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we are buying land in Elkmont, right outside the County. we were in the understanding that things would be great BUT looks can be decieving, there are a lot of houses with "trash" around their house, doors boarded up, people throwing trash on the side of the road, in garbage bags etc. now we just found out that they are planning on selling plots right in front of our land and home too. we are concerned that they will treat their property the same. we spent a lot of money on our land etc to provide a better living for our kids yet it seems like it may be worse. HELP!!! there has to be rules, law's etc. you cant just have run down houses, trash everywhere etc can you?? what can i do to stop this.
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Keeper's link is a good one. You'll want to determine the correct jurisdiction (if not in any city limits, then the county) and contact whomever there is to contact. I don't know where you came from, but Alabama (and the South in general) is indeed a bit trashier than other more regulated areas (the far west and northeast). There's very much a "you can't tell me what to do with my stuff" vein that can often run toward the junky, noisy and/or and unnattractive, particularly in rural, unincorporated areas. And there isn't a taboo about littering like there is in other parts of the country. I can't explain why that is. Just that it is. And there simply isn't much public money allocated toward code enforcement/nuisance abatement or even cleaning up. Heck, we have trouble keeping enough troopers on the roads and keeping the courthouses open (no new taxes!), let alone keeping everything nice looking.
That being said, sometimes you can set an example by stepping up and taking care of some of it. Adopt a section of the roadway near your place. Clean it up and maintain it. Perhaps others will see this and think twice about throwing out that Jack's bag and the dirty diaper.
Keeper's link is a good one. You'll want to determine the correct jurisdiction (if not in any city limits, then the county) and contact whomever there is to contact. I don't know where you came from, but Alabama (and the South in general) is indeed a bit trashier than other more regulated areas (the far west and northeast). There's very much a "you can't tell me what to do with my stuff" vein that can often run toward the junky, noisy and/or and unnattractive, particularly in rural, unincorporated areas. And there isn't a taboo about littering like there is in other parts of the country. I can't explain why that is. Just that it is. And there simply isn't much public money allocated toward code enforcement/nuisance abatement or even cleaning up. Heck, we have trouble keeping enough troopers on the roads and keeping the courthouses open (no new taxes!), let alone keeping everything nice looking.
That being said, sometimes you can set an example by stepping up and taking care of some of it. Adopt a section of the roadway near your place. Clean it up and maintain it. Perhaps others will see this and think twice about throwing out that Jack's bag and the dirty diaper.
Yep.. you are right. There is a leash law but if you live in the county most folks let their dogs/cats run loose.
In my city it seems that the cleaning up your property is overlooked depending on who you know in the city.
Unfortunately you can't stop it in a rural area. I own my great aunts old house out in the country, the house is vacant and i guess thats why people feel free to throw their trash out in the yard. Beer bottles, diapers, potato chip bags. Just a few days ago I even found a pair of jeans that apparently someone had pooped in and threw out.
The leash law leads me to another rant that I believe is quite Southern in nature -- not spaying/neutering animals, dumping/abandoning them and/or letting them breed indiscriminately, and not giving a whit about the outcome. A dog rescue I support participates in regular (like twice a month) trips to the Northeast (New Hampshire, Vermont) with Alabama and Tennessee shelter dogs. See, there basically ARE no shelter dogs available for adoption in those northern states, because people simply have a different mindset about animals. In addition, up there the population supports leash- and spay/neuter laws, and law enforcement is funded to (and chooses to) enforce them. Meanwhile, down here we are still gassing them in metal bins.
It's very frustrating, but you'll have to make some peace with it. Make your own place beautiful. Plant screening hedges or use fences to block any nearby offensiveness. Do roadside trash pickup with your kids as a teachable moment. Because the folks who live in unincorporated, rural areas are the least likely to embrace the "it takes a village" mindset.
I should probably add that I live in an unincorporated semi-rural area -- more of a bedroom community/small town, actually. So I'm not casting aspursions on folks I'm unfamilar with.
we are buying land in Elkmont, right outside the County. we were in the understanding that things would be great BUT looks can be decieving, there are a lot of houses with "trash" around their house, doors boarded up, people throwing trash on the side of the road, in garbage bags etc. now we just found out that they are planning on selling plots right in front of our land and home too. we are concerned that they will treat their property the same. we spent a lot of money on our land etc to provide a better living for our kids yet it seems like it may be worse. HELP!!! there has to be rules, law's etc. you cant just have run down houses, trash everywhere etc can you?? what can i do to stop this.
I don't normally reply to first time posts, as the poster often turns out to be a troll or pursuing an agenda. However, this initial post does go to the heart of the matter in lifestyle choices beyond the questions asked, so a response is called for. The link that Keeper provided does cover basics.
"right outside the County???" I suspect you started to write City, but meant to write right outside the town? I also strongly suspect you might be more used to life around a city. How much you spent or are spending is irrelevant. I once spent over my yearly income on a new car that turned out to be a lemon. Sometimes we make poor choices and life sucks.
What I am about to say may come across as strong. You may disagree with what I say. I don't know you from Adam, and please understand that what I am addressing in this post is attitudes in general and not a personal attack. I'm sure you are a fine and caring person.
My first comment is if you are buying - and haven't already bought - stop and back out of the sale. You will NOT be happy. You made an error, and it will be easier for you than adjusting your attitude.
We live next to an old house that is boarded up. There is another house that is boarded up across the street a few hundred feet down. There are at least a half dozen more in the area. We have a chicken farmer nearby who is a great guy, but *gasp* keeps hundreds of thousands of chickens who poop. People throw trash on the side of the road that I have to clean up or a prison gang has to clean up. (Yes, there are prisoners that will be walking around your place near the road picking up trash from time to time. With your apparent fear quotient, I suspect you are screaming about now.) People buy and sell property around here at will. Trash containers are left out by the side of the road all the time. Am I upset with all of this? NO. I am positively elated.
People talk about the sound of fighter jets flying overhead at night being the sound of freedom. I beg to differ. A war machine is not the sound of freedom and never has been. It is meant to PROTECT freedom. The real sound of freedom is neighbors who are tolerant of each other and respect that not everyone has to march in step to the tune of the current cultural fad or insanity. The real sound of freedom is a country whose leaders are not terrified by the least little thing its citizens may do, right down to leaving garbage cans out overnight or waiting too long to mow their 1/4 acre lawn of approved grasses.
Athens recently proposed an ordinance where people who didn't keep their property properly mown would be warned, then thrown in jail if they didn't mow. Aside from being one of the STUPIDEST ordinances I have ever heard of (typically city owned property, swales, and abandoned properties under city or county control are the most overgrown, and the first to be tossed in jail would by rights be the mayor) it is a perfect example of the excesses of regimentation that many of us are struggling to avoid. Limestone county doesn't have such ordinances. This great country as a whole never used to have the excesses of restrictive laws that it does now, and it was far more vibrant and alive because of that lack.
Some people are happy in gated communities with homeowner restrictions, where their fantasies that life is organized, neat, and perfectly safe are not challenged. Bless their hearts, the reality is different. Coral Gables in Florida is so restricted that it has jurisdiction over what color paint you use on your house... on the INSIDE. I am not making that up. I am also not making up that crime exists in Coral Gables, nor that the police department practiced racist hiring well into the 1980s to protect the sensibilities of fearful citizens. (There is a link to those two seemingly unrelated facts, but that goes beyond the scope of this post.)
We lived in a community in Florida that wasn't as strict as Coral Gables, but strict enough that zoning was happy to hand out tickets if hedges weren't trimmed or the grass wasn't cut, or a host of other nuisance infractions. People felt "safe" in the knowledge of those restrictions, even though one nearby street had a triple murder in such a home, and the database of criminals showed hundreds of murderers, criminals and pedophiles in close proximity. I guess as long as the crimes were neat, there wasn't a problem...
Limestone County does not have "home rule". That means that its citizens have wisely determined that they DO NOT WANT another layer of overbearing government. If you live outside of the Athens or Madison jurisdictions, you get to have freedom, with all of the potential downsides that come with it. You also get to experience a regulatory climate that is similar to what most of the country had during the 1950s, as much as can be, given encroaching Federal regulatory bodies that make fiat laws without the representation of people.
If you attempt to make changes or laws that will impinge upon MY rights, or require MY spending inordinate amounts of money so that YOUR property value can get increased, so that you can pay more taxes and higher insurance rates, I will be the first in line to stop you. I'll be as "in your face" with you as you are with me, and likely more so.
There are plenty of places where the types of restrictions that you crave are already in place. If you want those restrictions and are willing to live by them I am very happy for you. I might scratch my head as I drive by, wondering about people who willingly give up freedom, but I tend to live and let live. I expect others to do the same.
I found the reference to junkyards in Keeper's link to be somewhat amusing. Oddly enough, one of the indicators to me of freedom is a huge open auto graveyard, just across the Lauderdale county line. Why? Because about the first indication that Vermont (where I was raised) was going for tourist dollars and higher taxes was the extreme regulation of auto graveyards, where they had to be behind huge visual block fences, etc.. Seeing the open expanse of rusting cars let me know that the area is more free from nanny government than most.
Country life is DIFFERENT than suburbia. We often hear the coyote packs howling at night. While well behaved neighbor dogs are allowed to roam free, feral dogs or those who city dwellers dropped off will worry the cattle or goats around, and get themselves shot. I shoot from my back porch from time to time. I have a neighbor who has a far greater budget for ammo than I do, and I just smile when I hear him firing off large caliber rounds. I have a concealed carry permit and use it, as do many of the neighbors. We have little fear of anyone setting up shop in an abandoned house - precisely because we know that the regulations that would serve to protect them in cities don't exist out here.
Country life is DIFFERENT than suburbia. The smell of chicken poo tells me that my neighbor is still able to afford his land, and that it is being fertilized. The burning of brush in an open pile tells me that the trash trees and weeds aren't taking over a neighbor's land. Having to wait behind a tractor or combine on the road lets me know that "By G*d, there are still parts of America where we grow our own corn, wheat, soy, and cotton rather than importing it because land use laws have regulated profitable farming out of existence."
The core issue of the original post is that insufficient due diligence was performed prior to making an offer. That is the responsibility of the individual, not the community, just as if the individual had made an offer on beach land in Florida and then been astounded at insurance costs or the possibility of being washed away in a hurricane.
Is Elkmont generally neat and clean? Every time I've driven through, it seems very much so. Is there the potential of some miscreant drunk from Ardmore tossing out a beer bottle while passing through? Sure. Would neighbors quietly pitch a fit at someone who didn't fit in? I suspect so. The plain fact though, is that you have to depend upon neighbors understanding and VOLUNTARILY agreeing to standards that you can accept, rather than your being able to complain to some government thug and FORCE them into compliance with your wishes.
This world allows for many different lifestyles, religions, and cultures. Each of those has positives and negatives. It takes tolerance and personal growth to become comfortable in a culture that is outside of past experience. If those are too difficult, it may be best to stick with a "safe" and more restrictive existence. Just don't blame me when you get a ticket for not trimming the grass off the sidewalk every week or washing your car in view of people on the street.
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People throw trash on the side of the road that I have to clean up or a prison gang has to clean up. (Yes, there are prisoners that will be walking around your place near the road picking up trash from time to time. With your apparent fear quotient, I suspect you are screaming about now.) People buy and sell property around here at will. Trash containers are left out by the side of the road all the time. Am I upset with all of this? NO. I am positively elated. 
Sure. Would neighbors quietly pitch a fit at someone who didn't fit in? I suspect so. The plain fact though, is that you have to depend upon neighbors understanding and VOLUNTARILY agreeing to standards that you can accept, rather than your being able to complain to some government thug and FORCE them into compliance with your wishes.
