Opinion : Trash or Treasure

*This article is written as something I call a "Newsitorial". It's a mix of current events and what I think about it.*

There has been an ongoing battle between a homeowner and the City of Vinton. For quite a while now, the city has been trying to work with the homeowners trying to get the family to clean up their property.

The city got out their pen and paper and wrote the homeowner a letter.

I have no idea how the letter read, but I bet it said something like this:

"Dear Dude and Ma'am,

Your yard is a mess, would you PLEASE clean it up?

Sincerely,

The People Trying to Keep Everyone Happy

Anyway, the city began the process and went through the court to force the homeowner to take action.

There's now a dumpster blocking half the road by his house, because, well, the city just gave up and the court thought that apparently, the homeowner needed a hand.

Because of some debate about when the city can and can't go on the homeowner's property, the city again had to make sure that they have the legal right to move forward and begin clean up of the property.

In an interview with a local TV station, the homeowner said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

The ironic part is that if the homeowner lived outside of the city limits he could have as many treasures as he wanted and no one would care.

However, when you live within a few feet of your neighbor's house, it's only polite to keep the place neat and tidy.

If you decide to live in town, you have all kinds of rules to keep everyone happy. There are rules about when you can park your car if you live too close to downtown. There are rules about how long you can park your car in the street. There are even rules about propping your car up on blocks. There are rules about how tall your grass can be. There are rules about shoveling. There are rules about when you can mow. There is a guy in the city budget just to keep track of all of these rules and to advise the council of what they and other councils have made into laws.

I chuckle in situations like this because I have a very distinct memory of the City of Vinton bringing a front end loader to my house when I was a kid. We owned 2 lots on a corner and had a humongous yard. In the corner of the yard, next to the alley, my dad had tire rims stored in a pile.

Now I use the term "stored" loosely, they were thrown in a pile together. My dad was a car person. He worked on them, always had the pieces he needed to rig anything up that you needed. I have no idea why he stored his rims there but he did.

I remember vividly running into the house to tell my mom that some people were "taking daddy's stuff!" My mom, of course, went out and told them to leave, and back in the 70's they did.

I believe later my dad did get a letter from the city telling him to clean up the yard, and he did.

However, in my dad's defense, he said, "I don't know why they had a problem with that stuff, you couldn't even see it! The grass was covering it up!"

So while I should write this scathing article about how it's such a disgrace that the homeowner's yard is a mess, I have to chuckle.

I get it.

I don't necessarily agree with it, I've just been there, and understand a man and his trash, er, treasures sometimes have a hard time parting with each other.

However, I do hope that the homeowner realizes that when you live in the city, the city makes the rules.

Just play nice, you're going to lose. It's much easier to clean your own stuff up than to have strangers come in and do it for you. And face it, they don't want to clean your stuff up either, but they will.

Here's a simple explanation of how this works.

You pay property taxes.

Your property taxes cover expenses for example, like taking people to court to tell them to clean their yard when they won't.

And when they won't, your taxes pay for a dumpster.

If the people don't let the city in their yard to clean it up, your taxes pay to go to court again.

Now I'm not sure if your tax dollars pay the guys to clean up said messes, but if it does, well, the messy taxpayer is creating more debt for the rest of the taxpayers. The neighborly thing to do would be to hold a block party and thank the neighborhood for chipping in to clean up your yard.

Back in the day, my dad simply read the letter from the city, grumbled and growled and loaded up his truck with his tire rims and hauled them to the dump.

And then he mowed the lawn.

It's just an idea, but it's cheaper and hey, it's the neighborly thing to do.