WISCONSIN -- The Hudson City Council on Monday night further revised the police department's policy on the towing of vehicles.

The new language says that businesses with different names that operate out of the same location will be considered one business when it comes to putting them on the police department's rotating call list.

Local garage owners had complained that some wrecker operators were getting on the call list more than once by multiple business names.
The council also approved requiring a wrecker company to have a parking lot and office within two miles of the city, and in the state of Wisconsin, where an owner can pay tow charges and pick up his or her vehicle.

The city also will have the right to change the policy at any time, and to remove a company from the calling list for two years if it provides false information.

Instead of referring to an "agreement" between the city and wrecker companies, the arrangement is referred to as a "policy and application." Wrecker companies will have to complete a brief application to be placed on the calling list.

Dave Wilkens of River Falls, owner of All-Ways Towing, said the policy won't keep his or his parents' company, Jerry's Towing, off the calling list. In a telephone call last week, Wilkens said he has Hudson locations he can use.

Wilkens said a report in last week's Star-Observer that his family owns half a dozen wrecker companies was false.

Between them, he and his parents own three companies (All-Ways, Jerry's and Jack's Truck and Trailer). He and the owners of three other wrecker companies cooperate so that whoever has the closest truck does the towing, he said.

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NEW YORK -- The New Paltz Town Board has crafted a new towing law designed to establish a townwide policy for removing disabled vehicles from the roads.

According to Guy Kempe, assistant to town Supervisor Don Wilen, New Paltz currently has no formal system for removing vehicles that become disabled or abandoned within its jurisdiction, which includes a section of the state Thruway.

The police department's practice has generally been to call Tom Johnson of Tom's Repair, a longtime town business, said Kempe. But when a new company, Action Towing of New Paltz, opened last year, owner Guy Gulino's attorney requested that the town create a rotation list for tow jobs.

Most communities have some formal mechanism for assigning tow companies to jobs, Kempe said, such as a contract under bid or a rotating list that gives approved companies an opportunity for business.

Under the current draft of the law, the town would rely on two rotational tow lists - one for normal passenger vehicles and light trucks and another for larger commercial vehicles. The list would include only companies located within the town.

Priorities for selecting a tow company to respond to an incident would be based on the emergency needs at the scene, any reasonable owner request for a particular company and the next business on the rotation list.

The proposed legislation would also establish fees for businesses that want to be included on list. Towing charges are set at $135, cleanup and disposal at $45 and recovery charges at $65 per hour. Vehicle storage rates would be limited to $44 per day, and the charge would not be permitted for any day the business is closed or the vehicle cannot be released to the owner.

Mileage fees would be $3 per mile, with no charge for towing within the town boundaries.

To be eligible to be placed on the list, companies would have to accept credit cards or other payment in addition to cash. Towers must demonstrate they can provide prompt and professional services, maintain adequate equipment and insurance coverage, provide a 20-minute response time and have a secure storage area with the town of New Paltz that would be open at least every weekday.

The Board agreed last week to hold a public hearing on the proposed town law on Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

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VIRGINIA -- A Virginia State Police trooper responding to a call was killed yesterday evening in an accident on Interstate 95 near Springfield, authorities said.

Mark Cosslett, 40, a motorcycle officer, was riding on the right shoulder near Backlick Road about 5:30 p.m. when a tow truck turned onto the shoulder and the two vehicles collided, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell. Caldwell said Cosslett was thrown from his motorcycle and died at the scene.

Cosslett, who had been with the department for 16 years, was on his way to investigate reports of gunshots in the Newington area, Caldwell said. Another trooper, who was behind Cosslett in a car, witnessed the accident, but did not reveal whether Cosslett had his emergency light activated.

Authorities said the tow truck driver, who works for Triangle-based On Time Towing, apparently turned onto the shoulder when he came up on slow-moving traffic. Caldwell said state police and Fairfax County police are continuing an investigation of the crash, which tied up I-95 for several hours.

Cosslett's death is the first of an on-duty Virginia trooper since 1999. Daniel Lee Williams, 38, died of severe burns two days after his car caught fire as he chased a driver who apparently was trying to evade a sobriety checkpoint in Cumberland County. (Thanks Tim)

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The national average diesel fuel price soared 0.6 cents a gallon over the last week to an average price of $1.469, based on a weekly survey of more than 800 service stations by the department's Energy Information Administration.

This marks the tenth straight week that tow operators have been forced to pay higher prices for diesel, and with a 16.5 cent increase in the last ten weeks tow operators are feeling the crunch.

Despite crude oil prices remaining above OPEC's target price of $22-$28 a barrel, OPEC refuses to increase production which usually translates to lower prices.

Most industry experts agree that diesel fuel prices will get much higher before they stabilize.

Prices rose in every district except the West Coast. To check prices in your area, go to www.itow.org/fuel.htm.

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CALIFORNIA -- The Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday voted 4-0 to approve new regulations to help police commercial vehicles that park in residential areas.

The new ordinance was proposed by the city police department and the Traffic Safety Commission and received no opposition from the audience. Councilwoman Ramona Finnila was absent.

The council last month delayed making a decision on the ordinance to see if tow trucks could be exempted, since on-duty drivers sometimes park trucks at their homes so they can quickly respond to vehicle accidents.

"The real short answer is no," deputy city engineer Bob Johnson told the council Tuesday. City ordinances must follow the state vehicle code and the code allows no exemption.

But, if residents do complain about tow truck parking, the tow companies should contact city police, Johnson said. Alternative arrangements might be made, such as allowing a tow truck to park at a neighborhood fire station.

"The tow trucks are very much needed to respond quickly," Johnson said.

Officials said residents have complained for years about large trucks parking on their neighborhood streets. But police and traffic engineers said the existing ordinance is so vague it is difficult to enforce.

City regulations define commercial vehicles by their size, but state traffic codes define them by weight and use. That means under the city regulations, many non-commercial vehicles such as large pickups would be banned from parking if police were to enforce the letter of the law.

In addition, the current ordinance imposes a three-hour time limit on commercial vehicles making deliveries or picking up material. To enforce it, police would have to mark the tires and return three hours later to see if the vehicle had been moved.

The new ordinance will ban parking of any commercial vehicle with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or more in a residential area.

It would also define a commercial vehicle as one used "for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation or profit or designed, used, or maintained primarily for the transportation of property" in accordance with state law.

The new ordinance also does away with the three-hour time limit. Instead, it says that commercial vehicles are allowed to park while making pickups or deliveries or while the vehicle driver ---- such as a plumber ---- is providing a service at the home of a resident.

Buses and van pool vehicles will be exempt. Recreational vehicles are also not be subject to the regulation. (Tim Mayer - North County Times)

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CALIFORNIA -- Tow truck drivers around Northern California will be helping police look for abducted kids, the California Highway Patrol announced this week.

When an Amber Alert is broadcast to media and on highway signs, tow truck drivers working for AAA of Northern California will also receive text messages about the alert.

Tow trucks are on the roads around the clock and "highly skilled" at spotting specific vehicles because of the nature of their job, said AAA spokeswoman Jennifer Mack. More than 1,000 tow truck drivers work for AAA, she said.

In July, Gov. Davis directed the CHP to implement the statewide child abduction network. So far, Amber Alert's have helped authorities recover 18 abducted children, the CHP said.

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CALIFORNIA -- Dwight Mullins echoes the feelings of other Humboldt County tow truckers when asked about the county's new abandoned vehicle ordinance.

"I'm thinking of telling the state of California to kiss my big, red, rosy rump," Mullins said.

Mullins, who owns Pacific Towing in Eureka, at one time found hauling abandoned vehicles to the scrapyard a modest-paying but dependable business. But a depressed scrap market and overflowing wreck yards mean hauling away such vehicles these days costs tow truckers money -- a lot of money.

On top of that, the California Highway Patrol, which contracts with the companies, calls day and night for services but doesn't pay a dime for abandoned vehicles.

And now comes a new county ordinance, aimed at cracking down on abandoned vehicles. Mullins said the ordinance is good for neighbors who are tired at looking at eyesores. But for tow truckers, it just means working for more losses.

Leroy Hoffman, owner of Humboldt Towing, is equally fed up. Hoffman points out a dilapidated motor home baking in the sun outside his shop in Old Town. Trash literally pours out of the opened door of the hulk.

Hoffman estimated he'll pay a total of $800 to get rid of the motor home, considering the unrecouped costs of towing and storage space, conducting a lien sale, paying the garbage company to clean out the trash and paying John's Used Cars and Wrecking in Eureka to turn the motor home into scrap.

"We're going broke doing this," Hoffman said.

Residents in communities like King Salmon and Cutten have long complained about motor homes, cars and vans left sitting in their neighborhoods. The vehicles are usually full of trash, attracting rats, occupying scarce parking spaces and creating blind intersections.

Cities already have tough ordinances in place, but the county did not until earlier this week, when a ordinance was passed by the Board of Supervisors. While the county and cities pay towing companies for taking care of abandoned vehicles. The money comes from $1 assessed on each registered vehicle, roughly $120,000 for the county. Problem is the money is usually burned through early in the county's fiscal year.

If companies refuse to handle an abandoned vehicle call for the CHP, as some have, they get bumped from the rotation for a while, missing out on the lucrative jobs, such as big truck accidents.

Hoffman said he doesn't blame the CHP, which is merely doing its job in getting rid of the vehicles. Instead, he blames the state for not setting aside more money. He also blames the vehicle owners themselves, who don't take responsibility for their property, leaving taxpayers to take care of their mess.

"CHP's not the enemy in this," Hoffman said. "They have the same problem we do. We understand that, but they're getting paid every month regardless of what they do. We're not."

To that end, Hoffman and Mullins say that unless the state finds more money to offset truckers for their losses, they may quit doing business with the state -- even if that means losing as much as 20 percent of their business. Such a loss would mean that Hoffman would have to downsize, perhaps laying off some employees.

George Eyrek, towing officer for CHP, said he hasn't seen the new county ordinance, so he couldn't comment on it. Eyrek said he sympathizes with the tow truck companies' predicament, but there's nothing he can do about.

"It's a bigger problem than me," he said. "It's a tough situation because we understand what they're going through."

Eryek said the general public tired of looking at abandoned vehicles often fail to understand the wider problem.

"All they want is to get them off the road," Eryek said. "But then what happens to it? That's where the problem begins."

Up until a few years ago, John's Used Car and Wrecking in Eureka paid the companies for the scrap metal generated by the vehicles. But in recent years, the price for scrap has sunk, a depression many blame on foreign steel flooding the market. The wrecking yard is full most days, and tow truck companies are charged $75 to $100 to unload most vehicles.

Meanwhile, Hoffman said cleaning up abandoned vehicles is important to public health and safety. But as a businessman, he just wants to break even. The sad thing, he said, is that if he and other fed up truckers he stops doing business with CHP, the problem of abandoned vehicles won't go away.

Tim Mattson, county deputy public works director, said he doesn't quite understand what all the fuss is about. Mattson said the new ordinance won't necessarily create more abandoned vehicles, it just allows authorities to deal with them sooner.

While he's aware of the costs borne by truckers, Mattson said he's not sympathetic, especially considering the companies offer competing bids for annual contracts with CHP.

"They signed the contract," Mattson said. "You can always negotiate different rates."

Mattson said the only recourse for tow truckers may be to band together and lobby state representatives. (James Tressler - The Times-Standard)

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FLORIDA -- If you drive a commercial vehicle in St. Lucie County Florida, whether it's for company transportation, delivering pizza, or towing, it cannot be parked at your house. Not in the driveway, not in the backyard, and not in the garage.

It's even illegal to park on your own grass with any vehicle, commercial or private.

After local tow operators complained, St. Lucie County has agreed to make an exception to it's anti-business like ordinance that prohibits a commercial vehicle from parking in a residential areas.

Tow operators pointed out, at a September public hearing, that the county sheriff requires them to respond to accidents within 20 minutes, something they cannot do if they must drive to their business to get a truck before responding to the accident.

The county however made sure that the exception can easily be revoked. The ordinance says that tow operators who receive two complaints about their vehicle from anyone, within 60 days, will lose their exemption.

St Lucie County doesn't seem to realize that tow trucks are essentially an emergency service, and while ambulances and fire vehicles are sitting in driveways, the vehicles necessary to clear roads and keep traffic flowing are miles away in another part of the county.

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International Fuel Technology Inc. (IFT) has unveiled a fuel blend, Texas Diesel-1 (TD-1), for the Texas marketplace. IFT has received notification from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that TD-1 meets specifications for CARB diesel, and therefore qualifies as low emission diesel (LED) in the State of Texas.

The company said the use of TD-1 will enable diesel fuel suppliers to comply with the Texas Low-Emission Diesel Fuel Program, which mandates all diesel fuel sold in 110 affected counties in central and eastern Texas meet LED specifications beginning in 2005.

TD-1 will be distributed to the greater Houston area by Ada Resources Inc., which will bring TD-1 to the Houston market immediately through the Texas Emissions Reduction Program.

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For 2003, Ford's F-Series Super Duty pickups will feature an all-new optional diesel engine and automatic transmission package designed to deliver "class-leading power." The trucks will also offer more comfort, convenience and trim options.

The big news is under the hood, Truck Group marketing director Doug Scott said. He said the new 32-valve 6.0-liter Power Stroke V-8 turbodiesel is more powerful, provides approximately 8% better fuel economy and satisfies more stringent emissions standards than the 7.3-liter Power Stroke it replaces.

The engine puts out 325 hp at 3300 rpm and 560 ft-lbs of torque at 2000 rpm. It uses cooled EGR to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions by 20%. In addition, noted Scott, the engine is less noisy and transmits less vibration.

While Navistar International manufactures the Power Shift, Ford builds the new TorqShift transmission. The five-speed automatic features a tow-haul mode, activated by touching a button or tapping the brake, which electronically helps improve control when towing.

The transmission includes improved gear ratios, higher-capacity pumps, robust components and simplified shift controls. According to Scott, these features contribute to fuel economy improvements, reliability, smooth shifts and quieter operation.

A key feature of the TorqShift is thedriver-activated tow-haul mode. Once selected, the shift strategy of the automatic changes, allowing for more control on a loaded vehicle.

Going uphill, tow-haul mode holds a gear longer before upshifting to help maintain consistent movement without strain, explained Tamara Henderson, supervisor program manager. Going downhill, a tap on the brake pedal signals tow-haul, resulting in downshifts as appropriate to slow the vehicle.

Henderson noted that the engine and transmission were developed together, rather than through the more common practice of adapting one to fit the other.

The Power Stroke and Torqshift package will be offered on F-250 through F-550 pickups and chassis cabs. The Power Stroke will also be available with a six-speed manual transmission. Super Duty models will also be available with several Triton gas engines.

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TEXAS -- After six weeks of slow, painful recovery efforts, an emergency medical technician who was critically injured when a tow truck crashed into his car has died.

Peter Page, 24, died Tuesday at Memorial Hermann Hospital of cardiac arrest. He had survived the critical-care period and had been moved to a long-term rehabilitation facility, where he was starting to walk, his boss said.

"Peter was an all-around great person," said Mike Russell, of NorthStar EMS, a private ambulance service.

The driver of the truck that hit Page's car fled after the accident and is still being sought.

An arrest warrant has been issued for William Freeman, aka Billy Ferguson, who got into a vehicle that was following his wrecker and fled after the accident, authorities said.

Freeman, 55, was charged with failure to stop and render aid. The charge could be upgraded, said Lt. John Denholm.

Page, of Channelview, was driving through an intersection when the tow truck ran a red light and hit his door, witnesses said. (Peggy O'Hare - Houston Chronicle)

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WASHINGTON -- It was one of the most minor kinds of cases for Seattle Municipal Judge Michael Hurtado — a dispute over an impounded car. And his last-minute change of mind may have seemed insignificant.

But that brief moment in February cost Hurtado a formal admonishment yesterday from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which warned the judge that when he took testimony from the towing company without the car's owner there to respond, he broke the rules of ethics.

The written warning says Hurtado violated three canons of judicial conduct when he engaged in ex parte communications — that is, talking to one side of a case without the other side there to respond.

Hurtado, who had never been disciplined in 10 years as a judge and was given an Outstanding Judge Award last month by the state Bar Association, said he agrees with the commission and willingly accepts the minor discipline.

"It's not the worst transgression, but in some respects citizens can feel confident that the Judicial Conduct Commission looks at every allegation and takes them seriously," Hurtado said. "That should make them feel good about the system."

The February car-impound case was in Des Moines Municipal Court, where Hurtado was filling in as a pro tem judge in the absence of the regular Des Moines city judge.

A man said a car should not have been towed away, and Hurtado agreed, signing an order saying the impound was illegal.

But later that day, long after the man had gone away happy, the city prosecutor presented a representative of the towing company, who testified that the person claiming to be the car's owner wasn't really the owner.

"Hurtado believed a fraud had been perpetrated on the court," the commission's report says. He set aside his ruling and ordered a new hearing.

"I thought what I was doing was correct by ordering a completely new hearing, but I violated the code (of conduct) by listening to the prosecutor," said Hurtado, mirroring the commission's formal findings.

Instead, Hurtado said, he should not have listened to the testimony until the car owner could be summoned to court to hear the tow company's allegations.

"I guess I should have done it differently," Hurtado said. "But I still feel a fraud was perpetrated on the court." (Ian Ith - Seattle Times)

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The national average diesel fuel price soared 2.6 cents a gallon over the last week to an average price of $1.46, based on a weekly survey of more than 800 service stations by the department's Energy Information Administration.

This marks the eighth straight week of diesel price increases.

Despite crude oil prices remaining above OPEC's target price of $22-$28 a barrel, OPEC refuses to increase production which usually translates to lower prices.

In recent weeks as a series of storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the threat of military action against has Iraq left many industry watchers uneasy. 

Most industry experts agree that diesel fuel prices will get much higher before they stabilize.

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WEST VIRGINIA -- Huntington Mayor David Felinton has dropped a city councilman’s towing company from the rotation of businesses that provide towing service to the city.

Felinton said he removed Thompson’s Auto Service, owned by Councilman Charlie Thompson, from the three-company list last week because he felt it was a violation of the West Virginia Ethics Act.

"I just felt there was a real conflict of interest, not only from Charlie’s perspective, but the city’s as well," Felinton said.

Cogan’s Wrecker Service, River Cities Towing and Thompson’s Auto rotated towing service every three days. Companies on the list are responsible for towing any city-owned vehicles, vehicles that break down, are involved in an accident or are cited for a traffic or parking violation.

In a memo sent to several departments, including public works and Huntington fire and police departments, Felinton said the city is to no longer call Thompson’s company for towing service.

The mayor said his decision was influenced by a local government training workshop he attended two weeks ago in Charleston. One of the training sessions was conducted by the West Virginia Ethics Commission and focused on ethics and open meetings laws, he said.

Thompson’s company has been towing for the city since 1977. When he was elected to City Council in January 2001, he requested an opinion from the Ethics Commission on how the Ethics Act affected business agreements between his company and the city.

"The Ethics Act prohibits public servants from being a party to, or having an interest in, a public contract, purchase or sale which their public position gives them authority to award or control," Ethics Commission Executive Director Richard Alker wrote in a letter dated Jan. 11, 2001, to Thompson. "As a member of City Council, you share control over the city’s financial transactions and, as a consequence, your company may no longer supply towing services to the city."

However, Thompson’s company may continue to accept calls from the Cabell County-operated E-911 Center to tow vehicles which have been cited for city violations, the letter continues.

"The 911 work is not at odds with the Ethics Act’s prohibition against private interests in public contracts, so long as the vehicle owner pays the towing charges directly to your company," the letter states.

Felinton said his order runs parallel to the Ethics Commission’s letter.

"With all of the work the city does with 911, it’s hard for me to believe that (Thompson) does not have a conflict of interest with them," Felinton said. "But that’s for the county to decide, not me."

Thompson said he is not violating the Ethics Act because his company does not have a contract with the city to tow vehicles.

"None of the towing companies have a contract with the city," he said. "If my company charged the city for towing city vehicles, then I could see a conflict."

When Thompson was elected to council, he stopped charging the city for towing city vehicles.

The councilman also said he believes Felinton’s order is a personal attack against him for council’s decision to investigate his administration. Although council members have repeatedly declined to comment on the scope of the investigation, Felinton has said he thinks council is trying to impeach him.

"I’ve been on council for 20 months, and it was never indicated that my service would be removed until an investigation was brought up," Thompson said. "There are 10 other council members, and I feel like I’ve been singled out."

Felinton denied Thompson’s allegations, but the councilman said he has hired an Charleston attorney Alex Ross to look into the matter. Thompson said will decide next week whether he will take legal action.

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FLORIDA -- A man struck and killed by a tow truck early Sunday in Largo has been identified as 54-year-old Kevin Byron Valentine, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said Tuesday.

Valentine, whose last known address is in Largo, was walking across Seminole Boulevard about 1:45 a.m. Sunday when he was struck by the truck just south of Walsingham Road. The tow truck and a second vehicle that also struck Valentine did not stop. Valentine died at the scene. The next day, troopers arrested Jim A. Heyes, 40, on a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Troopers say Heyes was driving the tow truck, with two people inside, when he struck Valentine. Troopers arrested Heyes after receiving a call from one of the passengers in the tow truck, Lt. Sterling King said. Heyes was drinking both before and after the crash, arrest reports state. He was being held Tuesday at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.

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WASHINGTON -- Ever wonder how some campaign promises pan out — like Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' idea to ease traffic jams by providing tow trucks at bridges during rush hour?

Eight months after Nickels' tow-truck plan was set in motion, the numbers are in: 99 cars towed, at a cost of about $65,000, or almost $650 a tow. By year's end the program is expected to cost $95,000, according to city traffic manager Mike Estey, who briefed the City Council's Transportation Committee yesterday.

Given the city's $60 million budget shortfall projected for next year, you might think this is one program destined for the ax.

Think again. Nickels plans to finance the tow trucks again — albeit at a slightly reduced cost.

"Why is this worth continuing? Clearly there are tons of benefits," said Nickels spokeswoman Sheila Strehle. "All of which are difficult to quantify."

The benefits are hard to enumerate, Strehle explained, because they amount to problems prevented. "If you have a stalled vehicle you may have hundreds of motorists tied up," she said. "That's an economic loss that's prevented." The same logic can be applied to police cars, ambulances and fire engines that are not delayed from responding to emergencies. The roving tow trucks also prevent accidents from occurring, she said.

The mayor's program started out this way in February: For three hours in the morning and three hours in the late afternoon, a tow truck was assigned to "rove" both the Montlake and West Seattle bridges. The cost was $60 per hour for each truck. After two months, the Montlake program was dropped because only eight cars were towed. In all, 91 cars have been towed from the West Seattle bridge corridor, Estey said.

Next year, the program will continue in West Seattle only, and the city hopes to pay just $40 per hour, for a total cost of about $65,000, according to Estey.

The roving tow trucks responded to stalled vehicles 10 to 15 minutes faster than tow trucks called to a scene, Estey said.

The next step, he added, was to consider similar but different ideas used by other cities and states, and to further evaluate Seattle's roving tow-truck program. Then he would make a recommendation to the mayor and City Council.

Councilman Richard Conlin, chairman of the Transportation Committee, said it was hard to judge the program without more information about its benefits. "There's nothing wrong with an experiment," Conlin said. "But you should know how to evaluate your experiment. This seems to have been thrown out there without careful design or evaluation." (Bob Young - Seattle Times)

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MARYLAND -- Some are pushed to the curb in the middle of the night after they've been stripped of parts. Others are left behind after they break down on the road.

But no matter how abandoned vehicles end up on the streets of Annapolis, the three towing companies that remove, store and dispose of them say the job has never been so troublesome -- and costly.

"I'm tired of cleaning the city's streets up," said Dale Darden, owner of Darden's 24-Hour Towing. "It's not fair. Not at all."

Darden's, along with Mason's Towing and Lowry's Forest Drive Services, are contracted to tow vehicles at the city's request.

The companies make money towing cars illegally parked or damaged in accidents for the city, but under the contract they also must tow abandoned vehicles, which usually have little value and rarely entice their owners to retrieve them. That's a problem because the city doesn't pay the towing companies, who get stuck trying to collect what they can for the junk.

"I've been doing this for 32 years and I have never, in a small city like this, seen so much junk," said Pete Parkinson, manager at Mason's Towing.

Mr. Darden's collection of junk sits in a dirt lot off Spa Road. Many of the vehicles have been there for two months or more, but Mr. Darden can't dispose of them until police give the go-ahead.

That only happens after they have sent registered letters to the vehicle owners, who then have three weeks to reclaim their cars.

Officer Duane Daniels, who has been working on the problem with the towing companies, said the process is taking so long because of the department's officer shortage.

When the police finally approve the disposal of a car, the towing companies scramble to get rid of them, sometimes giving them away just to open space on their lots for busy times like the upcoming boat show weeks.

Mr. Darden said he might get paid a small fee for the cars, but that won't come close to the charges he incurred towing and storing them for weeks on end.

"That's three months at $20 a day. You add it up," he said, referring to the daily fee he charges to store towed cars.

Among the biggest problem areas is a strip of auto repair shops in an industrial center on Lincoln Drive. Nearly every week, police find several cars dumped there, Officer Daniels said.

Other times, cars show up on the street outside the homes of shade-tree mechanics, who have taken the engines, the wheels and anything else of value.

The problem isn't unique to the city.

Kenny Catlett, owner of Catlett's Towing in Davidsonville, figures he's already lost $18,000 this year in towing and storage fees for abandoned vehicles.

He started sending some of his cases to a collection agency, but that costs him $100 a vehicle for money he might not ever see, he said.

Mr. Catlett said the trend might slow if police cited the registered owners of the vehicles with a $50 ticket.

"It's right in the law book but they won't enforce it," he said.

But Officer Daniels said he can't cite someone unless he saw them abandon the car or can prove that they did.

"The way the city ordinance is written, there's nothing we can do," he said.

Mr. Darden and others wondered why the Motor Vehicle Administration can't flag someone's vehicle registration once it is reported abandoned on the road, just as it does for unpaid tickets.

"I take the good with the bad," Mr. Parkinson said. "It's just there's been a lot of bad lately." (Brian Haynes - The Capitol)

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