By Tyler Riggs

PARADISE -- The Town Council asked residents to clean up their yards last month and for the most part, the council is happy with the progress.

Council members used part of Wednesday's meeting to visit four homes to let them know their progress in cleaning up their yards was appreciated.

According to Paradise law, residents are allowed to have cars kept on their property as long as they are out of sight. Last month when council members visited homes to let residents know they were breaking the law, they gave the violators 30 days to make an attempt to clean up their yards.

On Wednesday's visits, the council thanked those who have cleaned up their yards but said there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

"It1s bad to drive through Main Street in our town," said Councilwoman Margaret Obray. "There are some [people] that are completely out of ordinance."

Obray said there are still some residents that are clearly breaking the town's rule on junk vehicles; those are the homes they are now targeting.

Three town residents attended the meeting speaking out against their neighbors who had junky yards. Mayor Lee Atwood told them the town is doing everything it can to help clean up the area.

"You can have ten different viewpoints between what you deem is nice looking and what is not nice looking," Atwood said. "The ordinance currently is either get rid of them or hide them."

Atwood said the town understands some residents can't have their yards totally cleaned up within a week or two of finding out they are breaking the law.

"You never know exactly a person's schedule," Atwood said. "Maybe his wife has got sick or one of his kids, so your schedule is shuffled completely different."

Atwood said the council would visit homes again in 30 days to continue monitoring their progress.

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