By Billy Davis

A man who sells second-hand goods from his front yard has been told to seek a county permit to operate his business.

The county land commission, meeting Monday night, directed Eugene Smith to submit a special exception permit, which would allow him to operate in an area zoned agricultural.

Smith’s business is familiar to anyone who travels Highway 51 between Batesville and Sardis. It consists of a yard filled with refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and dryers, televisions, and various yard sale items, all encircling a magnolia tree in front of the home.

Smith and other employees perform work on the appliances, in the front yard, to get them in working order.  

Smith told The Panolian Thursday that he considers his business a yard sale and does not have a name for it.

He said he is thinking of a business name at the same time artist Carl Brown is painting the now-familiar red sign, which is displayed for public view and announces pending action before the land commission.  

Smith was asked to appear Monday after the county’s building inspector, Michael Purdy, visited his business.

Board of Supervisors president Gary Thompson, after fielding complaints about Smith’s cluttered yard, told Purdy to visit Smith, Thompson said after Monday’s meeting.

“It’s been going on for a long, long time but lately it looks like it’s getting out of hand,” Thompson said of Smith’s yard.  

A reporter who visited the yard this week counted more than six refrigerators and more than 15 washers and dryers, among other items.

Smith’s home is one of several along that strip of highway that are set up for yard sales, including a home next door.

The county’s crackdown on Smith’s business raises an issue for county government: if he is turned down for a permit, would he still be allowed to maintain a yard full of washers, dryers and refrigerators?

Panola County’s land-use regulations currently do not include a yard sale ordinance or any ordinance prohibiting a cluttered yard.

Thompson, asked if Smith’s case could lead to stricter rules, said he hasn’t considered the issue moving in that direction.

“A clean yard – that would be a good thing,” he said. “But where do you draw the line? How much is too much?”

The Board of Supervisors resisted a crackdown on cluttered private properties in 2005 and in 2006, when the board set aside a 13-page ordinance that would have declared a cluttered yard an “unauthorized dump.”

The board at the time also tweaked the county’s so-called junk car ordinance. When the land commission sought a crackdown, supervisors instead made it legal for a property owner to maintain up to seven non-working automobiles on their property.

Supervisor Bubba Waldrup, who was serving on the board at the time, recalled that late Supervisor Robert Avant had opposed a crackdown on junk cars.

“You know what Robert would say – ‘one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.’ I don’t agree with that,” said Waldrup.

Regarding Smith’s application before the land commission, Waldrup said the commission must first determine if he is operating a business.

“It’s not junk in his yard. He’s selling appliances,” said Waldrup. “If they’re not working, I’m assuming he’s disposing of them somehow.”

Supervisor Kelly Morris, without taking a stand on a junk ordinance, said he wants county government to require landowners to move or tear down their abandoned mobile homes.

“There are places in the county where a new mobile home is moved to the lot, and the old one just rots to the ground,” Morris said. “That, to me, is an eyesore worse than any junky yard.”  

Morris and Supervisor Vernice Avant have tried in recent weeks, without success, to convince other supervisors to require more rigid inspections of older mobile homes.

Supervisors next week are expected to adopt building codes for residential construction after two years of discussion and debate.