Shakopee residents, city dispute over toy collection unit

Shakopee Valley News

Since 2003, Shakopee residents Bob and Diane Weikle have held a yearly toy drive when the holidays roll around.

They won’t be doing the drive this year — they’ll be busy with the courts instead. The couple faces a jury trial on Jan. 24 for city code violations regarding the storage container they use to hold the donated items on their property.

The charity

Bob Weikle took over the toy drive from another resident in 2003. At first, he would collect beer barrels from bars and wash them out in order to collect donated toys around town.

“That became a big hassle,” Bob Weikle said. “They were nasty — broken glass and beer, stinky beer.”

The couple then began collecting toys in boxes donated by a sanitation company.

The collection expanded to more than just toys, such as items that could be used for a raffle or silent auction, or money. The couple donated to charity efforts around town but also raised money for the local Community Action Partnership Agency. Bob Weikle had used the agency’s services when he was a young parent.

“They’ll drive here to get the stuff, we’ll donate to them for their auction to help raise money for whatever their cause is,” Bob Weikle said.

A local towing company donated a portable storage unit to hold the increasing number of items. The arrangement lasted for a few years before the company needed to rent out the unit.

Diane Weikle then called Dart Portable Storage, which provided another storage unit free of charge in 2011.

“They’re like, ‘When do you want it, how fast can we get it there and never think about it again,’” Diane Weikle said.

The violations

In March, a Shakopee police officer issued a warning to Bob and Diane Weikle for a city code violation regarding construction materials.

Bob and Diane Weikle said they believe a city employee who lives near the couple reported them to the city after they talked to the public works director about the employee for alleged misuse of company time — including long lunches.

Bob Weikle said he did not name the employee to the director.

In an email to the city employee on March 20, Senior Planner Kyle Sobota wrote, “I believe they gave him a month to get rid of the container. ... Just wanted to give you a head’s (sic) up on the status.”

In an email to Mayor Bill Mars on the situation in October, City Administrator Bill Reynolds said a neighbor had reported the complaint.

On May 26, Bob Weikle was issued a citation for “exterior storage,” as a violation of city code.

Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate said the tickets were issued to the Weikles after a code sweep of the entire neighborhood.

“The entire block was — not just him, nobody is picking on just him,” Tate said. “Everybody on the block was treated the exact same way he’s been treated.”

Tate said city ordinance does not allow temporary storage units to be permanent fixtures on residential property.

“It’s not the same as putting up a shed,” he said.

The Scott County GIS map shows the unit is mostly in the alley behind the Weikle's home.

The same city employee emailed Sobota again in July, mentioning that the container was still in Weikle’s yard and again in late October.

The couple received a second citation on Aug. 29.

The storage

Before the first citation was issued, the city signed a contract with the Community Action Partnership agency to store the items.

“We have tried to work with Mr. Weikle — including offering him multiple storage areas in city buildings — but there was always an excuse as to why that storage wouldn’t work for him,” Reynolds said. “Mr. Weikle simply wants the container in his backyard.”

The couple and some volunteers moved the contents of the unit to an upstairs room in the engineering building in April. To access the room, Bob Weikle would make arrangements with a city employee to open the unit.

“We’re already donating 100 plus hours a year for this toy drive,” Bob Weikle said. “I don’t need to add hours... We decided not to move the unit.”

The couple donated 650 stuffed animals ahead of schedule to get them out of the room where toilets were being stored, which the couple said were used. Reynolds said they were new.

Reynolds said Bob Weikle then approached him about keeping the storage unit.

“I spoke to him several months ago and requested that he put his solution in writing so we could take a look,” Reynolds said. “He never did provide that proposed solution.”

The city has worked with the couple to come up with a compromise, Tate said.

“There’s been at least five attempts to get the order to remove the storage unit,” Tate said. “I guess it’s frustrating on a number of levels because I think we’ve offered him a reasonable solution that wouldn’t cost him any money to fix this.”

Reynolds said he became uncomfortable that the city was offering storage to the Weikles.

“If another charity or person with storage issues came to the city requesting space, I would think we would have a hard time telling them we didn’t have storage space for them,” Reynolds said. “Regardless, the issue is in the courts system now.”

The container

The city has done more than necessary due to the container being used for charity, Tate said.

“I respect his hard work to make people have a better Christmas and I think that’s why the city has gone well above and beyond,” Tate said. “I understand maybe that at first blush, it may not look good, but I know they’ve offered other spaces as well.”

There are bigger issues for the city to focus on, Diane Weikle said.

“There are a lot of issues that should be addressed ... this guy who founded a toy drive that benefits the city isn’t one of them,” she said. “I mean, for the love of God, get out there and figure out why people are killing their girlfriends and holding up the Holiday gas station.”

If the unit were a danger to somebody, it would be moved, Bob Weikle said.

“I give credit to the city for trying,” Bob Weikle said. “If it was in some way, shape or form a danger or a hazard or a health risk, boom, it’s gone. But it’s not. What we do helps.”

Bob Weikle said he’s trying to give back.

“We’re trying to bring back a little bit of the way life is supposed to be,” Bob Weikle said. “I was in need once. There was somebody that donated something that I wasn’t able to get to help us get through those times.”

The future of the toy drive depends on what happens with the trial, Bob Weikle said.

“If the judge says I have to get rid of the unit, I’ll get rid of the unit and that’ll be probably the end of the toy drive forever,” Bob Weikle said.