SALEM Tag! Your junk car is out
Owners are given a chance to remedy the situation before police step in.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Fed up with having to look at the dilapidated piece of junk rusting away in your neighbor's driveway? The "classic" he keeps saying he's going to restore and never does?
There's something Salem residents can do about it -- call the city's housing inspectors.
Part of Dan Rice and Roy Brown's job as inspectors is keeping an eye out for junk vehicles.
City council, wanting to address the problem of unsightly wrecks parked at people's homes, decided in November to make the inspectors responsible for tagging them.
The inspectors estimated they get about three calls a week about junk vehicles.
As defined by the city, a junk vehicle is one meeting some or all the following criteria: being inoperable, missing major parts such as doors, windows or wheels, and not being licensed or registered.
Vehicles meeting that description are tagged by the inspectors. The owner then has 10 days to undertake several options, including getting rid of the vehicle, repairing it, registering it or stowing it in the garage.
Police are called: If the situation isn't remedied in 10 days, the inspectors notify the police.
The police inform the violator that they have 10 more days to take action or the vehicle will be towed, explained police Lt. Don Beeson.
"It's more than somebody's car not running" temporarily, Beeson said of instances that result in towing.
"We're talking about vehicles with no engines and on blocks, or registrations that have been expired for years," he added.
Beeson recalled one junker that was being used as a lumber storage bin.
Must pay bill: Once a vehicle's towed, the owner must pay the tow bill if he wants it back. It can cost about $50 or more for a tow. Owners must also remedy whatever situation prompted the tow in the first place.
Owners sometimes forfeit the vehicle to the company that towed it.
Since November, when council authorized housing inspectors to tag heaps, about 20 have been tagged, resulting in about 10 of those vehicles being hauled away by a wrecker.
To reach the inspectors, call (330) 332-4241, Extension 129.