neighbors. He said the company has been looking to relocate to remedy the situation.
“It’s horrible,” Breuer said while standing inside the John To Go warehouse. “It’s horrible for them, it’s horrible for us. It’s definitely a situation for them. At the end of the day, we’ll be moving as soon as we can.”
The company is due in village court on Sept. 10 for an eviction hearing and Sept. 25 for trial regarding multiple violations issued by the village.
Breuer said he was unable to comment extensively about the court cases but plans to defend the eviction notice vigorously because the company has always paid its bills on time.
Village Mayor Robert D’Amelio said the company started off manufacturing and selling portable toilets but has since started renting them out themselves, cleaning them and storing them outside of the warehouse.
“This is not a permitted use,” D’Amelio said Wednesday over the phone. “They’re just breaking every possible law.”
He said the company is supposed to clean and pump the units on the rental sites before bringing them back to the property.
But Breuer said the business has not changed since it moved to the site in 2015 and the village has always been aware of what the company does, even utilizing donated portable toilets for past events.
The violations from the village include:
D’Amelio said the village started issuing violations about 18 months ago, and the violations have multiplied because they have exceeded the 30-day windows to improve the issues.
The county also issued violations Wednesday, according to John Lyon, the county’s director of strategic communications.
“Inspectors from the Rockland County Department of Health visited the site yesterday after receiving a complaint Monday,” Lyon said in an email. “Several violations of the Sanitary Code were found and if they are not corrected within 24 hours … the company will be fined $2,000 per violation/per day.”
Breuer said the storage area was messy after an event but has since been cleaned and will be cleaned again Thursday. He said there are times, especially after large orders, that things are disorganized, but the company cleans the storage area regularly.
Residents who see problems in their neighborhoods can report it to the county at rocklandgov.com.