Notorious ‘junkman’ in trouble for building structure on roof
Alan Davis, nicknamed “the junkman” for his decades-long wranglings with Seminole County over his messy yard filled with broken down cars, plane parts, rusty bicycles and scrap metal, is in trouble again with code-enforcement officials.
Davis failed to obtain the required permits for the construction of a wooden addition that resembles a turret over his home’s roof on Alpine Street near Altamonte Springs, according to county officials.
Davis’ case is scheduled to be presented before Seminole special magistrate Kimberly Kopp on Jan. 9. County staff recommends that Kopp place a $14,000 lien on Davis’ property and fine him $250 for each day after Jan. 9 that he hasn’t obtained the proper construction permits.
Neither Davis nor his wife, Aileen, could be reached for comment.
For nearly three decades,
Davis has butted heads with county and sheriff’s officials for filling his front lawn with a wide variety of seemingly useless stuff that Seminole officials call “rubbish.” Over time, he has racked up more than $2.1 million in liens.
Davis — who has gained national notoriety for his firm stance on personal liberty and property rights — often acts as his own attorney in court and insults judges by calling them “highchair squatters.”
When a judge ordered him to get rid of all the trash in his yard. He did it by hauling it up to the roof of his home.
Another time he made a giant sculpture of a pair of buttocks, hitched it to his truck and drove it around the Seminole County courthouse.
Davis has even gone to prison several times for refusing to comply with the county’s rules on yard maintenance. In 2005, for example, he was sentenced to three years in prison for felony littering.
In 2015, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, which also handles code enforcement duties, hired a crew of workers to haul away 31 tons of junk — including barrels, plywood, tires, sheet metal and an old Volvo car — using a frontend loader and a dump truck.
Davis argued in court that the items were “stolen” by deputy sheriffs from his
“private property” and had a total value of $1.5 million.
Two years later, he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to clean his yard.
Two months later, however, he violated his probation, according to court records, and served 68 days in jail. In March 2018, Davis was again sentenced to five years of probation.
In the latest case, Vicki
Hathaway, a Seminole County building inspector, visited Davis’ property April 22 after receiving a complaint about Davis constructing what appears to be a wooden structure on his home’s roof, according to county documents. County photos show a mishmash of dozens of two-by-four lumber pieces.
County officials gave Davis a written notice to obtain a building permit by May 6. After he failed to obtain the permit, the county’s special magistrate issued an order on Sept. 12 for Davis to comply by Nov. 14.
“We try to give someone a reasonable time to comply because the permitting process can take some time,” said Pat Hughes of the county’s code enforcement division. “We want compliance and we want them to come in and obtain a permit.”
Davis hasn’t complied.
Prior to his work in Dayton, Helfrich spent 12 years as executive director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Charleston, where he grew the organization’s budget by 94 percent. A native of Philadelphia, he received a bachelor of music degree from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1984 and a master’s in arts administration from the same school in 1986.
“I’m just a big fan of music and the people who play it,” Helfrich said. “It’s been my life’s work.”