City to take new approach to old abandoned buildings problem

“It’s a very frustrating situation.”
Fred Nankani, owner of the former Heilig-Meyers furniture building that burned in July.

BARSTOW • The consequence of vacant buildings can be seen daily. Drive Main Street through downtown and just before the crest of the hill on the west side of the city, the charred carcass of the former Heilig-Meyers furniture store still sits.

The store, vacant since 1999, burned to the ground in July and is one of the several boarded up, abandoned and otherwise rundown buildings lining Barstow’s Main Street.

Fred Nankani, the owner of the former Heilig-Meyers furniture building, said the vacant building issue has not been properly addressed in Barstow. While he thanked the city for helping him navigate the paper work and inspections of his building after the fire, he said he was frustrated that the city did not do more to prevent the fire from happening in the first place. He said the building had a history of problems.

“We’ve had so many vandalisms,” he said. “If you know the homeless are doing this, why don’t you start a program?”

City Manager Richard Rowe agrees. When asked about the progress made to clean up the burnt building at a September City Council meeting,  Rowe mentioned a program to overhaul the way the city deals with vacant buildings.

“We intend on initiating a very aggressive program,” Rowe said at the meeting. “I think in the next year or so you’re going to see a big change.”

Currently, programs to clean up and manage vacant buildings are fractured among three different city departments, wrote John Rader, spokesman for the city, in an e-mail. The police department looks at arson, vandalism, people living in abandoned buildings and other criminal activity, the building department at health and safety and code enforcement at violations of the municipal code. Rader wrote that the new program would be a holistic approach, unifying the three areas.

Rader wrote that Rowe asked the heads of the police department, the building department and code enforcement to develop a list of all the abandoned buildings. Then, Rowe intends to take city employees on a bus tour of Barstow to make sure all troubled properties are on the list.

From there, the city will begin tackling the problem, Rader wrote.

The city hopes to start the process in the final months of 2008. Nankani hopes action is taken soon. He said he would like to erect a new building on the site and attract new business into the city but will not if the conditions surround Main Street do not improve.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4121 or aaupperlee@desertdispatch.com