Beleaguered Texas Town Can’t Give Home Lots Away

Lefors can’t even give it away.

Nearly four months after this struggling Texas Panhandle town of boarded-up windows, cluttered yards and dirt side streets held a drawing for 14 free residential lots, only four of the 28 winners and alternates have claimed their piece of Lefors.

Even worse, “I haven’t heard from those people in quite some time,” said city secretary Virginia Maples, organizer of the land giveaway in this town of 650. “They’re supposed to be here by May under the rules.”

In truth, it’s not entirely Lefors’ fault.

To win title to one of the about 6,500-square-foot lots, a claimant must either move a two-bedroom trailer onto the property within six months or begin construction on a house in that time.

Someone who is so hard up as to want to move to Lefors just to claim a piece of land worth less than $1,000 probably can’t afford the $15,000 or more it will take to settle.

“We won’t be able to move at all,” said Rose Powers, whose daughter, Tamra Ornelas, a nursing assistant from Baker, Ore., is one of the four claimants. “I’m not being pessimistic. We’d love to, because Tamra talks about it all the time.”

Forty percent of the population is retired, and most of those still working commute to the chemical plant or the prison in nearby Pampa, population 20,000.

Powers is confident that her daughter could find work there or in Amarillo, an hour to the southwest.

Lefors probably can’t compete with Baker in a beauty contest. Many of the buildings are long abandoned, victims of a failed oil economy and a 1975 tornado that drove away a third of the population.

E-Z Serve convenience store manager Jada Murray said Lefors’ true beauty is its people. She pointed to a jar on her store counter.

“Everybody’s pitching in for a man here who’s having a bypass,” said Murray, whose establishment serves as the town’s hangout. “Yeah, you see the dirt roads, and you see some houses in terrible condition, but this town has a homey feel to it.”

In the meantime, the town has begun contacting some of the more than 500 losing entrants to see if they’re still interested.

At some point, Lefors will just offer the lots on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Lefors has little to lose. The vacant land fell into the town’s hands in lieu of back taxes from the former owners.

And the property is of no use unless taxpayers move in, preferably with children like Ornelas’ 11- and 12-year-olds.