Burlington City Council Votes To Ban Junk Cars

Ordinance In Effect Starting Oct. 2011

BURLINGTON, N.C. -- The Burlington City Council unanimously approved at a meeting Tuesday an amendment to an ordinance that outlaws junked, abandoned and hazardous cars.The new rules will go into effect Oct. 1, 2011. The ordinance will be enforced based on complaints from citizens. After a complaint is filed, an officer will investigate it, the city said in a news release.The ordinance defines a junk car as one that doesn’t have a current license plate, is partially dismantled or wrecked, cannot be self-propelled or moved in the manner originally intended or is more than five years old and appears to be worth less than $100.It defines an abandoned vehicle as one being left on a street or highway in violation of a law or ordinance, left on city property for 24 hours, left on private property without consent for more than two days or left on any public street for more than seven days.A hazardous vehicle is one declared a health or safety hazard by code enforcement staff or police, the city said.

NEWS SOURCE

Oak Hill to enforce junk car ordinance

By Sarah Plummer Register-Herald Reporter

Oak Hill residents and businesses with abandoned or junk cars will be facing fines up to $500 per day as the city begins an immediate enforcement of abandoned, junk and wrecked vehicle ordinances.

City Manager William Hannabass said the ordinances have been on the books for a long time but haven’t been enforced.

“It’s one of those situations where you look the other way until you have a proliferation of junk vehicles,” he said. “We have gotten to the point where we can no longer tolerate it in the city of Oak Hill.”

The ordinances, he said, apply to both individuals and businesses, including those in auto repair.

“Junked or abandoned vehicles are not permitted on public or private property unless they are in an enclosed building or a licensed salvage yard,” he said.

A car is considered junked if it cannot pass a state inspection, he explained.

The ordinance is strict, he continued, and includes major car parts like tires, bumpers or transmissions.

If you have a wrecked vehicle, you have up to 30 days to fix or get rid of it under the ordinance but will then be subject to fines, Hannabass explained.

And with fines ranging between $25 to $500 per day, violators can be fined up to $15,000 in a month.

“Like any other fines, if these are not paid, there can be serious consequences,” he added.

Needless to say, the city of Oak Hill will start looking clean, but Hannabass pointed out encouraging people to get rid of their junk cars can really benefit the owners.

“Salvage prices are up right now,” he said.

“If you have a junk vehicle, you are going to have money in your pocket. Some vehicles may be hard to tow out, but in many instances, owners are going to have a profitable experience.”

Bud Fox, owner of Bud Fox’s Body Shop and Towing in Glen Jean, said that while scrap metal prices change daily, right now an average vehicle can yield between $200 and $300.

—E-mail: splummer@register-herald.com

NEWS SOURCE

Creativity and Humor Crush Ogden's Junk Car Problem

by Norm Riggs
Community Development Specialist
Iowa State University Extension to Communities

What community hasn't struggled with the nagging problem of what to do with all those junk cars stashed around town? Besides being a health hazard, these rusting hulks can become a major eyesore.

Several years ago, Ogden, Iowa, faced this problem head-on and came up with an ingenious solution: Hold a junk car "parade" and enlist local ministers to issue the "eulogies." The effort, called Project Beautify, was launched after a town meeting identified junk cars as a priority concern.

Typically, attempts to collect junk cars strike raw nerves. The city council becomes embroiled in the problem and offending residents were ordered to dispose of their abandoned vehicles or face a fine. Junk car owners bristle at the suggestion and dig in for a fight.

But community leaders realized that local ministers, more than anyone else in town, had the power of friendly persuasion. They could appeal to residents' sense of pride and decency to mobilize cooperation.

Four local churches signed on to the project and encouraged their congregations to support the effort. Junk car owners were contacted and asked if they would donate their car to the parade, which was scheduled for April Fools Day. Local volunteers supplied tow trucks and labor to collect the cars. A hearse led the parade and ministers and members of the Ogden Community Development Corporation followed close behind posing as "mourners." Nearly 400 people attended the parade and chili feed that followed.

Headstones were erected and personalized eulogies were issued for each beloved junk heap. Here are just a few of the many clever tributes, spiced with puns and metaphors, that graced the deceased autos: "Betsy had character and was not easily 'offendered.' When someone turned on her headlights, she would just 'beam.' Yet she never had an 'axle' to grind. She will never be re'tired' again and is now committed to her final 'rusting' place."

"Heavy drink got to George's valves and owner's pocketbook. In recent years George had begun to drink heavily. He couldn't leave that high octane stuff alone."

"Friends, Ogdenites, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Nellie Belle, not to praise her. The evil that cars do lives after them: the good is oft interred with their bodies."

"Sadly, no tears for Matilda. May you rust in peace."

All communities have a reservoir of local creativity and talent. Ogden unleashed that talent with Project Beautify, underscoring the adage that you can get more flies with honey than vinegar. Hundreds of volunteers donated thousands of hours and several thousand dollars in free service to carry out the project. What could have developed into a protracted battle was converted into a huge success story through a festive event where hundreds laughed, laughed and laughed some more.

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Junk car parts are music to composer’s ears

Junk car parts are music to composer’s ears

By Katherine Federici Greenwood
Published in the June 1, 2011, issue

A car fender isn’t just a car fender to composer Sean Friar, a graduate student in Princeton’s music department. It can be a musical ­instrument.

Friar knows just where to bow a fender to make specific pitches. That fender from a Toyota Corolla that he scavenged in a junkyard is just one of a number of old car parts played by four percussion soloists in his piece, Clunker Concerto, in which Friar sought interesting ways to blend the sounds of ­hubcaps, a tailpipe, brake rotors, and pipes with those of traditional orchestral instruments.

“What I tried to do was get into the details of the sounds so that they weren’t just add-on or decoration, but were really an integral part of the music,” he explained. Clunker Concerto premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in March.

For that work, which he described as a “fun, raucous piece,” he won the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in musical composition for 2011–12. During that year, he plans to revise and expand his Clunker Concerto, while residing at the American Academy in Rome. Friar, who grew up playing rock and blues piano before getting into classical music, usually writes for traditional chamber ensembles. But he hopes to use some of the sounds generated from the car parts — particularly the hubcaps — in other compositions: “They have a unique sound that I think a lot of percussionists would like to use.”  

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