The properties original condition. Photo by Matthew Owen.

Rotary Club of Eureka members gathered to clean up a blighted property near the intersection of Summer and Del Norte Streets this morning.

Club member Matthew Owen said he was inspired to clean up the property after driving by it about a month ago.

“I drove by and said ‘oh my god,’” Owen told the Outpost this morning. “I drove by a couple of weeks later and it was still bad.”

So Owen took some pictures and contacted the City of Eureka about the property’s condition.

“I found out the front unit was foreclosed on by a Texas lender,” Owen said. “The city sent them a letter saying ‘we have a severe health and safety issues please take care of it,’ and they ignored them.”

As the weeks passed and the building remained in the same condition, Owen decided to get a couple of friends from the Rotary Club together and take action.

“I called up the city and said ‘are you going to clean it up,’” Owen said. “They told me it’s private property and they couldn’t do anything. So I asked ‘do you mind if the Rotary Club comes in here and cleans it up?’ They said ‘it’s all yours.’”

The cleanup team went to work on the mound of garbage surrounding the property at about 9 a.m. By 11:30 a.m., they had filled a 40 yard dumpster with trash and dragged an abandoned car out onto the street to allow the city to legally take care of it.

As the cleanup winded down, next door neighbor Rosalina Luna wandered out of her home in awe after of the cleaned property.

“There were rats coming out of there all the time,” Luna said as she watched a tractor haul away a pile of garbage. “That’s gonna look so nice.”

Luna told the Outpost that she’s lived next door to the blighted property for nearly a year, and that she began to wonder if it would ever get better. 

“I don’t know how many times I’ve called the police,” Luna said. “I’ve called the city, I’ve called everybody. They don’t listen.”

But within a couple of hours, her problem was gone.

A healthy-looking rat scurries beneath the dumpster as its home is demolished.

Rosalina Luna.

“Two and a half hours later we took care of an eye sore,” Owen said. “If everyone pitches in a little, we can get a lot done.”

The cleanup crew. Photos by John Ross Ferrara.

Local McDonald’s Franchisee Jesse Klair fueled the crew with free breakfast. 

Pierson Company donated a tractor for the job.

Mathew “the purple warrior” Owen cleans up a sharp.

Luna marvels at the amount of garbage taken from the blighted property.