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Forum Name: more and more JBR
Topic ID: 1567
Message ID: 33
#33, Valmont--not unhappy to sell
Posted by Maikai on Jul-29-03 at 01:14 AM
In response to message #32
The owner's weren't unhappy about selling the auto parts yard--they were having problems selling to the big boxes---they ended up getting $450,000 less than one of their offers, but still a good deal. Of course, that meant Michael would have to move...and he worked there since a teenager. Nothing was ever revealed as to why he would commit suicide:


DAILY CAMERA
SEA OF WRECKED CARS COULD BECOME PARK
Tuesday, July 23, 1996
Section: MAIN
Edition: FIRST
Page: 1A
By LISA MARSHALL Camera Staff Writer

If the Boulder City Council decides to buy up to 101 acres along Valmont Road for a large community park, children will someday kick a soccer ball in what is now a sea of wrecked cars. Families will picnic in what once was a thriving poultry farm.

But finding a farm fresh egg or a part for an old Chevy in Boulder could be tricky.


"There are a lot of people who are going to be sad to see us go," said Dick Helgoth, 59, whose family has run Valmont Auto Parts - the last auto yard in town - for nearly four decades. Helgoth said Boulder County land regulations and neighborhood covenants that prohibit people from working on their cars at home have taken the profit out of running a junk yard. Despite the family's rich history on the land, they are eager to sell.
"It's a different business than it was back when Dad started it," he said. "Back then, if you carried Ford or Chevy parts, you had it all."

The Parks and Recreation Board on Monday recommended the city buy as much land as possible on the Valmont Corridor site for $13.5 million. The City Council will give final consideration to the site Aug. 6.

The city is negotiating details of cleaning up the area, but landowners have agreed to deliver the sites "'clean," said Wally Cameron, who handles real estate purchases for the city. He would not release the prices of individual parcels within the site.

The Helgoths expect it will take about five months to sell off the usable parts from some 2,000 cars, hire a wrecking company to crush the remaining auto skeletons and plow away debris, allowing for leftover petroleum to evaporate.

"Then we'll take it easy for a couple of years. We haven't had much time to vacation," said Doug Helgoth, 49, who has run the business with his brother, Dick, since 1961.

Next door, K.C. Schneider is preparing to tell tenants, who have stored large mechanical equipment in his outdoor storage area for five years, they'll have find another storage place.

"It's probably one of the last inexpensive storage areas around and a lot of the people that run their little businesses don't have any place to go," said Schneider, who grew up riding horses and picnicking on the 24-acre property that used to be a farm.

Even a few family dogs are buried out there, he said.

"It may not look like it now, but it's going to be a great park site," said Schneider, struck by the beauty of the Flatirons behind the field of rusty cars and trailers on his lot. "Everyone is taking a little less money to see it as a park because they are obviously people who have owned property here for decades and care about Boulder. I can't wait to take my kids on a picnic out there."

While thrilled with the prospect of seeing a park there, Schneider said he views the land deal as the end of an era, a reflection of Boulder's move toward being an economically exclusive community.

"Every town needs a junkyard," he said.

Across the street, where the Boulder Valley Poultry farm has doled out eggs for local groceries and individuals since 1960, Mildred Vaughan is less enthusiastic about selling her family's 22.5 acres to the city.

Vaughan, 78, is afraid she'll lose her connection with the people of Boulder if she can't sell them eggs anymore. "They are really down in the dumps about not being able to get their farm fresh eggs," she said.

But Vaughan said she will bite an offer to clean up and sell "only if the price is right."