Westlake now has an ordinance addressing junk of all sorts.

The Westlake City Council unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s junked motor vehicles ordinance introduced last month. The updated ordinance gives city code enforcement officers the jurisdiction to clean up debris from properties.

The definition of junk items can range from old tires and barbecue pits to sofas and broken-down boats.

Mayor Hall McMillin told the American Press that while previous ordinances covered grass cutting and old vehicles, there was no “junk ordinance.”

This was a community-driven policy change. He said he was approached by homeowners who were concerned about how the junk in their neighbor’s yard affected property values and neighborhood cleanliness.

“One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, but you need to keep it out of sight. … That’s deterring the value of other houses in the area.”

In the case of junk violations, code enforcement officers will have the opportunity to ask homeowners to clean up their yards. If not, the ordinance will have to be enforced, and the homeowner will pay for cleanup-related fees. But McMillin doesn’t want to have to come to that.

“I want it to be an incentive for people to clean their houses up or clean junk out of their yards to keep our city looking good and keep our property values u,” he said. “We’re just trying to do things to clean up Westlake, get our property values up, and encourage our people to take pride back in their community.”

The council also approved two pre-storm contracts that put agreements in place to address debris in the event of a hurricane.

McMillin said these contracts were pre-existing. After internal evaluation, city administration decided they were comfortable maintaining their contracts with the two companies, CrowderGulf, LLC and Tetra Tech, Inc.

CrowderGulf is an Alabama-based company that specializes in disaster recovery and debris management, and that is the service the company will be contracted for if a hurricane blows through the city. Tetra Tech – a consulting and engineering company – will oversee emergency debris management and monitoring services.