One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so it certainly gets smelly when the government gets involved.

As Concordia Parish Police Juror Willie Dunbar pointed out Monday night, something considered a “project” to one man is simply an eyesore to another.

Dunbar used an example of a lot in Concordia Park currently playing host to what he called junk cars.

The owner of the cars is working to remodel and repair their failing parts, so to him, they simply aren’t junk.

Every American certainly has the right to keep old cars on his property if he so chooses.

But unfortunately, every other American may just have to look at them.

Enter local government’s power to write ordinances, and you have a pretty fair solution.

The police jury voted Monday to adopt an ordinance to require lots used to store “junk” vehicles to be surrounded by a privacy fence.

Such an ordinance likely needs a bit of fine-tuning — how many “junk” cars does it take to warrant a fence and who defines junk — but it’s a start.

As citizens, our trash may just be our treasure, but it’s up to our local governments to ensure that one man’s junk isn’t cluttering the entire community’s view.