It's still a mess

THE ISSUE

Several eyesores near the gateways of Florence and Muscle Shoals present an unattractive greeting to visitors.

Driving into Florence from the east, along U.S. 72, offers visitors some pleasant scenery - until they reach the auto salvage business just outside the city limits.

Visitors arriving in the Shoals to the south, near Muscle Shoals, are greeted with a similar sight: a tractor salvage company.

Both companies have made efforts to screen junked vehicles, but through a series of legal entanglements and lack of regulatory power by local governments, the businesses are more or less free to ignore aesthetics.

Florence officials and the Alabama Department of Transportation have been at odds with Red and Nolan England for years. City officials have tried to persuade them to do more to screen the junkyard that lies next to their salvage businesses, but they have no authority over them because the businesses lie outside the city limits. The Department of Transportation brought suit several years ago, claiming the junkyard violates the federal Highway Beautification Act. The state received a favorable ruling, but there is no timetable for meeting the act's requirements.

Fencing and greenery that screened the junkyard was installed a few years ago, but some of it was removed when the state widened the highway. Needless to say, that didn't settle well with the owners.

Mallard Steel Inc. is not as unsightly as England's junkyard, where it's common to see wrecked vehicles near the edge of the highway. Mallard has some fencing and greenery, which hides the worst of its scrap, but old tractors are visible from the highway.

No one wants to see these businesses close their doors, but they have an obligation to be good corporate citizens, which includes taking a few steps to prevent their facilities becoming eyesores.

And county governments have an obligation to convince the voters of the importance of self-governance legislation that would give officials the power to force owners of public eyesores to clean up their properties - regardless of whether such authority might be controversial. County commissioners were elected to make tough decisions.