June Editorial Winner

Fight the Blight: City must force cleanup of dilapidated pot farm at east Enid gateway

By Jeff Funk, Enid News & Eagle

The city of Enid made a significant step this month in addressing a frustrating ongoing problem at the eastern entrance to the city along U.S. 412.

For more than four years, a now-defunct marijuana grow operation on the north side of the four-lane highway has been allowed to deteriorate, with a large expanse of former greenhouses now tattered, torn and falling apart.

It’s an eyesore. It’s ugly and unsafe. It’s also located in a highly traveled area with welcome-to-Enid signs. Not good.

City government has been patiently working with the property owner, Amenda Ploeger, to clean up the high-visibility mess. Finally, the city’s patience ran out, and the city issued a formal “abatement notice” or nuisance notice giving Ploeger until the end of this week to clean up the dilapidated property. If the landowner doesn’t act, the city can move in and clean up the private property.

It’s time.

To keep local taxpayers from paying the cost, the city likely will place a claim or lien against the property. Because the land at 3223 E. Randolph is very marketable property, it’s likely the city will recover any cleanup costs when the property sells.

The old, planned cannabis grow operation, formerly the home of Lucky Flower Farms, has been a terrible eyesore and nuisance for years. Cleaning up the property is critical to Enid’s image because the property at the city’s gateway is so visible and prominent for visitors coming into the Enid from the east.

Community cleanup has properly been a concern of city government for some time. Last year, Enid city government allocated $100,000 and substantial city staff time to cleaning up high-traffic corridors around the city. The city’s focus of mowing and removing debris often provided incentive to private property owners to step up their efforts and keep property tidy and present-able.

That beautification effort along the city corridors was positive and making progress, but its impact was modest compared with potential of cleaning up the large and highly visible blight along the east Enid gateway.

City government cannot police every piece of property — far from it — but it’s certainly time to move forward promptly on the defunct marijuana grow mess, with or without the property owner’s cooperation.