Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
File Photo: Sands Dorsey building
link File Photo: Sands Dorsey building
QCS Managing Editor
The demolition and disposal of the Sands Dorsey building’s remains in downtown Tucumcari can be accomplished with existing city funds, City Manager Jared Langenegger announced Thursday to the Tucumcari City Commission.
That announcement and reports of progress on arranging to rid the downtown area of its most prominent eyesore received applause from spectators at Thursday’s commission meeting.
Langenegger said on Friday that the city’s efforts to reduce many costs, especially personnel costs, since fire first damaged the building in 2007, are paying off.
Since 2007, Langenegger said, the city has been reducing personnel costs through attrition, which means that employees who leave jobs and retire are not being replaced, and their duties shared by existing employees.
The savings, he said, have accumulated to the point that the city can now afford to to tear down what remains of the building and haul the remains to a landfill that can handle asbestos-containing solid waste.
The Sands Dorsey rubble may now be transferred to a landfill in Clovis, which can accommodate asbestos-containing materials, which may substantiall reduce disposal costs, Langenegger said.
City staff members are assembling a bid package for the building’s demolition and disposal, Langenegger said, and talks are under way to find an engineering firm that can help plan the project.
While he cautioned that “a lot can happen” over the next several months, Langenegger said that if all goes according to plan a contract for the building’s demolition and disposal should be finalized by June and the site may be cleared by the end of the year.
The building’s remains, including most of two standing walls, include exposed stairs and interior surfaces, as well as piles of brick and wood. It has remained in this condition since fires in 2007 and 2012 first damaged, then destroyed the building.
Mayor Robert Lumpkin offered a note of caution.
The building still belongs to Robert Hengstenberg of Chimayo.
If the city takes ownership of the building, Lumpkin said, it also assumes liability for damages. Langenegger said on Friday, “That’s why we want to have all our ducks in a row before we assume ownership.”
Lumpkin also said Thursday that the city should consider preserving some historically valuable portions of the building’s exterior walls if a park is planned for the site, as Langenegger has indicated.
