Hurrah! Jasper County Presiding Commissioner John Bartosh last week publicly stated the need for planning and zoning in the county.

A proposal for a salvage yard west of Carthage points to that need, he said.

A landowner has confirmed plans to open the business, to be called Mejia Salvage, on Ivy Road just off County Road 162. The county will try to impose some limits in the absence of land-use controls.

But without planning and zoning, there is little that can be done.

Bartosh has opened the door, but we’re waiting now for someone to take the lead to get this issue on the ballot.

That can be accomplished by initiative petition, or the commissioners can simply put it on the ballot. And they should

Without some form of planning and zoning, residents living in the county have no protection — if they want protection — from salvage yards or X-rated video stores.

We also endanger our agricultural land, because we are vulnerable now to anything going anywhere.

In the case of the salvage yard, Bartosh said the county will require it to be surrounded by a solid fence that would block it from view.

“That’s already in the law,” he said. “I’ve been told we probably can’t make it retroactive, but we could require it from here on out.”

Why keep reacting? We realize that rural residents like living in the county because they believe they have the freedom to live as they want to without government regulations. But when you have absolutely no say over who your neighbor is, is that really freedom?

Bartosh said he has been contacted by residents who have concerns about a salvage yard being operated in the area, which includes mostly homes on large lots and a mobile-home park.

The commission earlier this year changed county licensing requirements to restrict the operation of what is now an adult-video arcade off Interstate 44 between Joplin and Sarcoxie.

Neighborhood residents opposed to the operation, which first was planned as an adult cabaret, said it illustrated that the county needs the kind of land-use regulations that would come with planning and zoning.

We believe there are plenty of illustrations. Let’s get the picture painted.