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Even now, John McCarthy grins when he tells about sending the report to Richmond. “There are 32 spaces on each page, and when I signed it, two pages were completely filled.”
What program brought the zoning administrator such satisfaction? The county’s new abandoned car removal effort, run in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and a private hauler.
Junked cars have been an eyesore in the county for years. They are also strictly regulated by the county’* zoning ordinances.
Unfortunately, for years there have been few remedies for those whose properties are littered with abandoned vehicles. It was expensive to have a towing company come in and remove the hulks, and many are rusted to the point where they’re useless for anything but scrap.
So, it’s been difficult for the county to enforce the prohibition against accumulating the junkers. “It’s been a problem — they’re hard to get rid of. There was no place in the county where they could be legally disposed of,” the zoning administrator said.
But, Mr. McCarthy added, “by far the most persistent zoning violation in the county is abandoned cars. We’ve tried to pursue violators, but it’s difficult because it’s been hard for them to comply with the law.”
All that changed last month, when the county be-, gan its abandoned car removal program. The program is funded by the state DMV, through a $2 charge on each motor vehicle transaction in the Commonwealth.
The state pays a $50 bounty to the county on each car certified as junked and disposed of. Mr. McCarthy explained that the county will keep $5 for its administrative costs in running the program, and the other $45 goes to Cecil Wood of Rileyville, who is hauling the cars out.
Mr. Wood is free to negotiate with each propertyowner over how much he will pay for the cars he removes, usually a percentage of the $45 bounty. Although Mr. McCarthy said the county is not involved in what is paid for removal of the cars, “the property owner could in many cases make a few bucks.”
The only DMV requirement is that Mr. McCarthy record the make, model and identification number on each vehicle, and certify that it is indeed scrapped. In most cases, he said, that involves crushing the roof of the car so it’s useless.
Then, Mr. Wood hauls the vehicles to his junkyard
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