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Junk car meetings begin June 25
Published Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners will hold the first of four junk car/nuisance ordinance informational meetings at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at Pelican Rapids City Hall. Some county residents want to see the establishment of a nuisance ordinance to control the spread of junk cars, other debris and materials throughout the county.
Subsequent informational meetings, all beginning at 6:30 p.m., will be held June 26 at Parkers Prairie City Hall, July 9 at the County Offices, New York Mills, and July 10 at the Government Services Center, Fergus Falls.
If an ordinance were established, following the four public meetings, a license would be required if a party had more than five junk autos, or junk equivalent to the same space as five junk cars. The five-member board of commissioners agree that salvage areas do have their place.
At the same time, the county board agrees with other county residents who say there are many other situations in which junk cars and other debris do cause a public nuisance. To that end, the county board decided to schedule the four informational meetings, starting June 25 in Pelican Rapids.
Bill Stutsman and others, who belong to an organization called the Visual Chaos Committee, believe that more should be done to protect the beauty of Otter Tail County. The group applauds the county board for scheduling the informational meetings in Pelican Rapids, Parkers Prairie, New York Mills and Fergus Falls.
Stutsman and others who support the desire to establish a nuisance ordinance say that support is needed from others throughout Otter Tail County. Attendance at the upcoming informational meetings is necessary, Stutsman said.
A junk car is considered any motor vehicle not in operable condition or properly licensed for operation. It’s also one that is partially dismantled and used as a source of replacement parts for other vehicles — or kept for scrapping, dismantling or salvage of any kind.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by jetfire63 (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 12:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Here we go again, now the county wants to put more restraints on it citizens. What ever happend to "The land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE". Our troops are overseas fighting for rights of people in other countrys just so that the local governments can take them away from us here at home. If you want to deal with Visual Chaos lets limit the colors of cottages around the lakes, limit the number of boats and boat lifts that can be in front of each cottage. Heck why don't you limit the color of the cars we drive so you don't have all those distracting colors out there. It's my property and I have the right to have and keep what ever I want on it. IF Mr. Stutsman doesn't like he can close his eyes as he drives by, or better yet don't even drive by use a different road.
Posted by goingfishing (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 2:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Or, Mr. Stutsman is certainly free to move.
Posted by frankenfurter (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 2:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm not quite sure whether to take the first comment seriously or laugh. The right to having a yard full of trash, junk cars and vehicles parked all over the grass has _nothing_ to do with troops fighting overseas and the loss of personal freedoms. In fact, you have no right to do so at all.
A person who has no regard/respect for their neighborhood/community and creates a health hazard with a bunch of trash cars and garbage should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Why? Because you have no respect and it's an eyesore.
Quit using the American flag and troops as a sorry excuse and use some common sense. We have it really good in this country, and I don't think people realize it half the time.
On second thought, I think I would like to fill my entire front yard with old television sets and used toilets, and paint them all bright pink. Because that is my right as an American citizen and no one is going to infringe upon those rights!!!! I think we should just start to arrest people for having GRASS in their front yards, because that makes about as much sense, right?? right???
Posted by frankenfurter (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 2:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And furthermore, I'm amazed at how the neighborhood where I grew up in the middle of Fergus Falls (or most of the inner part of the city) has gone downhill. It looks like an atom bomb hit it. There's piles of junk behind and beside homes and cars parked all over front lawns. Why doesn't the city DO ANYTHING about it??? Why would anyone want to move to a place that looked like that?
If you're one of these folks who thinks it's perfectly alright to get away with hoarding trash, you need to have your head checked. In fact, there's a home with a burned out garage filled with garbage by the river that's been sitting in that condition for at least FIVE years. And another burned out house a couple of blocks away that has been in that condition for about 10 years. All I gotta say is....Wow.
Posted by tippy98c (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 7:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ok franky, whats acceptable and whats not to have in your yard?
Posted by Newshound (anonymous) on June 12, 2008 at 8:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
These ordinances are common all over the country-and the world. You do NOT have the right to maintiain a trashy, junk filled property. It constitutes a "nusiance". An ordinance like this is long overdue in the county. Most people have the self respect and respect for their neighbors to at least TRY to maintain a neat place. I have never understood folks who seem oblivious to their surroundings. This is a beautiful part of Minnesota, America and the Earth.
Oh. And it has nothing to do with soldiers, patriotism or serving the flag. Respect your neighbors.Simple as that.
Posted by jetfire63 (anonymous) on June 13, 2008 at 7:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My collector cars are not all trashy, they are not parked all over the front yard in the middle of the city, they are parked in neat rows in a rural part of the county and can barely be seen from the township road. They are not a nusiance and do not harbor rodents. I have respect for my neighbors and they should have respect for me and my hobbies. Today it is a "junk car ordinance" tomorrow it will be the color of your house, or the type of flowers you can plant, or banning solar powered clothes dryers. What the county is trying to do is take away personal freedoms, if I need to get rid of my "collector cars" than all farm machinery that occupies and area greater that the area the size of five cars has to go as well. Reminds me of ordinances that were proposed up around the FM area and down around St. Cloud where people move in to rural areas and then wanted the counties to pass ordinances banning livestock so their children would not see the natural reproduction cycle in progress. Yes it is taking away personal freedoms the freedoms that make America great.
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on June 13, 2008 at 10:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with Jetfire, He has it right. Some call it 'Democracy' but it is also 'Fascism' when everything you do is controlled by the state. The color of your house, the items you have in your yard, the list could be endless. I have lived in a rural area, by choice, partly to get away from all the, sometimes silly, regulations. As far as the junk car regulations go, it will not stop there. The wish to control others is always a temptation for far to many people! (a good example of this in the smoking laws, they haven't quit yet! NO, I don't smoke)
At the presant time I do not have any junk cars, but I don't get offended when someone else has some. Some of these people make a living at this, just leave them alone. Maybe instead of making laws to control them, why not just ask if they will kindly move the so called wreck.
Posted by FruitSack (anonymous) on June 13, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
is my fully-functional stand-alone commode an "eyesore" simply because i have chosen to locate it near my mailbox? or is an assumed "lack of decorum" predicated upon the fact that i only choose to flush it on a bi-monthly schedule (eco-friendly)? there are so many gradations of taste that it would seem hitleresque to mandate me to remove my brimming toilet. in the same way, forcing a person to remove the 5 rusted out tire-less cars in his front yard is tantamount to a second, less orderly, auschwitz.
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