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Clovis considers foreclosing on Gidding house

CLOVIS — The city of Clovis is looking into foreclosing on a home on Gidding Street, and all indications are it won’t stop there.

City commissioners voted 7-0 to authorize abatement of the house at 1201 Gidding, and Mayor Mike Morris agreed with a suggestion from City Manager Justin Howalt to look into other properties in similar situations because the foreclosure process is too laborious for a one-at-a-time approach.

District 2 Commissioner Lauren Rowley pulled the item from the consent agenda to allow for public comments from some of her constituents who have dealt with issues on the house for the last few years.

Matthew Metzger has lived two houses down from the structure for six years, and noted he has had to frequently call police about vagrants and drug deals at the house and the issues have repeated themselves to the point his house got no offers when he put it on the market.

Metzger said he’s frustrated not with any person but the process, and acknowledges things take time because property rights are involved. But if the city asked him to, he’d board up the property himself.

“I understand this takes time,” Metzger said before handing Rowley letters from two other residents on the block. “I understand this is not the only house like this in Clovis. But this is in our neighborhood.”

Donna Sisco lives next to the property, and said she’s had weapons pulled on her from people using the house for various reasons. She said bonfires are frequently started inside the home, and she fears one may get out of control and take out her house. She believed the house needed to be demolished, and boarding it up would be a temporary fix.

Pete Wilt of the city’s building safety department said he made contact in May with the property owner on some of those issues and the building was secured, but another call in June when the issues came up again was unsuccessful.

The News on Friday called a number listed for the property owner, Terry Moore of Rio Rancho, but the number was disconnected.

Wilt said the city lacks the legal authority to demolish the building because there are no structural integrity issues.

“If the right person got it,” Wilt said, “they could turn it into a reasonably nice house.”

City Attorney Jared Morris said the city already has the authority to enter foreclosure procedures, given its three liens for mowing and the lien he suspected would come from the city securing the structure.

“My thought is board the thing up (for now),” said Commissioner Gary Elliott, who represents District 2 along with Rowley. “I think we ought to foreclose on it; boarding it up doesn’t make the neighborhood look good.”

Wilt said he would contact a crew Friday to board the property up as soon as possible with 1/2-inch plywood, use screws other than Phillips or flathead to reduce the chance of removal and paint the boards to match the house’s exterior colors.

“I’m of the opinion we need to aggressively pursue foreclosures,” Morris said before the vote. “We need to aggressively take care of these issues around town.”

In other business at the Thursday meeting:

• The commission approved a 1.75% salary increase for City Manager Justin Howalt, effective Sunday. The increase of $2,713.20 puts the salary for Howalt — who also serves as the city engineer — to approximately $155,000 annually.

• Curry Resident Senior Meals Association Director Ashley White reported the association has paid off its remaining loan balance with the city, and requested the account be closed.

Howalt thanked White for her work at CRSMA, and announced the city was approved for a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant earlier in the day to build the CRSMA kitchen for the proposed senior center at Hillcrest Park.

The remaining funding for the first phase is pending citizen approval of general obligation bonds in the general election.

White said CRSMA has been busy, with an average of 170 meal deliveries per day with a fourth delivery route recently added.

• Commissioners approved a task order with Molzen Corbin to conduct hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and prepare a letter of map revision for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Kent Fryer of Molzen Corbin joined the meeting by phone and said the work should reduce rates in FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Map program, as new measurement criteria and recent city projects have created lower base flood elevations.

About a third of the $355,228 expense is funded by capital outlay, with the remaining amount from the city’s drainage fund.

• Gayla Brumfield gave a report on behalf of local realtors, noting that Clovis is seeing an average of 49 homes sold a month in 2020 compared to 29 at the same point in 2019.

Brumfield said the average sale price in 2020 is $181,000, compared to $168,000 in the same timeframe in 2019. She believes with the pandemic keeping people at home, they’re looking for larger houses either to add an office or feel less cramped with everybody home more.

The pandemic has led to more sellers doing virtual tours, either through emailing video walkthroughs or doing a live video call with prospective buyers.

“COVID has made us be a little more technical,” Brumfield said, “and it’s really working out.”

• Morris updated commissioners on the Ute Water Commission and a new joint powers agreement created.

One of the most significant changes to the agreement, Morris said, dealt with entities leaving the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority and transferring their water reservations at the Ute Reservoir to other entities. Clovis and Portales acquired additional water when Curry County and Melrose, respectively, left the authority. Morris said going forward entities could still transfer partial reservations to other entities, but if an entity gave up its entire reservation it would revert to the commission.

• The commission approved a resolution for Constitution Week Sept. 17-23.

• The next commission meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Oct. 1 at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library.