Portales officials agree to declare dangerous building at fire site

PORTALES — City councilors on Friday agreed unanimously to declare a dangerous building at the site of a weekend fire.

The 7-0 votes on three separate issues with the matter came during a special meeting at the Memorial Building, with Mayor Ron Jackson and all city councilors except Oscar Robinson attending.

The resolution to declare the dangerous property at 201 N. Ave. I, owned by Brady Brunson, allowed the commission to decide the framework for just how the property issues could be alleviated following the July 30 fire that destroyed the building.

An arrest warrant for the fires was issued this week, with police searching for Patricia Villanueva. A Patricia Villanueva matching the birthdate in the warrant was listed Saturday at the Roosevelt County Detention Center, but no arson-related charges were listed.

Portales and several other firefighting units took about three hours to knock down the blaze and monitored for hot spots for most of last Sunday.

City Manager Sammy Standefer said when he and city staff first looked into the declaration, his immediate concern was the lack of motorist access to the road. Access has since been restored, but Standefer said, “We still have a dangerous situation at that property.”

Standefer proposed the city give two options for further action:

• Establish a 30-day deadline (Sept. 1) for the property owner to begin remediation and a 60-day deadline (Oct. 1) for the work to be completed.

Councilors asked if a 60-day remediation window was fair to Brunson. City Attorney Steve Doerr said, “Nobody knows how long it’s going to take ... you’re going to get a better feeling for it (as work progresses).”

Standefer said the council could grant deadline extensions if needed, but he wanted a completion date in writing. He didn’t want to name any particular cases, but Standefer said in his experience that agreements without completion dates are rarely honored.

• Allow the city to pursue injunctive relief if for some reason negotiations with Brunson break down or an emergency arises — one such example he gave was a wall collapsing onto a city street.

“Ultimately, we want to work with the property owner,” Standefer said. “We want to clean it up.”

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Miller said giving city administration the latitude in an emergency situation seemed appropriate, but working with the property owner should be pursued.

“If progress is being made,” Miller said, “we meet regularly, and you can come to us and seek injunctive relief.”

Councilor Veronica Cordova asked what the definition of completion would be. Standefer said city staff and the Portales Fire Department would make those judgments.

In response to remarks early in the meeting about requiring some type of barrier, Council Jim Lucero asked what the city wanted to see up there, whether it was basic orange mesh fencing, a full chain-link fence or something else.

Brunson said no matter what barrier he puts up, “if somebody wants to get in there, they’re going to get in there.” Miller said he wasn’t concerned with the type of barrier as long as it kept out the majority of “kids and looky-loos.”