We’re glad that Ripley’s mayor and aldermen are continuing a policy the previous mayor and board rigorously pursued -- taking steps to make sure that city eyesores are cleaned up.

At public hearings, the owners are invited to show up and explain their plans to clean up their properties. If they don’t show or make any effort to clean up, the city can clean up the property, with the due bill tacked onto city taxes. The due bill also becomes a lien against their property – it can’t be sold until the lien is cleared up.

Unkempt property does more than give visitors the false impression the city doesn’t care how it looks.

Ugly can become dangerous when the unkempt property includes rotting houses or abandoned cars, since youngsters sometimes play in such places. Those places can serve as breeding grounds for vermin.

Eyesores also serve as a turnoff for businessmen looking to locate in this area. They figure people who don’t care about themselves won’t care about them. The industrial prospect then takes his or her jobs and paychecks and looks elsewhere

For all these reasons, the mayor and aldermen are doing the right thing by continuing the previous administration’s efforts to clean up unattractive – and sometimes dangerous – eyesores.