NUISANCE LAW GETS TRASHED AS UNWORKABLE

WHITEWATER, Mo. -- Harold Gloth knows a nuisance when he sees one, particularly when it's an illegal dump just down the road from his house southwest of Whitewater.

Rusted refrigerators, mangled mattresses, torn-up television sets, broken down couches and chairs, discarded tires, unwanted clothing and plastic containers litter the landscape along County Road 255 near Crooked Creek.

"It is not pretty to look at it," said Gloth, who, along with his neighbors, has put up with the dump for decades.

The trash, easily visible even amid high weeds and a jungle of trees, is an ugly reminder that the county doesn't have a nuisance abatement law.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission in January and February talked of enacting a nuisance abatement ordinance to help rid the county of junk cars and other trash near roads and property lines in the rural, unincorporated areas of the county.

They said they wanted to avoid the buildup of rubbish and litter that could attract rats and spread disease.

Legality in question

The commission went so far as to review a draft of a proposed nuisance law before asking Jack Piepenbrok, to rework it. As the county's animal control officer, Piepenbrok would be in charge of enforcing a nuisance law.

Since then, the proposal has been trashed as unworkable.

"It isn't the commission that is dropping the ball, it is me," Piepenbrok said.

After reviewing nuisance abatement laws in other first-class counties in Missouri, Piepenbrok concluded it would be difficult for Cape Girardeau County to follow suit because the county doesn't have planning and zoning regulations.

Voters in November rejected a ballot measure that would have ushered in planning and zoning in the unincorporated areas of the county.

"A county in Missouri has almost no power," Piepenbrok said. "Frankly, I am not sure we could legally address it."

As a result, Piepenbrok has decided to search through state statutes to see if there are any existing state laws that the county could use to address junk cars and other nuisances.

Piepenbrok said it could be months before he reaches any conclusions and reports back to the county commission.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones initially talked of taking quick action on a nuisance measure. But in recent weeks he has been content with the slow pace.

"I am not in a hurry," he said last week. Jones said county residents have expressed little support for a nuisance law and many of them remain strongly opposed to planning and zoning.

Commissioner Larry Bock said he is constantly besieged by telephone calls from people upset with neighbors' junk cars or trash pile.

"If we can do something with common sense, then I am all for it," he said. "We have let it drag on too long."

Bock said any enforcement of a nuisance law would be handled through written complaints.

Still, he isn't sure if the commission can settle on a measure that could be enforced. "If we can't enforce it, there is no need to have it," Bock said.

Pessimistic about effect

Gloth, who opposes planning and zoning, doubts that a nuisance abatement law would get rid of the illegal dump near his house at 1596 County Road 255.

He said the dump has been around for 30 years. Gloth and his neighbors don't condone it, but so far they haven't found a way to stop it.

Gloth said area residents and the county have posted "no dumping" signs in the past. "People take them down," he said, adding that the signs wind up in the junk pile.

People drive down the dusty gravel road, dump their trash and flee. "They slip in at night and different times," said Gloth. "It is hard to stop it."