(Resent from a few days ago due to some email problems)
While getting into my car (which I park on the street by one side of my
house) this morning, I noticed a Boulder County deputy sticking big
fluorescent orange "abandoned vehicle" warning stickers on some of the
vehicles on the same street where I park my car. Now, I live on the
corner of a short cul-de-sac and one of the main roads in my
subdivision. On this main road, several vehicles are parked that would
be considered "abandoned," including a camper trailer, a few vehicles
for sale by owner, an obviously abandoned Dodge convertible with its
windows rolled down and a busted rear window, and a trailer for my
neighbor's race car of some sort. This last vehicle, a
partially-assembled race car that my neighbor works on about every
other weekend, was unlucky enough to have the abandoned sticker stuck
to its paint job, as it has no windows.
The deputy explained that one neighbor (the owner of the race car, I
believe) complained about some abandoned vehicles on the road, and then
another neighbor (the owner of another of the "abandoned" vehicles)
complained about the race car trailer, so he was just putting warnings
on every vehicle on the street that hadn't moved in the past 72 hours.
I pointed out Peanut to him, which has been parked in the cul-de-sac
for some time now since I ran out of money to figure out the
coolant-in-the-oil issue, and he said that that was one of the vehicles
that had been complained about! The deputy did say that he wouldn't
put a sticker on Peanut, but to consider myself warned. I explained to
him about my situation, and how annoying it is to have to move a
non-functional vehicle that's being worked on, and he seemed to
understand, telling me that it just has to move a few feet every 72
hours.
Now this is a very annoying law that I'm sure other old-truckers
also have to deal with -- particularly since it's not actively
enforced, just when a neighbor complains. Peanut had been parked just
a little farther into the cul-de-sac for several months while I was
working on the fuel system, and nobody complained then. Does anyone in
Colorado know if this is a Boulder County law, or a state law? I plan
to petition the appropriate governing body about this.
In the meantime, I guess I'll roll Peanut up the hill toward my house a
whole car length, and measure my driveway to see if she can safely park
on one side of the driveway while still allowing room for my roommate's
Lotus to get into the garage (not likely). Bah.
(Follow-up: looks like it was a neighbor of mine generally known to be
a nuisance who filed the final complaint. He has multiple vehicles
parked around the neighborhood, but the prime offender was a
camper/trailer that was up on blocks and dangerous considering the kids
that walk to school past it every day.)
Tim Lloyd, lloydt@colorado.edu
http://54peanut.blogspot.com
1954 Chevy 3100 Pickup "Peanut"
1954 Chevy 3100 Panel "Being paid for"
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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