NEWARK — Empty lots in Newark don't stay that way for long.

They soon attract abandoned cars, contractors looking for a quick way to dump debris, people with junk they just want to get rid of — but a foreboding spot in the Central Ward has become one of the worst cases of blatant neglect in the city.

The trash heap is up against a school playground and it has been rising like a large wave for the past two years. On one side of the lot — between South 8th and South 9th streets — there’s a van with busted windows. Barrels of some sort sit in tall weeds, and you have know idea what’s inside of them. Remnants of a gutted home are strewn everywhere — carpets, box springs and mattresses, televisions and kitchen cabinets. There are toilets, paint cans, old tires, aluminum siding and windows. Large branches and tree stumps are draped over the filthy mound in an attempt to not make it look as bad.

The owner, MAG Buildings, has been hit with eight complaints from the city and two fines for $5,000. But it hasn’t responded until Monday.

Tommy McDonald, the city’s acting manager, says he tracked down a MAG representative in East Orange and told him they had to clean it up right away. By the end of the day, a dumpster was dropped off.

The company official would not tell McDonald his name when he found him. He refused my request as well, telling me a different story than he told McDonald about how the garbage got there.

The official said the company rented the house that sits on the property to a guy who let other contractors dump there. McDonald said the official told him that MAG no longer owned the property, but allowed its employees to bring stuff there after it went into foreclosure.

"They permitted the dumping on the property," McDonald said. "They said they knew the stuff was there, but they didn’t know how much."

And there’s a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Kenneth Gifford is glad to finally see some action, and he won’t be satisfied until the junkyard is gone.

He’s lives across the street and he’s been after the city to find the owner. Gifford even jumped in to help by giving code enforcement pictures and videos he took of laborers unloading junk.

"Whatever they are taking out of homes they are refurbishing, they dump here," Gifford said. "You’re fixing up one part of the city, and you’re destroying the other part."

The dump brought rodents, foul odors and mosquitoes. Stray cats on the block wound up dead, laid out on resident’s lawns.

"They were all over the place," Giffiord said.

Gracie Porter, a resident and city employee, couldn’t take it any more.

"As a city resident and an employee, help me please," Porter said, clearly frustrated. "When I have company, I don’t want to see that. It’s just staying there like it’s going to grow."

McDonald filed another complaint, citing the owner for illegal dumping, illegal transfer station, creating a public nuisance. He said he’ll be back today to make sure the company is cleaning up.

Gifford said the owners were so bold that they didn’t pay him any attention when he took pictures and shot video. He said they pulled a dumpster into the lot, but didn’t fill it with debris already there. They used it to dump more junk in black garbage bags. When they finished, the workers would close the gate and drive off not worrying that would ever get caught.

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Residents kept calling and complaining, but some just gave up altogether. Even Gifford began to think that nothing would happen.

"It’s been years of complaints and now they’re just getting around to it," he said.

They started around 5:30 p.m. with four workers filling the dumpster by hand. It should be done by Friday.

We’ll see.

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