Wayne Callwood, acting commissioner of the Public Works Department, denied Tuesday any knowledge of a letter from William McConnell, attorney for the Homer Wheaton estate, sent in September requesting dumpsters be removed from a site next to Skyline Drive, which McConnell said is Wheaton property.
"I was unaware of it," Callwood said. "We maintain it is government property, so we don't need a permit to put dumpsters on the site."
Callwood said the matter should have been referred to Public Works in the first place, and not to the Police Department. McConnell said the letter was addressed to police, with copies sent to several government officials, including Callwood.
The acting commissioner said he was at the site Sunday when he had the boulders that had been placed there by the Wheaton estate removed. Callwood said he spoke to a representative of the Wheaton estate there, "and I told them we should sit down and resolve the matter." Callwood wasn't sure whom he had spoken to, as the area was crowded with onlookers and taxi drivers.
Callwood said the dumpsters are there until the matter can be resolved. "It's no problem removing them," he said.
William Otto, who owns David Jones Real Estate and represents the Wheaton estate, said he may have spoken to Callwood, but it wasn't one on one. Otto said he had a professional surveyor delineate the property at the request of Christine Wheaton, and that the recorded map is in McConnell's office. It shows the property in question as belonging to the Wheaton estate, he said.
McConnell said Wednesday that Callwood had not contacted him yet, but that he would be in a better position to comment after speaking with him.
The Wheaton estate has been embroiled for months in a controversy over vendors who have set up at the Drake's Seat overlook on property also said to be owned by the estate.
