ODESSA, Texas — On average, the city of Odessa sees about 100 junked vehicle violations every month.
For the month of December, they are focusing on this code violation.
Every month the city highlights code violations picked based on complaints and the number of violations found by code enforcement officers.
"What we're trying to do is get the property clean," Mays said.
Junked vehicles are cars that do not have a valid and lawfully attached license plate, valid registration, are inoperable, wrecked, dismantled or partially dismantled.
Junked car violators have 10 days to take action after the code enforcement officer writes up an initial citation.
"In most cases, many of the citizens will remove the junked vehicle from the site, but if they do not remove it from the site we can take it to the judge, get an order of removal. where it can be removed and as we said in the ordinance, that vehicle will be towed or crushed," Mays said.
City officials say they always try to work one on one with the citizen before taking it to the legal level.
Odessa code enforcement education administrator Darlene Mays says these cars pose a safety threat to the community.
"Because junked vehicles can be a hazard, it can be a safety risk. Children, that are out, that are running around and are playing around and are all of these old vehicles. What if they got into the trunk of the car and no one knows where they are. They could suffocate there, so it's a safety issue," Mays said.
Junked cars are not only a problem in Odessa.
Between January of last year and today, Midland had 1,369 violations and Odessa has a grand total of 2,503.
A difference of over 1,100 vehicles.
Midland's junked vehicle violation number per month is also less than Odessa's, they had about 60-70 cases while Odessa has about 100.
Regardless of these big numbers...
"When in doubt, always call us at code enforcement. An officer will come out to the location and they will address the issue there," Mays said.
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