City takes on junk car problem

By Maggie Souzza

GLADEWATER - After years of listening to complaints about unsightly junk cars, city officials in Gladewater have decided to take on a zero-tolerance policy, with the help of the police department.

"I've been here seven years, and it's been an ongoing problem," said Larry Player, Gladewater code enforcement officer. He reported on the progress of the three-week-old effort during Thursday's City Council meeting.

"We just decided to start trying to do something about it" Player said Friday morning as he got ready to follow up on a few problem areas. Already he has issued about 32 notices to vehicle owners. About two-thirds of the recipients have responded by moving their cars, Player said. He is working on the remainder.

If the vehicle's owner doesn't move it within 10 days of receiving notification of the violation, Player then forwards the matter to the police department. The police department has the power to issue the person a citation, and then may take the person to court, according to city ordinance.

Player said that since the crackdown began, one person has been to court. He moved the junk vehicle that day, Player said.

The city is looking into options it has for handling "difficult situations" - for instance, those which officials cannot locate the vehicle's owner. City Manager Jay Stokes said towing the vehicle is one option the city can look at.

"It may come to using tax money to haul off" junk cars, Stokes said during Thursday's report to the council. "We're giving you a heads up that this would be money well spent."

A junk car, by city ordinance and state code, is a vehicle that meets all of the following criteria: it doesn't operate, it has expired plates and a safety inspection certificate and is wrecked, dismantled (wholly or partially) or discarded.

A car also may be classified as junk if it remains inoperable for more than four months.

By those definitions, there are hundreds of junk cars in Gladewater's city limits, Player estimated.

The code enforcement officer said he is tackling the city one section at a time, and hopes to have most of the problem cleaned up within a year.

"It's been on my mind and needing to be done for years," Player said. "They're just getting worse and worse."

Stokes asked the council for its support during the effort.

"It will be your friends and neighbors and people that you go to church with that will call you" with issues about the zero-tolerance policy, Stokes said.

Player said he anticipates angering some people, but added that his plan to methodically work through the city should show violators that they aren't being singled out.

"Maybe when word gets spread that I'll be there, they'll start cleaning up," he said.

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