Blight battle: No simple solution

The roads coming into Clovis draw a lot of negative feelings.

“I don’t like it,” said Gary Swinford of Clovis. “I think it looks terrible. You drive in and you see all this stuff. It’s like, ‘My God, what have we got into?’”

Harsh words. And they come from an owner of unused property along the entryways.

Some property owners are absent. Some don’t have the money to do what they want.

And some, for various reasons, aren’t motivated to make immediate change.

• • •

Eyesore removal is a challenge for everybody — even those who express a desire to spearhead the effort.

During his unsuccessful mayoral run in 2008, Tim Ashley — then a Curry County commissioner — said work on Clovis entryways would be a key concern if he were elected mayor.

He finished third in the election. His cleanup efforts are now limited to a large plot of land at 2600 S. Prince St., which he purchased a couple of years ago for his business.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said, explaining the unoccupied building had its roof ripped off in a 2007 tornado.

The building has been boarded up and some trash and junk was removed from the property.

Ashley said while his property is not as clean as he would like, “I’ve never had any complaints.”

An ordinance to help clean up the county was something Ashley said he always supported as a commissioner and he still believes one is needed.

The proposed ordinance the county is still working on was introduced toward the end of his term.

“We had several residents coming in that lived in these rural subdivisions and they had concerns. That was really why we took the issue at the time,” he said.

“When I was on the commission, I really thought we needed an ordinance.”

• • •

“All dilapidated properties are eyesores,” said Duane Castleberry, a magistrate court judge in Clovis. “We wish we could all fix them right now. Some of us can’t afford it, some of us don’t care.”

Castleberry is an owner of an unused property, KC Mufflers. Its vacancy draws attention because it sits on the southwest corner of First and Prince streets, one of Clovis’ busiest intersections.

Before the Prince Street overpass was built in 1989, Castleberry said the building was on a true corner lot and could be accessed from multiple roads.

KC Mufflers was successful there for years as a muffler shop before Castleberry bought it. It remained so for years after he sold the business and retained the property as landlord.

It has been the site of other businesses, including a car lot. For the past seven months it has been vacant.

“When that overpass came in and they took our easement, it really took our property value,” Castleberry said. “The only way you can get in is eastbound on First Street.”

Castleberry said the building was always in too good a condition to bulldoze, but not good enough to lease or sell.

Castleberry said he recently spent $12,000 on a roof. He said the property still needs a paint job and a little bit of care.

He said he’s never had a complaint from the city and he would love to sell or lease it. He thinks a fast-food business or a lube shop would serve the area well, or he’s not against seeing it become a professional office.

“Anything would work there,” Castleberry said. “I’d sure like to see something prettier than that.”

So would Ken and Amber Workheiser. The married couple works at Transmatic across the street from the empty muffler shop. They also point to the plywood covered windows next door to KC’s, the Alamo Hotel, long boarded up.

“As far as affecting us (financially), it really doesn’t,” Ken Workheiser said. “It’s just an eyesore.”

Additional ordinances probably wouldn’t do much, he said, because, “to me, they don’t enforce what they’ve already got.”

For example, he said ordinances could be enforced on businesses with junk and disabled cars along the entryways, and there are plenty.

Amber Workheiser also noted there are businesses off the entryways committing the same offenses. So enforcement can’t stop at the entryways, she said.

“If you let one business do it,” she said, “they’re all going to do it.”

• • •

Sometimes selling a building once, or even four times, isn’t enough.

Gary Swinford said he has sold the Pioneer Hotel on Mabry Drive twice officially, and twice more in principle.

“The last time,” Swinford said, “a man from California bought it, he put up all of these drawings. He spent $50,000 getting the drawings and the layouts.

“But when the real estate market in California hit the bottom, he lost $5 million ... like bam! He said, ‘I can’t do anything but give it back.’ ”

In another instance, Swinford said he took it back from foreclosure when the property owner stopped paying.

Recently his empty building was joined by another nearby. K-Bob’s Steakhouse, just west of the hotel on Mabry, was gutted by an arson fire in late November.

Swinford said he hopes both buildings will again be useful for the city.

“It could be anything,” he said. “There are a lot of different things it could be. It could be made into storage units.”

• • •

At Jones Street and Grand Avenue, property owners Alan Weber and Jimmy Madrid share a lot more than the intersection.

Their two properties have been in the respective families for years.

“It’s got so much history,” Madrid said of the building at 220 Jones St. that he took ownership of four months ago. “It used to be a church. After that, my

grandma and grandpa turned it into a restaurant. Then my uncle turned it into a place where he sold stereos.”

His father turned it into a painting business, and still stores some materials there. Madrid is using it as a music studio, where he records as Baby J.

Madrid said the property needs work, and poorly maintained buildings are black eyes for the city.

“On the entrance of Clovis, you want people to see a nice town,” Madrid said. “It’s kind of hard when you have buildings like that.”

Across the street at 217 Jones St., Weber lives in a house that has been in his family since 1933. He spent $18,000 to buy the house out of foreclosure because “My mom grew up here, and I just can’t let it go.”

The family originally paid $375 for the house, Weber said — an amount that would now cover only the price to replace two front windows.

So while he works on renovating a little at a time, Weber isn’t in favor of ordinances being enforced on Madrid.

“Mine ain’t no better,” Weber said with a laugh, “but we are trying to make things better.”

• • •

It’s the same story outside of the city limits. Residents know their property could look better, but say circumstances have worked against them in trying to beautify their little piece of Curry County.

Along U.S. 70 south of Clovis, Hanamel Herrera’s house sits on a stretch of road in the path of a 2007 tornado. Many nearby properties also were strewn with debris by the twister, and cleaning continues.

Six cars and a variety of machinery litter the lot next to Herrera’s home. That’s something the dairy worker would like to fix.

“I plan to move (the cars) to another place,” he said, “but my job is a mechanic and I use a lot of the stuff,” Herrera said. “I’d like to do a fence. I do understand that people want things to look nice, because there’s a lot of pride.”

• • •

Calvary Tabernacle Pastor Lawrence Thompson said the Red Barn on North Prince has come a long way since being donated to the church about six years ago.

Once covered with junk cars, farm implements, chemical tanks, trash and overgrown with weeds, the lot is now trimmed and clean for the most part. Thompson said it has taken hundreds of hours of labor and countless loads of debris have been hauled away from the lot at the northwest corner of N.M. 209 and N.M. 77.

“I’ve put a lot of man-hours in trying to clean things up,” he said.

“It still needs a lot, I know. ... I hate it, but it’s such a big

overwhelming job. It may not look like much is being done (but) we’re definitely trying and we want to make it much better.”

Thompson said he has hired companies to come and remove junk and recently consulted someone about having a partially burned barn torn down and removed.

“We’re just taking some time because our church is small. Just with a little more patience, we’re going to get there,” he said.

“It just takes a lot of time, as nasty and bad as it is.”

• • •

Jack Bell and his brother Jerry Bell have owned the lot at 2102 S. Prince for about 10 years.

A double-wide trailer that was once in decent shape is now in shambles, damaged by a 2007 tornado and metal lying around the lot is used for welding in a shop that also sits on the lot.

“I know it’s bad. Nobody needs to tell me it’s bad,” said Jack Bell.

The brothers want to clean it up and have done some, but Jack Bell said it’s a combination of expense and time that get in the way. He estimates taking the junk to the dump would cost thousands in their case.

“The dump charges too much. We are going to clean it up ... if we just had the time,” he said.

And, he said, it’s not all trash.

“I know that everybody thinks all this metal is junk and stuff but it’s not. My brother uses it.”

Short takes on other properties identified as eyesores:

215 Cameo Drive

• Residential property.

• Owned and occupied by Mario Sandoval.

Sandoval said he is disabled but his family has occasionally helped him work on his property. He said he has had nobody from the city or his neighborhood tell him he needs to clean up the place, and he and his wife are happy there.

115 First St.

• Commercial property.

• Owner Johnny Tredway, Texico.

Efforts to contact Tredway were unsuccessful.

201 First St.

• Commercial property.

• Owner: Frank Lasky, Clovis

Frank Lasky, who owns a recycling business in Clovis, keeps his old building on the entryway, known as the Cheapo Depot.

The building, with brightly-colored yet chipping paint on its signs, houses used shelving, old books and magazines and other supplies.

“You may look at this and call it junk,” Lasky said, “but it’s not junk to me.”

Lasky bought the building 16 years ago.

“I took a building that was closed for eight years and I turned it into a business.”

Lasky said he still has merchandise for a second-hand store, but isn’t sure he wants to put up with the hassle of owning a business on the entryway.

He said a similar business elsewhere in Clovis doesn’t get cited as much as he did for small matters.

1504 Mabry Drive

• Commercial property.

• Owner: Carter family, Portales.

The former car dealership sits empty. Alva Carter Sr. died in 2009 in an auto accident. A family member said the property is for sale.

1421 Mabry Drive

• Commercial property.

• Owner: James New, Clovis.

New said he uses the building as a warehouse for his sign business, and the utilities work as well. The only problem is that it needs a paint job, but he would rather commit that money to his employees or the sign business. He said his building isn’t attractive, but it’s well above the standards of other city properties.

821 Grand Ave.

• Commercial property.

• Owner: Patsy Urioste, Clovis.

Urioste said she doesn’t really know what to do with the property, but she intends to keep it in the family. Brother Mark Romero lives next door and says he does some upkeep.

3120 S. Prince St.

• Residential

• Owner: Jose De Jesus Garcia and others

Rosa Garcia said she manages the rental property for her brother. After the tornado, Garcia said they did a lot of repairs to the duplexes on the property, including installing metal roofs. They also xeroscaped the front yard to eliminate unsightly grass.

“They’re not in excellent shape but they’re not in bad in shape,” she said.

2120 S. Prince St.

• Commercial

• Owner Kenneth Burnette Smith did not respond to a letter seeking comment.

2520 S. Prince St.

• Commercial

• Owners Eladah and David Fallis did not respond to a letter seeking comment.

2400 S. Prince St.

• Commercial

• Owner Bill Whitfield could not be reached for comment.

3220 S. Prince St.

• Residential

• Owner Charles D. Banister did not respond to a letter seeking comment.

1391 N.M. 209

• Residential

• Owner Tene Kelly could not be reached for comment.

— CNJ staff writer Sharna Johnson contributed to this report.