Saranac Lake plans to auction abandoned vehicles

By CHRIS KNIGHT, Enterprise Senior Staff Writer

SARANAC LAKE - The village is planning to auction 18 cars and trucks, more than a dozen of which were seized by the police department under the village's junk car law.

The date of the auction hasn't been set, but village mechanic Wayne Voudren is working with Blanchard's Auction Service in Potsdam to try and schedule it some- time in early October.

Five of the vehicles were village owned and have been replaced, Voudren said. The remaining 13 were abandoned throughout the village and seized by police.

Voudren said only two of the vehicles are in running condition.

"Most of them are junk," he said. "People just leave garbage in them and, for whatever reason, just walk away."

Saranac Lake Police Chief Bruce Nason said the 13 abandoned cars and trucks had been seized over the past year-and-a-half using the village's junk-car ordinance.

"The majority were done in 2008," he said. "We picked up another three or four in February when we cleaned out the municipal lot off Dorsey Street for snow removal. The others just trickle in."

If police spot a vehicle that has no license plates and isn't registered, an officer will try to make contact with the vehicle's owner or the property owner, Nason said. If that person can't be immediately located, a bright yellow tag is left on the vehicle asking the owner to contact police. If there's still no response, a certified letter is sent to the last known owner of the vehicle, giving him or her 10 days to respond. If no action is taken after 10 days, Nason said the vehicle will be towed to the village impound, located behind the sewer plant.

The owner of a tagged vehicle may also apply for a six-month storage permit if they're trying to repair or sell the vehicle. But if that six months goes by and no action is taken, the vehicle can be seized by the village.

Nason said police handle reports of potentially abandoned vehicles on a regular basis.

"It is ongoing," he said. "I think we've talked with at least three people in the last month about vehicles that were not licensed that we have not already tagged."

The village board agreed last week to sell both the abandoned vehicles as well as the five village-owned vehicles at auction. Mayor Tom Michael said the number of abandoned vehicles that will be put up for auction is a "testament to the police department's stepped-up patrols."

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Contact Chris Knight at 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.

NEWS SOURCE