At Thursday’s vetting meeting Mayor Chuck Espy was adamant he wasn’t going to push the city to pick up junk cars and Ward 1 Commissioner Bo Plunk was adamant something needed to be done.
But by the time the city got ready to vote on Monday a compromise had been reached with the city backing off, removing junk cars and Plunk getting large trucks parked illegally on city streets to be cited by police.
“We’ve got ordinances on the book and we don’t do nothing about it,” said Plunk on Thursday. “This board sets policy and this board is full of hot air.
“This is the fifth year of this administration and we’ve got three years left,” Plunk said with his voice rising. “If the city is not cleaned up after eight years I hope they get rid of all of us.”
Mayor Chuck Espy said the city was facing more important issues right now and he was not going to spend time picking out cars to be hauled off, getting the legal work done and then allocating limited city personnel to go drag the vehicle out of someone’s yard.
On Monday the city voted to enforce the city’s ordinance on parking large commercial vehicles on city streets or yards.
Plunk said recently paved streets in Ward 1 and Ward 4 had 18-wheelers leaking transmission fluid on the streets and it was eating up the asphalt. Heavy trucks parked on asphalt streets during the heat of summer quickly grind up asphalt streets.
Parking ordinances provided to the Clarksdale Press Register by the Clarksdale Police Department say parking commercial trucks on any city street overnight or for an extended period of time is illegal. City ordinances also make it illegal to park on the left side of the street, block alleys or driveways or park vehicles with no tag or an expired tag on city streets.
The Clarksdale Commissioners agreed in mid-February to begin putting green stickers on non-moving, junk cars around town, but in March that move was nixed by Espy.
A junk car on Leflore Street that had a green sticker put on it by Ward 2 Commissioner Ken Murphey and the city’s code enforcement officer has seen that sticker peeled off by someone.
Junk cars are a chronic problem in every neighborhood in Clarksdale and hurt property values.
The city began putting green stickers on junk cars in February that explain the vehicle is in violation of a city ordinance and must be removed within five days or it may be removed by the city that can then issue a citation or make an arrest.
At the February meeting – that was not attended by Espy – all four city commissioners said something needed to be done.
At Monday’s meeting Plunk and Murphey said junk cars were not a good reflection on Clarksdale with the spring tourist season approaching.
Ward 4 Commissioner Ed Seals said there needs to be a selective process of removing junk vehicles. He cited a problem he had in his ward where an out-of-town property owner had several junk vehicles in his yard and the neighbors have repeatedly complained to him.
Ward 3 Commissioner Willie Turner was in favor of removing obvious non-functioning autos from yards in February, but was quiet at last week’s meeting.
Espy said this week with multi-million dollar bond projects underway, economic development project in the works and other issues in play that he didn’t have time to get involved with junk cars on private property.
