Also targeting cars, campers, boats, junk

The Ironton Police Department is cracking down on, campers on the streets and junk cars.

Interim Ironton Police Chief Joe Ross said it’s a matter of public safety and enforcing several ordinances that are already in effect.

He said people parking campers on the streets of Ironton has been a big concern and source of complaints.

“A lot of the campers that we were tagging were owned by people who lived out in the county, not even in the city,” Ross said. He added that the campers were given a notice to move within five days or they would be towed away and impounded. Most people just moved them rather than face a fine. “You’re talking about $40,000, $50,000, $70,000 campers they don’t want towed.”

“And it’s a safety concern too. People couldn’t see around at intersections. They were taking up a lot of space,” he said. Adding that in one instance, there was a 60-foot camper, a boat and an ATV trailer. “They were taking up a lot of parking spaces.”

Another thing the police are looking for are cars with expired tags and junk cars, both on the streets and in people’s yards.

The IPD is teaming up with the Ironton Health Department to go onto private property since Ironton Ordinance 660.07 states that “no person shall store or permit to be stored an inoperable motor vehicle on public or private property in the city for more than 24 hours, unless the inoperable motor vehicle is stored inside a building or in such a location as to not be viewable by the public. And unless the same is maintained so as not to create a possible source of health or safety hazard.”

The two agencies are also targeting household junk and trash left in yard and alleyways.

“The alleys are terrible, so we hooked up with the health department to clean the city up,” Ross said. “It’s a matter of safety and the health of people who live here. I wouldn’t want to live next to somebody who has trash and rats and snakes. Nobody does.”

Ross said there is a difference between having a couple of things sitting around the house someone would want to keep and a junk pile. The biggest concern is the vermin that the pile can house.

“Those are the ones we are focusing on right now,” he said.

The police department is enforcing an ordinance on people parking vehicles so they block sidewalk access.

He said it isn’t so much people pulling on to a sidewalk, but rather people parking in their driveways in a way that blocks the majority of a sidewalk.

Ordinance 452.03 states that a vehicle cannot block the sidewalk with the exception of “A vehicle parked on a driveway of impervious or semi-impervious surface that less than half the vehicle width or length projects over the sidewalk shall be permitted if an alternate route around the obstructing vehicle exists of the same type material as the existing sidewalk, meets ADA Standards for Accessible Design for a single wheelchair access and does not occupy any part of the established street used for vehicle traffic or parking.”

“People don’t really understand that,” Ross said. “Even if it’s your driveway, you can’t block people from using the sidewalk. We get complaints about people in motorized wheelchairs using the roads; this is part of the reason why. People need to be able to use the sidewalks.”

Ross said that a lot of these things are what the Ironton City Council and city residents had expressed concerns about.

“These are the ones I focused on first,” Ross said. “I guess the council had gotten a lot of complaints on these particular issues.”

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, Ross mentioned wanting to double the size of the city impound lot.

“Our impound lot, we can’t keep up with it anymore, with the amount of accidents and since we’re increasing enforcement of these ordinances,” he said. He has contacted a fence company about a cost estimate but hasn’t heard back yet.

Ross also said he will be talking with local dumpster companies about putting some reflectors on them.

“The problem I have is that at night time, those dumpsters sitting there are totally black and you can’t see them. You need to see them,” he said. “It would be really easy to run in to them.”