Cleanup continued for a second full day at 90 Bank Street. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
A massive operation to clear a Bank Street property used as an unlicensed junkyard for decades continued for a third day Thursday, even as the owner sought a judge’s order to halt it with claims that the move is retaliatory and unconstitutional.
William Poku filed the motion Tuesday as borough work crews and contractors descended on his property at 90 Bank Street to begin clearing a 9,600 square foot lot covered entirely with a two to six-foot layer of trash, junk, vehicles, lumber, ancient appliances and heavy machinery.
It’s a fight, Poku says in a dizzying series of legal filings, that will be “signficantly bolstered” by a $25,000 grant from the National NAACP.
State Superior Court Judge Mara Zazzalli-Hogan has scheduled a Zoom hearing Thursday morning on his motion to halt the massive cleanup neighbors had clamored for for years.
The same judge had already dismissed a similar motion filed by Poku on November 20. And at this point, it may be too late for Poku to get his trash/treasures back anyway.
By day’s end Tuesday, workers had filled five dumpsters and cleared eight vehicles from the property, the job appearing roughly half done.
A junk-filled van pulled from the yard of 90 Bank Street. (Photo by Brian Donohue)
They were back for another full day Wednesday and again Thursday morning, employing tow trucks and a front-end loader and sending the dumpster count into double digits.
(See previous redbankgreen coverage here).
Like geologists digging through the strata, the farther they worked on the property, the older the junk got: 1980’s computer terminals, a forklift sunken into the earth, car batteries, air conditioners from long dead manufacturers and, finally, in the ruins of a collapsed garage neighbors had never known existed, a pair of buried Trans Ams resembling stuntman wreckage from the set of Smokey & The Bandit.
And, more gravely, this: workers left one pile near the house for last, out of concern that removing it could cause a partial collapse of the structure itself. The mountain of trash, workers speculated aloud, may have actually been holding up the house.
While borough officials say they are certain the house is unoccupied, Poku argues in legal filings that the temporary parking ban on the street is interfering with his care for a disabled adult. He could not be reached for comment.
The pile of trash at right was left for last after the cleanup revealed bulges and wide cracks in the structure of the house next to it. (Photo by Brian Donohue) Officials had long deemed the conditions in the front, side, and rear yards a public health and fire hazard. But the borough’s October 16 abatement order – and Judge Zazzalli-Hogan’s November 20 ruling that bolstered the borough’s legal standing – apply only to the outdoor portion of the property.
As work progressed Wednesday, focus began shifting to the house itself. An inspector with the Monmouth County Health Department took photos and borough officials said a structural engineer was scheduled to pay a visit Thursday.
In the meantime, Poku will be back in court asking Zazzalli-Hogan, for a second time, to stop the tow trucks and bulldozers.
Poku’s battles with the borough over conditions on his property date back to the 1990’s. It has long remained a simmering tussle separate from his multiple other lawsuits over tax and equity issues and a trip and fall suit from an injury he sustained tripping on a curb, all of which have prompted Borough Attorney Gregory Cannon to label him a “vexatious litigant.”
But in the wake of the Borough’s October 16 Abatement Order, Poku’s multiple legal battles all came together in an effort to save his junkyard.
Vehicles hauled away from 90 Bank Street sit in the Department of Public Utilities lot on West Sunset Avenue. (Photo by Brian Donohue).
His motion to stop the cleanup marks the 108th legal filing by both sides in a lawsuit he filed in 2023, challenging the legality of a borough affordable housing bond ordinance – an extraordinary total more often reached in complex commercial or class action lawsuits.
Amid his myriad legal maneuvers in the case were an unsuccessful request to merge it with two other lawsuits he filed against the borough.
All three, he said are part of legal effort “to address systemic issues of taxation, gentrification, and displacement in Red Bank, challenging the borough’s master plan and redevelopment proposals, which plaintiff contends facilitate economic and racial segregation through policies, inimical, inimical, to the welfare of longtime residents.”
On his October 31 motion, he argued the borough’s retaliatory order to clean up his property was part of the same fight.
A dumpster filled by workers clearing the property at 90 Bank Street on Wednesday. (Photo by Brian Donohue)
Zazzali-Hogan denied that motion on November 20, according to online court records. Poku filed another motion the day the bulldozers arrived, arguing it was all payback for his legal battles and work as president of the Greater Red Bank NAACP.
“The borough’s conduct, viewed in context with prior retaliation and the timing of enforcement, demonstrates that these actions are being taken to coerce, punish, and intimidate me for pursuing active litigation and fulfilling my duties as NAACP president,” the motion reads.
Poku includes documentation showing the Greater Red Bank NAACP received a $25,000 grant from the National NAACP for his legal efforts. The BUILD grant is to be used “exclusively for charitable, scientific, literacy or educational purposes” the award letter states. 
The front porch of 90 Bank Street had been unseen for years, hidden by brush and junk piles.
But Poku says the money will “significantly bolster” his legal fight, including his demand that the borough “immediately and permanently withdraw all outstanding code violation notices and the threat of lien issued following the commencement of the current litigation.”
Officials with the NJ Chapter of the NAACP, however, have repeatedly tried to distance themselves from him, saying the Red Bank chapter is “inactive/non compliant.”
“I don’t know how plain I can tell you, he has no connection to the NAACP,” Bruce Morgan, 1st. Vice President with the New Jersey State Conference with the NAACP told redbankgreen Wednesday. “He may tell you he is part of the CIA or this that or the other, but he has no connection to the NAACP.”
Poku has stated previously he deals solely with the national NAACP, and has referred to the state conference as a “rogue actor.”
Meanwhile, as crews continued working Wednesday, neighbors who had long worried about the fire hazard posed by the conditions at 90 Bank Street expressed a palpable sense of relief.
“It’s a damn shame,” said one senior citizen who grew up in the neighborhood and remembered it as “one of the nicest properties on the west side.”
“It should be his ass out here helping them clean up,” he added.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
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