Henderson’s idea of raising the threshold for junked cars is so good that other towns are following suit.
At the request of the city government, Democratic Reps. Jim Crawford of Granville County and Michael Wray of Northampton County, who both represent Vance County, introduced local legislation this year that would define a motor vehicle as being a piece of junk if its value fell below $500, up from the current $100. That doesn’t mean the police would rush around to find $300 cars and have them towed; instead, it means people who treat their vehicles as junk — storing them in a yard or up on cinder blocks — would have a tougher time appealing tow orders on the basis of vehicle value.
It’s a technical change that Police Chief Glen Allen has said will make enforcement of the city’s ordinances on junked, abandoned and nuisance vehicles much easier. Apparently, officials in other cities agree.
As is common practice for local legislation that is not controversial in the municipality of the General Assembly, the junked-vehicle bill, House Bill 75, breezed to passage in the House and was sent to the Senate. There, Sen. Doug Berger, D-Louisburg, whose district includes Vance, responded to a request from his hometown, Louisburg, and added that town to the legislation.
“This actually is the first bill that Michael and I happened to work on together,” Berger said, explaining how he added Louisburg to the bill in the Senate at the request of Rep. Lucy Allen, D-Louisburg. “We do work as a team on your behalf.”
The Senate passed the amended legislation and sent it back to the House, where Wray shepherded the bill through the House Local Government II Committee on Wednesday morning.
With little discussion and no dissent, that committee sent the bill back to the full House, where it could win final approval as long as no one else tries to piggyback on the legislation.
Two other municipalities have solved that problem by creating their own versions of the Henderson legislation. The city of Jacksonville and the town of Matthews brought separate bills before the House Local Government II Committee on Wednesday morning to define junked motor vehicles as those worth less than $500.
“Thank you for your support in passing this,” Wray told the committee, watched by seven visitors from the Clean Up Henderson Committee.
Henderson does stand out from the others in one way that only a bureaucrat could love: The city regulates junked and abandoned vehicles under a different part of the General Statutes.
Henderson applies a statute concerning health and safety. Louisburg, Jacksonville and Matthew, at least, use a statute that attacks junked vehicles for violations of community appearance standards.
“Rep. Wray has done an excellent job of building support for it to get out of this committee,” Local Government II Chairman Earl Jones said.
“Rep. Wray and Rep. Crawford did such a good job that Louisburg jumped on the bill, which caused it to come back,” Allen said. She noted the other bills with the same purpose on the agenda. “Folks have noticed this and thought it was a good idea, and I suspect we’ll be doing it statewide.”
movie nudityfree adult moviesfree cumshots moviesmovies to hard findsex scene moviewifey moviesmovie home sexinuyasha movie 3rdorgasm movieporn movies star