Action on request to close alley continued

The Ponca City Board of Commissioners voted Monday to continue action on a request to close an alley south of the 200 block of West Cleveland Avenue until a later commission meeting.

The petitioner who requested the alley be closed was unable to attend Monday’s meeting because of health problems and asked that the matter be continued.

A hearing on the request was held as scheduled since two parties opposing the request were present at the meeting.

The alley in question runs from north to south behind two metal quonset huts at Union and Cleveland. The metal structures house several antique cars and are owned by three partners.

Neal Lawrence works as a caretaker for the property and said there has been a problem with untagged cars parking on the east side of the alley next to the huts. He said there are also drums of oil on the property which are now leaking.

Lawrence also told commissioners that the owners of the property do not want to lose access to the rear of  their buildings and maintenance of the property has been made more difficult because of the encroachment of the junk vehicles.

J.D. Hanks, one of the three owners of the quonset huts, said he and his partners bought the properties in 1988 and 1989 on the site of the former Southerland’s Lumber Yard. He said the cars they store in the buildings are all restored Model A Fords, Buicks, Pierce Arrows and other high-end antique cars, not junk pieces.

“It has to look right,” Hanks said. “We try to keep the lawn mowed and trimmed. People to the west of the alley are now parked on our property and we had to put in parking markers. We don’t want it to look like junk.”

After the testimony in the hearing on the petition, commissioners voted to close the public hearing and  to continue any action on the request until the next agenda.