There's an old saying, "One man's junk is another man's                                     treasure."

In Scary Creek, that                                   saying is at the heart                                   of a debate over                                      Harold Cathey's                                      property. Some                                      neighbors say it is                                   filled with junk. However, the Cathey family calls it "treasure" and say their neighbors have no reason to complain.

"It's none of your business," Harold Cathey tells PutnamLIVE.com. "I run an excavating company. These are my tools." The rest of our conversation with Cathey is not printable in a public forum due to the language he was using.

A few minutes later, a woman claiming to be his wife called, demanding to know who complained. When PutnamLIVE.com refused to reveal the names, she said she would file a Freedom of Information Act Request, which does not apply to private businesses. Then she asked, "Have you ever heard the phrase, "One man's junk is another man's treasure? This is our treasure."

A short time later, a woman claiming to be Cathey's daughter, called. "I am proud of my father. That equipment, that you call "junk" put us through college. This is a family business."

Neighbors don't see it that way, and say they are frustrated with state and county officials who refused to order Cathey to clean up his property.

"Some of this stuff has been there for years," says a man who lives down the road. (PutnamLIVE.com is withholding his name, at his request.) "It's ugly. It's an eyesore. We have to drive by it every day."

"There isn't a county ordinance," says Sandy Mellert, a Putnam County official. "We can't make him clean it up."

And, since Cathey does not live within a municipality, no city ordinances apply.

"Mr. Cathey knows the system," says a frustrated John Hendly, a Putnam County field inspector with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. "He takes things right up to the line. It seems like he enjoys frustrating us and his neighbors. He works it. Unfortunately, we can't force him to clean up that mess."

"We don't have jurisdiction over asthetics," says Michael Hickman with the WVDEP, in Kanawha City. "If this was polluting streams or the air, we could cite him. But our people have been out there many times, and, technically, Mr. Cathey is within the law."

PutnamLIVE.com took these photos more than a month ago, and agreed to hold the story to give Cathey time to clean up his property. However, that hasn't happened, so we are running the story now. Will he clean up the mess? Time will tell. However, his neighbors doubt it.