Farmington increases budget to demolish dilapidated motels described as safety hazards

Hannah Grover
Farmington Daily Times

AZTEC — The City of Farmington has increased its budget for tearing down two dilapidated motels on Airport Drive — the Sage Motel and the Sage North Motel.

The City Council had previously ordered the motel owners to demolish the buildings and remove the debris, but the owner has not yet complied. The council’s previous action allows the city to demolish the motels and place a lien on the property.

The council met on Oct. 13 via Zoom and the meeting can be viewed on fmtn.org. The increased price for demolishing the motels was one of the budget adjustments the council approved during the meeting.

Originally, the preliminarily estimation was that the projects would cost $143,000, but after further investigation the price tag for demolition increased to $234,000.

City Manager Rob Mayes explained to the council that the buildings are filled with hazardous materials and the conditions were exacerbated by past structure fires.

Sage North Motel is pictured in June 2017 following a fire.

“It is a significant public safety hazard and public nuisance,” he said of the properties.

Mayor Nate Duckett expressed support for moving ahead with the project despite the higher price tag.

“I would like to remove those buildings,” he said.

Hannah Grover covers government for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4652 or via email at hgrover@daily-times.com.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e