Washington City Council to discuss junk vehicles

    The Washington City Council will hear the first reading of an ordinance to accelerate the removal of junk vehicles from the town?s residential areas at its first meeting of the year on Wednesday. The current ordinance states that inoperable vehicles may not be parked outside in a residential neighborhood for more than seven days, including junk vehicles the owner is attempting to sell. The revised section of the ordinance would give the violator seven days to abate the nuisance from the time the notice is given.

    Mike Roth, who chairs the Ordinance Committee that wrote the revised ordinance, said junk vehicles have been a nagging issue in Washington for several years. He said that it is time to put some teeth into the abatement process.

    ?In the past, we gave them two weeks to get rid of their junk cars,? said Roth. ?We would send out letters. A whole month would go by and nothing would get done.?

    Junk vehicles are eyesores and should be removed from public view, said Roth. He said that getting rid of a junk vehicle is really not that difficult.

    ?There are guys all over the place who would come and get a junk car if they knew someone was giving it away,? said Roth.

    In the event no one else wants the junk vehicle, the city is willing to pay to have it removed. The ordinance allows the owner of the junk vehicle to sell the car to the city for $1. 

    Roth said the new ordinance is in keeping with the city?s wider goal of timely enforcement of city ordinances. In November, the council passed an ordinance to streamline the enforcement of the height of grass, as well as an ordinance that requires property owners to place ice melt on their sidewalks when the ice cannot be scraped off. 

For the full article, see the Jan. 4 print edition of the Washington Evening Journal.