It was at this week’s Ontonagon Village Council meeting that the council held its first ‘reading’ of the Amended Village Junk Ordinance. The public hearing on this ordinance will be at their next meeting on Monday, Sept. 12.

The ordinance reads, “An ordinance to provide for control and regulation of outdoor parking, accumulation, storage and or abandonment of junk, including junk motor vehicles and junk farm equipment, within certain areas to be designated in the Village of Ontonagon, to provide for penalties for the violation of this ordinance, and to repeal any ordinance or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith.

According to the village website the village council’s intent of the ordinance is to establish a program to reduce unregulated junk. The ordinance is not just for junk cars but also abandoned motor vehicles, wreckage and ‘parts thereof. The ordinance also specifies ‘junk machinery.’

This ordinance defines ‘junk equipment’ to include ATV’s/UTV’s, motorcycles, snowmobiles, campers, boats, all the way down to bicycles and lawn mowers.

The ordinance also includes heavy equipment such as logging equipment, back-hoes, and skid-steers. The ordinance states that any junk on the property for more than 30 days is in violation of the ordinance.

No one spoke in favor or opposed to the amended ordinance at this week’s village council meeting.