Double-lung recipient struggles to clean up yard, navigate Mercer Township ordinance violation suit, penalties
Every day for Mercer Township resident Steve Fish is a struggle.
Fish takes care of his four children by scraping out a small living as a scrapper — one of the only jobs he says his body can withstand after a double-lung transplant he underwent in May 2017 due to organ damage sustained at an earlier job.
But his chosen career has led to “public hazards,” according to a lawsuit filed by Mercer Township against Fish and his landlord, Jerry Schomer.
Fish and Schomer have been locked in a struggle with Mercer Township for roughly three years over the scrap left in Fish’s front yard, scrap that Fish says is part of his work.
This eventually led to a magisterial district court ordering Fish to pay the township $8,000 — a judgment Fish has appealed — and has also led to Mercer Township’s recent suit against the men.
The November lawsuit filed by the township claims it sent Fish a notice in March that he was violating township ordinances against public hazards and maintaining “junk vehicles,” and that Fish took no action to address the violations.
“The junk that is hauled in is a health hazard to the neighbors,” said Supervisor John Bennett Jr. “And we asked him to clean up, and he's refused to do that.”
The “junk vehicle” ordinance, which was ratified in March 2022, forbids residents from keeping motor vehicles on their property that have serious defects, which include broken windows and headlamps, at least one flat tire, rusted or jagged metal, or leaking fluids. Photographs included in the lawsuit, taken “on or about October 2024,” show multiple disabled vehicles on the Fish property.
According to legal documents, the township asked Butler County Common Pleas Court to fine Fish $500 a day for the offenses, which — as of the day the lawsuit was filed, Nov. 14 — would have added up to about $104,000. This lawsuit came after Fish appealed the magisterial district court’s fine of $8,000.
“It's not trash to him. To him, it’s gold. To the neighbors, I’m sure it’s trash,” Schomer said about his tenant. “He’ll pay up to $350 for a junk car, and then he’ll bring it in, he’ll scrap it, and he’ll get some money.”
Schomer said he, as the owner of Fish’s house, also has been issued fines by Mercer Township.
“The township’s had it with him,” Schomer said. “And they said, ‘Well, if you’re not going to pay it, the guy who owns the house is going to pay it.’”
However, both sides have stated they are nearing a resolution and Fish is working to clear the scrap from his yard.
“We’re working on a resolution,” Fish said. “I'm still going to have to pay attorney’s fees. And I’m trying to get the yard cleaned up, which is hard to do by myself.”
Bennett said the township has used enforcement officers, gone to the district judge and notified the mortgage company associated with the property.
“We've got his attention, and he seems to be wanting to comply now,” Bennett said.
Fish’s landlord, Schomer, is the director of For Love of the Lost Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Schomer is also a former co-worker and friend of Fish.
Schomer’s organization raised enough money to purchase a home for the Fish family on Sutherland Road in Mercer Township, rescuing the family from an uncertain situation.
Coincidentally, Schomer himself is a double lung transplant survivor, although his operation came years after Fish’s.
“I just felt so bad for him, and he had four kids,” Schomer said. “And so we raised enough money to buy that house. I raised enough money for the down payment. We bought him that house out there, and I’ve been paying on it ever since.”
Years ago, Fish had steady work as a sandblaster, which he was able to do for over a decade. However, the work, which involves the use of silica sand, had a negative side effect that he says eventually cost him his lungs.
“Eventually, the fine particles of glass from the silica sand got in my lungs and caused them to scar, and I lost my lungs,” Fish said.
In December 2014, Fish was diagnosed with silicosis. By 2017, due in part to a bout with influenza, the condition of Fish’s lungs had significantly deteriorated to the point where a double-lung transplant was the only option remaining.
After two sets of lungs were found for Fish and turned down, Fish finally received his lifesaving transplant in May 2017 — and not a moment too soon.
“He was three days from death when he got his lungs,” Schomer said.
This was not the end of Fish’s problems.
As a double-lung transplant recipient, Fish’s body has trouble warding off bacterial and fungal infections most people don’t even notice.
“Anyone on anti-rejection meds is going to deal with some sort of infection possibilities because your immune system's being put down,” Fish said. “But your lung transplant people are going to have more issues because there's things in the air you breathe, and the outside environment's trying to kill you.”
Before moving into the home bought for him by Schomer’s foundation, Fish had to live with his parents for a time. He was unable to hold down a job for an extended period after the transplant, he was unable to make mortgage payments on his previous home and was subsequently forced out, and he had no workman’s compensation or disability benefits to rely on.
Eventually, he settled into making money as a scrapper, which has led to his present conflict with Mercer Township. According to Schomer, whenever Fish doesn’t have a full load of metal to bring for recycling, “he’ll dump it somewhere.”
“If he only gets one car to scrap, his trailer can pull two, so it's worth it for him to go find another car and then scrap them both at the same time,” Schomer said. “So one junk car will be sitting until he finds another car.”
Fish said he is working to have his yard cleared of junk vehicles.
“I actually got all those out. Everything in the front yard now are registered vehicles,” Fish said. “If the township wants them gone, I’ll get rid of them because I don’t have a choice. I can’t afford defiance.”
Although Schomer’s organization owns the title to the house, and he himself is facing consequences, he has made it clear that evicting the Fish family is not an option.
“I will not evict them. I will not evict those people,” he said. “I can’t. He has four kids.”
