By CRAIG FREILICH
North Country Now

POTSDAM -- The village has adopted a new local law defining junk and restricting it from view.

“There are no major changes” to village law, “just refinements,” said Mayor Ron Tischler at the Board of Trustees meeting Monday night.

“Some properties in the village have issues,” Tischler said, that called for a change to the law to limit collections of items that could be deemed “detrimental to the health, safety and general welfare of the community,” the law says in its Statement of Purpose and Findings.

“The Board of Trustees for the Village of Potsdam hereby declares that a clean, wholesome and attractive environment is of vital importance to the continued general welfare of its citizens and that the deposit, accumulation or maintenance of junk material, regardless of quantity, is hereby prohibited anywhere within sight of persons lawfully traveling the public highways, streets or thoroughfares of the Village or within sight of neighboring properties,” the law says.

With the law, the village “declares its intent to preserve and promote peace and good order; to preserve and promote the aesthetic beauty of the community and hence the value of property therein and thus preserve and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of the Village of Potsdam.”

The list of items covered includes garbage – “animal and vegetable waste” – and “Worn out or discarded material of little or no value” defined as junk, such as unused appliances, furniture, motor vehicles, trailers “or rubbish, clutter, litter and debris.”

First among the definitions of junk items that are applicable under the law is “Bathroom Fixtures” including “toilets and toilet components.” This would give the village the potential to challenge a handful of protest installations of decorated toilets on land owned by Frederick “Hank” Robar.

More than a decade ago, Robar, a local businessman and property owner, said his protest was a reaction to decisions by village government to deny him a zoning change that would have allowed him to sell a lot at Market and Pleasant streets to a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise developer.

The village decided that the lot’s residential zoning designation should not be changed, and Robar began his protest by setting up a collection of toilets on the Market Street lot in 2004 and subsequently in other locations around town.

An assortment of attempts to remove the protest displays were unsuccessful, most notably in a court decision that, as an artistic expression by Robar presenting no harm, the village had no recourse in the matter.

There was no mention of Robar or his displays at Monday’s public meeting.

Mayor Tischler said the board was moved by the “10, 12 or 15 property owners” who have noticeable accumulations of unused or inoperative items on their land in the village.

The law says that an alleged offender would have 30 days to comply with an order to remove items before subsequent action is taken.

The law was approved unanimously by the village board. It will take effect when the law is filed with the state Department of State.