HARLINGEN — The mechanical and engineering might of the Texas National Guard is on display today at a burned-out husk of a building on Monroe Avenue.
Guardsmen began work early as they prepared to dismantle three connected residences at 603 W. Monroe Ave. which burned in July of last year.
Since then, said Miguel Flores, both neighbors and city officials have faced a challenge in keeping out drug users and homeless people who were utilizing the abandoned space.
“They had to run them out a couple times,” he said. “City enforcement came like maybe six or seven times in this neighborhood, because it’s really bad, especially when the school buses drop kids around this area.”
Flores, who lives next door to the empty shell of the building, said kids getting on and off a school bus nearby were too close to the residences, with people living in the abandoned ruins.
“It’ll be good to get it out of the neighborhood,” he said.
This isn’t the Texas Guard’s first rodeo when it comes to razing abandoned buildings.
The program is called Operation Crackdown which began in 1993. Since then, the Texas National Guard has torn down more than 1,700 abandoned structures, funded by money confiscated from drug dealers.
Funding for the program comes from drug seizures and houses are demolished by the Guard at no or little cost to Texas cities.
Maj. Travis Urbanek, commanding officer for the mission in Harlingen, said he’s from Austin but the rest of his team comes from all over the state.
“I’ve only been with this team a pretty short while, but I’ve done a couple of these missions already,” he said this morning. “Everywhere we’ve been the community support has been just tremendous.
“Just from what I’ve been on we’ve done missions in Laredo, and also in Robstown which is up near Corpus Christi, and of course here in Harlingen,” he added.
“The community support has been just tremendous.”
