Bruceville‑Eddy councilors spent an extended portion of their March 27 meeting discussing whether to expand the city’s existing junk‑vehicle ordinance to explicitly cover recreational vehicles (RVs).

Councilwoman Joyce McLaughlin urged the change, citing studies she summarized that link neighborhood blight with higher rates of public‑health and safety problems and arguing that adding RVs to the ordinance would give the city another tool to address deteriorated properties. Several residents and council members pushed back, saying the city already has ordinances that cover nuisance or unsafe conditions and warning about private‑property rights and the city’s limited enforcement reach for items located wholly on private lots. Council members and staff debated whether the city should craft a new ordinance specifically for RVs or amend the current junk‑vehicle language to align it with state vehicle‑code definitions and court precedents, including the attractive‑nuisance doctrine and the state definition of public nuisance.

Councilman McGrewer and the city administrator recommended amending the existing code rather than creating a separate statute; that approach would also allow the city to incorporate state definitions and case law that guide enforcement. Several council members emphasized the need to clarify enforcement thresholds — distinguishing ‘discussion only’ or visual blight from conditions that create a public hazard such as raw sewage, fire risk, or an attractive nuisance that might draw trespassers.

On a motion from the council, members directed the city attorney to draft ordinance language amending the current junk‑vehicle code to remove a specific exclusion for “self‑propelled” vehicles and to expand the ordinance’s definitions consistent with state law, and to return the draft ordinance for council consideration. The council president said the attorney would prepare the language and bring it back to a future meeting for a formal vote.