SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Milan Mrdjenovich, the regional manager for Nova Builders, is upset at the accusations aimed at Nova and the family name after debris dumped at the old Bartam Trailer Court site got the company into hot water with the city earlier this week.

Milan Mrdjenovich: "We're not a southern-run company that makes money and dashes."

"For all the work that we've done up in the North – we're not a southern-run company that makes money and dashes. We've been up in the North since 1975, you know?" said Mrdjenovich, who was born in Yellowknife and has lived up here for much of his life, including the past four years where he has been operating Nova Builders as its regional manager.

Mrdjenovich said he doesn't like comments that make it seem like he doesn't contribute to the community, citing volunteer work he has done with the Arctic Winter Games, and the fact that he lives and spends money here.

Mrdjenovich was also miffed that his father, Mike Mrdjenovich, the owner of Nova Builders, was brought into the controversy.

"It was not Mike's call to put the garbage there, it was mine," he said.

"I understand that there's a bylaw but I had a temporary storage permit and it had just expired in July, which I was unaware of.

"Mike, honest to God, has done nothing but good things for this town. He's done it in unorthodox ways sometimes, but he's gotten things done. He's put up how many buildings in town?" said Mrdjenovich, noting that his father first came to Yellowknife at age 26.

David Gilday, a resident who complained about the dumped debris on Monday, said his issue wasn't personal.

"I just don't like anybody who comes and flaunts bylaws, thumbing their nose at the public," said Gilday. "I don't dislike the people."

Mrdjenovich said the dump couldn't accommodate the debris – consisting of a demolished house from 5018 52 Street – on Monday and thus it had to wait to be moved. That day, he told Yellowknifer the debris would only be there for a "about a day" but as of Thursday morning, the pile was still there, including a pile of dirt dumped Wednesday.

"If I could hold off and put the debris somewhere for just a day or two, that's the way I had to do it. There are guys here waiting to do the excavating (on the site the debris came from)," he said.

"I can't stop for three or four days just for garbage. I'm paying guys good money by the hour to be here."

He said the 52nd Street site where the debris comes from is where Nova is building a new residential/commercial complex for music store Fiddles and Sticks.

The bottom floor will be the storefront, the middle floor for storage, and the top floor for residential, said Mrdjenovich. The Bartam area, though, is currently on hold for development and Mrdjenovich is now planning on fencing the area in.

"We were planning on building townhouses there but then the economy went to crap and we don't want to sit on 20 rowhouses that aren't going to sell, you know?

"We'd like to put an apartment building in there that's very attractive and would complement the area quite well," he said.

Mrdjenovich said he is pretty sure he will be fined for the dumping, and he is alright with that, although the city had yet to issue one as of Wednesday. He said the situation has been blown out of proportion.

"I just want to work, get things done, do my job. I got five projects on the go here in Yellowknife and I have no time for this petty stuff," said Mrdjenovich.

The city couldn't be reached for comment about the possibility of fines and the status of the bulldozer at the dump by press time.