Indiana County Addresses Salvage Yard Problems

Operators of unlicensed salvage yards may soon have to clean up or pay up as the county's plan commission addresses complaints over a growing number of local junkyards.

"I could probably cover the wall in photos," zoning administrator Joe Hagedorn said during a recent meeting of the Perry County, Ind., Plan Commission. Hagedorn displayed a collage of photographs taken across the county of what he called unlicensed salvage yards. Several of the photos showed large numbers of inoperable cars and pickup trucks, large piles of metal and discarded mobile homes.

Several Anderson Township residents attending the meeting said operators of junkyards in their area continue to bring in junk cars and trucks, stacking some of them atop one another. Others sit on an And-Tro Water Authority easement. Hagedorn said the junkyard in question was included in the 20 photos on display.

The county's zoning ordinance requires salvage yards to be licensed and relegates them to areas that are zoned for heavy industry, but Hagedorn said the large collections of old vehicles and old mobile homes, most of them located in rural areas, are operating without any type of zoning approval.

The ordinance calls for fines against zoning violators. Plan commission attorney John Warner said violations are punishable by fines of $10 to $300, and said fines can be assessed each day the ordinance is being violated. 

If the commission authorizes Hagedorn to issue notices of zoning violations, property owners would have up to 30 days to remove items. "The 31st day becomes the first possible $300 day," Werner said.

Commission member Bernie Bower said it was important to move ahead with notifying violators of the commission's determination to address the problem, but suggested the effort to clean up some sites will take time to accomplish. Fellow commission member and County Commissioner Jody Fortwendel agreed, saying it was important to begin tackling the problem now. "Hopefully, if we address one or two (violators), people will go ahead and clean things up on their own."

Some junkyards could also be in violation of environmental laws, he said.