Junky yards are an eye sore for residents and neighbors alike, and both Picayune and Pearl River County have been emphasizing cleaning keeping property clean in recent months.

Sometimes, though, even those who promote keeping property clean can get a surprise from their own family.

Joann Hayden said she has had enough of the way her neighbors keep their yard on Dolph Thigpen Road off Miss. 607.

Last Friday the yard in question was littered with a refrigerator in the front yard and a pile of trash bags on the side of the road.

Hayden said in the past she also had a problem with the numerous dogs kept at the neighboring home, but recently that problem has been remedied. Late night noise the dogs would make prompted her to go next door one night and complain.

“We knocked on the door about three or four in the morning. It made them mad but it got the dogs calmed down,” Hayden said.

Hayden said she would move because of the neighbors’ littered yard, but it has actually kept her from trying to sell the place. Instead, she refrains from having visitors at her home.

The woman who lives at the home next to Hayden’s declined to comment on the complaints Hayden had with the yard.

District IV Supervisor Robert Thigpen said the land on which the house sits once was owned by his father but is currently owned by his sister, Elaine Jackson, who is renting the pace to her son, John Jackson Jr.

When told of the situation, Thigpen said he went to the home to address the problem. While Hayden had previously called Thigpen with the complaint about the dogs, she did not call him with a complaint about the littered yard, he said. Thigpen said he had the dog situation taken care of, but didn’t know the place had become so trashy.

After an inspection of the yard on Saturday, Thigpen said he talked to his sister and nephew who told him they had someone who was going to come and collect the many bags of garbage sitting near the road.

Thursday, the pile of trash was off the side of the road and the refrigerator had been removed from the front of the yard. There also were junk vehicles in the field next to the home, which also troubles Hayden. Thigpen said a wrecker is lined up to remove them.

Thigpen said that while he does make an effort to tour all the roads in his district at least once every 90 days, he hadn’t been down that section of road road recently, relying on what he could see as he passed the intersection with it.