San Benito to demolish several historic buildings

SAN BENITO — The old San Benito jail and other pieces of the town’s history will come tumbling down in the city’s biggest demolition project in at least 50 years.

City commissioners recently reviewed the project to tear down the old police station and city jail, the city’s first airport hangar, a building in the historic district and sewer holding tanks that date to the 1920s, Assistant City Manager Chuck Jalomo said.

"It’s about time all of this was done," Mayor Joe Hernandez said.

The buildings pose safety hazards that make demolition necessary, Hernandez said.

The city will solicit bids to determine whether to hire a contractor for the job, or if city crews could do the work, officials said.

Hurricane Dolly damaged the old police station’s roof in July 2008, leading mold to grow on the building’s cinderblock and brick walls, Jalomo said.

"I think it would cost more to clean it up than to rebuild," he said of the building located at 143 S. Reagan St. that was closed in 2000.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t fund repairs because an "oversight" by city officials failed to document the damage in time to file a claim, City Manager Manuel Lara said.

Eliseo Villarreal, the city’s maintenance supervisor, used a flashlight while touring the halls of the police station.

"It’s a big part of the city’s history," Jalomo said. "This is all solid concrete. It’s very well constructed."

Villarreal’s flashlight beam illuminated graffiti showing the names of inmates held in a large jail cell.

"People who were in there somehow managed to carve their names, some on the walls, some on the floors and even on the ceiling, saying so-and-so was here," Jalomo said.

Although these are some of the city’s oldest structures, the San Benito Historical Society does not oppose the demolition project, Tootie Madden, the organization’s president, said.

But the historical society will review plans to raze the Lozano building at 200 W. Robertson, one of the area’s original buildings and part of the city’s historic district, Sandra Tumberlinson of the historical society, said.

The boarded-up building was vacated about 40 years ago, Jalomo said.

A series of renovations stripped the old police station of much of its historical significance, Madden said.

"I think it’s been added to so many times that it’s lost some of its historical flavor," she said.

Also slated for demolition is the sewer holding tanks at the city’s first sewer plant at 925 W. Stenger, Jalomo said.

Built in the 1920s and deactivated in the 1950s, the city used the concrete tanks to treat sewage at the plant, Jalomo said.

The city used the tanks for years as storage space, but the tanks’ condition led officials to mark them for demolition, Jalomo said.

"Those things are so dilapidated that some are falling apart," he said. "We want to demolish it and clear the area."

The city’s first airplane hangar built at the airport in the 1920s at 1499 Business 77, is also facing the wrecking ball, Jalomo said.

The city housed airplanes at the hangar until the airport closed in 1990, he said.

The old airport hangar’s deteriorated to a point in which the benefit of its demolition outweighs any historical value, Madden said.

Officials are concerned the hanger’s leaky roof is a safety hazard when high winds tear at the corrugated metal, Jalomo said.

"It’s just so old the roof is gone. There’s no sense in the city investing money in it," he said.

Some of the metal could be salvaged and used to build a large storage shed for heavy equipment at the city’s service station, he said.