GARY, WV (WOAY) – The Gary police department is continuing its summer cleanup process.
For the last few months, the police department has been focused on cleaning up trash sites and litter throughout Gary. Police Chief Pat McKinney is looking at the next step.
“What we’re looking at now is getting rid of some of the abandoned vehicles,” McKinney said. “By definition of state code, the abandoned vehicle means: if it’s touching or on the roadway, if it doesn’t have legal registration, if it doesn’t have insurance on it or if it’s up on blocks it can’t be driven.”
The population of Gary has a couple of weeks to have their vehicles within the guidelines.
“We’re going to start red-tagging them our next enforcement round, which will be the first week of August,” McKinney said. “By red tag, we have a little decal that we put on the vehicle that says, ‘this is an abandoned vehicle. You have so many days to move it, or we’ll tow it at your expense.'”
By removing abandoned cars, the police department hopes that there will be a chain reaction within the cleanup.
“And mainly what we’re after are the rat traps, snake traps, and var mat traps,” McKinney said. “They’re just sitting there, and they have all kinds of critters in them. They’re dangerous for kids. Plus, the ones that are along the side of the road that can restrict travel to make it harder for fire departments and EMS to get into these houses for emergency scenes.”
The abandoned vehicle policy will begin in early August.
