By Doug Dickinson
Special to the Pioneer Times
HOULTON — Jerry Cardone’s property at 314 Military St. was deemed an illegal junkyard last year by an Aroostook County Superior Court order. The order allowed Cardone to keep his art on a clean spot on his property. Everything else was ordered destroyed by municipal employees. According to court records, Cardone admitted that 95 percent of the raw material on his property had decayed to the point that it was unusable.
Wade Hanson is the Community Development Director for Houlton. He was originally the code-enforcement officer and has been involved with the property since the beginning of the case.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Doug DicikinsonDIFFERING OPINIONS — The court ordered cleanup of the Jerry Cardone property on Military Street will resume soon. The owner and the town have differing opinions on each other’s involvement in the cleanup.
“The property had gained an accumulation of about 20 years of wood product that had been brought to the site for future development as art in the mind of the property owner,” said Hanson. “The accumulations became overwhelming to him and began to rot and really became a health and safety issue for the surrounding public.”
Hanson said that aside from the accumulation, there was also an issue with rodents and fire hazards. The town already cleared out most of the area behind the fence separating Cardone’s property from Military Street during two weeks in December. Two local earthwork contractors were hired for the cleanup. They piled clean wood into piles to burn.
“Cardone has been really cooperative,” said Hanson. “We’ve tried to work with him as much as we could. In the same reference we had to be careful because with the heavy equipment running around in there we had to protect his safety… not have him digging around in stuff as we tried to move it,” he said.
Hanson emphasized that they are doing their best not to damage any of Cardone’s art. He said that because some pieces are so aged and made out of wood, they have started to rot, making the process difficult. They have moved all art onto a cement pad. They have left it up to Cardone where he wants to display them.
The next step in the cleanup is to remove everything in front of the fence along Military Street. All of the art beside the road will be moved behind the fence. The town is currently waiting for the ground to dry out so there won’t be environmental issues with moving heavy equipment.
Cardone, Drake share
experience of losing a dream
“They have destroyed me as an artist,” said Cardone, when reflecting on losing the fight for his property. Cardone has lived in Houlton for 30 years. For 20 of those years he has worked on his project of building a children’s park. After his 10-acre property was cleared out by the town, he now believes that his dream has been destroyed.
He is also a self proclaimed entertainer, pop singer and artist. For years his property has been covered with a variety of art pieces including aliens, totem poles, dinosaurs, Bigfoot, Santa Claus and Yogi Bear.
According to Cardone, his art is a fantasy for children. Its purpose is to make them happy.
“My goal is like Walt Disney in a way. I cater to the children from 11 down. I make CDs about Bigfoot and Sasquatch. I’ve been in museum and art shows. I’ve been in books. I’ve been known around the world as an artist. I get letters from people all over the world,” said Cardone as he stepped over broken glass and debris left behind. “I just wanted to make art for the children. A lot of older people didn’t like my art, but the children liked it.”
Cardone’s art has attracted attention locally and nationally. Portland photographer Tonee Harbert took photos of Cardone’s work, which were exhibited at the University of Southern Maine in 2007. Later that year. Houlton’s Blue Moon Gallery also exhibited the photos.
Janet Drake has been Jerry Cardone’s neighbor for roughly 15 years. She tried to help Jerry with the ordeal of the cleanup.
Drake said that all of the vehicles on Jerry’s property were removed prior to the cleanup that started on Dec. 17. Jerry was in the hospital at the time, so Drake’s family removed the cars.
While town management has said that Cardone was cooperative throughout the entire ordeal, Drake said that he was actually recovering from illness in a hospital for a majority of this time.
Cardone became severely ill just before the cleanup was to take place. He had a heart attack and was taken to Acadia Hospital in Bangor. There he suffered a collapsed lung, blood clots, pneumonia, and had to have his gall bladder removed. He also started having panic attacks, he said were caused by the stress of everything involved with the cleanup.
According to Drake, doctors told her several times that Jerry might not make it. She said that the doctors had given Cardone a slip that said the cleanup should wait until he got over his ailments. While speaking to his lawyer, Jeff Pickering, Drake asked for lenience for the town to stop.
“[I said] ‘What’s the difference if you do it now or when he’s better. You’ve got the order.’
“Jeff told [the town lawyer] he’s very sick and in the hospital but the lawyer told us he really didn’t care. He said they’d fought with Jerry before and doctors had [written] him slips and they just didn’t care anymore. They were going to clean it up.”
Following that experience Drake went with her daughter to see town manager Doug Hazlett. He promised them that none of Jerry’s art would be damaged during the cleanup. Drake said that what happened during the cleanup was entirely different than what was promised.
“We tried to tell the men that they were shoveling up art and they didn’t care. They just burned it. In fact they offered to call the cops on us numerous times,” she reflected. “I would see Hazlett and tell him they were trying to put us in jail and then he would tell them to leave us alone. The next morning we were threatened to go to jail again.”
Drake added the entire process could have been completed with much less harm to Cardone.
“If they had just worked a little bit with us we would’ve helped clean this up. I know that they tried many times, but sometimes you have to talk nice to a person and not threaten them.”
There was also a controversy, Drake reported, concerning the contractors leaving their fires unattended for two nights. In the end the fire marshal had to be called due to neighbors being worried about the danger.
According to Drake, the art on the roadside wasn’t Cardone’s real art. She said that behind the fence he was making a fantasy land for children. It had a spot that had Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, dinosaurs, deer, Yogi Bear, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus all mingled everywhere.
“What was out front was really just to draw people to see what was inside. [Jerry] was in the hospital the whole time. He almost died. We were the ones trying to work with him. But you couldn’t work with Mr. Hazlett because his men did whatever they wanted at all times. When Jerry got there, it was all over.”
Drake said the only art left by the crew is a dinosaur which now has a broken leg, a bird that was tipped over, and a cat house which has had the front torn off. Cardone said he also lost his tools in the ordeal, leaving him without a way to continue his passion.