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Calling all junkers
The county government began a worthwhile program ' last month. Unlike most bureaucratic endeavors, it will not Z cover the county in yet another blanket of paper and red tape.
Instead, it will uncover some of Rappahannock’s beautiful countryside — from underneath a tangle of rusted, " rotting abandoned vehicles.
It’s a good example of government working hand-in-hand with private industry and landowners to accomplish a worthwhile purpose. And it didn’t cost the county a dime. The money is already available, through a surcharge on motor vehicle transfers.
The county needs only the location of the abandoned vehicles and the permission of their owner to collect them. The landowners need do nothing else. The private hauler may even pay them a few dollars for each car.
It’s a good program, and an example of the state offering local governments a solution to a problem which has been vexing them for years. Cleaning up abandoned cars is expensive, and neither the county’s residents nor its government has been able to afford to pursue the matter before.
Now that the program is available, there’s no excuse for the people who have cars abandoned not to have them removed. As Mr. McCarthy said, most people who have been informed about the program are delighted to take part. They don’t want the cars there either.
For those stubborn few who hold out against removing their hulks, Mr. McCarthy has promised that landowners in violation of the ordinance’s restrictions who don’t move the cars voluntarily will be ordered to remove them by a court.
We support the removal program, and we support his tough stance on violators. Abandoned vehicles serve no purpose except to blight our beautiful countryside.
If the vehicles aren’t abandoned, if they do have value, then their owners ought to pay taxes on them like the rest of the county’s residents. That, too, is the law.
Either way, it’s time for those who are not in compliance to “get right.” Mr. McCarthy has served notice: For abandoned vehicles in Rappahannock, the county’s new program marks the end of the road.
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