LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- While some relief is coming to combat Louisville's struggle with abandoned vehicles, insiders say bigger, longer-term issues still lack solutions.
According to the Louisville Metro Police Department's Vehicle Impound Unit, the problem quickly got out of hand toward the beginning of the year. Then, the towing of abandoned vehicles was paused in mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But after an "unacceptable" number of abandoned vehicles were left along roads and in neighborhoods, towing was restarted in July.
However, that pause left a mark. To this day, an estimate of 4,000 abandoned cars remain throughout Louisville.
Councilman Bill Hollander, D-9, said the problem is a detriment to his council district and many others.
"We see cars that are on blocks. We see cars without any tires. We see cars with the windows busted out," he said. "Frankly, it's horrendous."
The city announced an agreement with Suburban Towing on Monday to clean up some of the mess. The company will haul abandoned vehicles to its property off Fern Valley Road. But as the city tries to find a longer-term solution for its impound lot near Frankfort Avenue and River Road that's struggling to keep up, a regional recycler, who commonly purchases junked cars to sell parts for profit, has a suggestion.
He wanted to remain anonymous but wanted to speak up, because he said the process of bidding on these abandoned cars through third-party auctioneer Auctions ASAP — and taking them off the city's hands — isn't as user-friendly as it could be.
"Right now, it's a little difficult as far as paying for the vehicle," the recycler said. "You know, if you're Joe Public and trying to buy one, and you bought one car, probably not a problem. But when you're trying to buy, you know, 20 or 30 cars, you know, that's kind of tough."
For that reason, he's stopped buying cars from the crowded lot and is focusing his business' efforts on other lots in other municipalities.
Scott Edberg, the owner of Auctions ASAP, argues that while COVID-19 has sent the auctions online, the process of bidding and buying isn't that bad and has been vastly improved from recent years. Edberg attributes displeasure from some recyclers to the fact that he's raised prices on some of the vehicles to help the city make better profits.
However, Edberg openly admits that Louisville's impound lot has several issues. He said the LMPD impound unit needs more investment, a bigger and more organized space to do business, a few more tow trucks and better titling practices.
Most importantly, he said the impound unit needs more support from city leaders, because right now, it's treated like a "step-child" of Metro Government. With those improvements, Edberg said the unit should be able to turn bigger profits, sell more cars and take more abandoned vehicles off Louisville's streets.
Hollander doesn't disagree that the problem warrants a solution.
"We should look at everything that we can do to solve this problem," he said.
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