Gas station tire clean-up waits on tire cutter

The owner of an abandoned gas station on Main Street is waiting for the City to take delivery of a new tire cutter in order to get a bid on the cost of removing the mountains of discarded tires from the property, Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck told the City Council. The sale of the foreclosed property at 301 E. Main Street in December startled the Council, which had been planning to take possession of the abandoned gas station in order to clean up the estimated 5,000-8,000 tires piled up around and inside it. The property had been listed multiple times at county foreclosure sales with no takers.

As a condition of the sale, the new property owner, GFF Texas Holdings, agreed to clean up the tires and remove two underground gas tanks after a sixmonth period during which the former owner could redeem the property. That redemption period expired last month.

At its July 10 meeting, the Council was divided about whether to apply pressure with fines against the property or to work with the owner to clean up the eyesore that has plagued the City for more than four years.

Police Cpl. Joe Logan, Olney’s code enforcement officer, has been in contact with the holding company’s manager, Jocelyn Shelton, and is taking a measured approach in hopes that the property will be cleaned up rather than seized again – a process that costs the City thousands of dollars and can take years.

Ms. Shelton could not immediately be reached for comment.

“She is looking for us to give her an estimate for what the City would charge her to move and cut the tires once we get the tire cutter,” Chief Birbeck said. “The tire cutter has been ordered and we are a couple of weeks out from being able to provide that number. Or she can take it to a third party.”

City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said the City expects to take delivery of the tire cutter in two to three weeks. Even if the clean-up begins immediately, it will take some time to remove all the tires, she said. The City’s scrap permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality allows the Olney Convenience Station to have up to 500 tires on premises at one time, and it is not yet clear how many tires can be processed each day, Mrs. Pagsuberon said.

Councilmember Harrison Wellman suggested that code enforcement ticket the gas station daily until the owner begins remediation.

“My fear would be we get three months down the road and we give them a quote of $40,000 [to remove and cut the tires] and then they back out and … it pushes us back to square one,” Mr. Wellman said. “We’ll release the fines when you start cleaning up the tires.”

Chief Birbeck said code enforcement is ready to “immediately move into enforcement and mitigation if she backs out.”

“My feeling is if we start bombarding her without a solution we are going to be back to square one again,” he said.

Mayor Rogers urged the Council and the public to be patient until the tire cutter arrives. “We will know in two or three weeks when we get the tire cutter if she’s going to cooperate,” he said.