CASPER — Drug houses, abandoned properties and eyesores the city has tagged as “dangerous” are in the crosshairs of the city for rehab or removal.
City Manager Carter Napier and Chief Building Official Justin Scott both informed the Casper City Council this week that progress is being made to remedy neighborhood concerns as “dangerous buildings” are identified.
“We have been anxiously aware of properties that have gone a long time without any attention and, as a result, have become public safety hazards,” Napier said. “With regard to that concern, as well as with respect to complaints we get from neighbors that are adjacent to these properties, I am real happy to say that we have made a lot of progress.”
Napier said public safety calls typically give police and fire agencies a heads up about the need to investigate structures as dangerous, but the city also receives calls from neighbors about “nefarious activities” that happen at those run-down and neglected properties.
“From my perspective, the opportunity to get these properties either removed, renovated or otherwise dealt with in a very proactive manner has been just a very welcome development,” he said.
Nine Properties
Scott said his department has identified nine buildings deemed “dangerous” since last June. Three of them have been demolished, three rehabbed and the city is still dealing with the remaining three.
One of the three rehabbed was at 1523 Westridge Place in Casper.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to turn around the neighborhood,” said Leslie Bower, a real estate agent in Casper who, with contractor Rafael Ruiz and real estate broker Lisa Burridge, bought the property at auction and totally redid it.
“It ended up how it ended up due to a deceased homeowner,” Bower said. “After the fact, we were able to make a huge addition to the neighborhood. It is right by a school and there were such problems at the house that they actually had to do a school lockdown.”
Bower said the trio worked “side-by-side” with the city of Casper to create a “workable solution.”
Ruiz said when he first walked into the building it was a “disaster.”
“There was fire damage inside, there were probably people in there starting fires just to keep warm,” he said. “It was a hoarder house, there were squatters in there, there was enough trash for, like, three or four houses.”
The backyard of the former drug house was full of garbage and junk. (Courtesy City of Casper) 
Contractor Rafael Ruiz said his crews went in and gutted the house down to the “bones” to rehab it. (Courtesy Leslie Bower) 
The City of Casper designated this house in the 1500 block of Westridge Place a “dangerous” building after drug activity and squatters took it over. (Courtesy Leslie Bower) The backyard of the former drug house was full of garbage and junk. (Courtesy City of Casper) 
The renovated home at Westridge Place has brought positive comments from the neighbors. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The renovated interior of the former drug house. (Courtesy Leslie Bower) 
The renovated property at Westridge Place looks nothing like it did prior to city of Casper designating the property as “dangerous.” (Courtesy Leslie Bower)
A Renovation
Once renovations began, Ruiz said his team took the house down to the “bones” to bring it back. Neighbors started thanking them for their efforts.
“I had people at the end of the street (saying), ‘Hey, we appreciate it,” he said. “One guy who inherited a house down the block said he was happy we were able to save the house and not tear it down and build a new one.”
The city uses its Uniform Code of the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings that has 18 criteria that can be used to designate a building as dangerous.
Photos provided by Scott to the council of the Westridge Place property showed windows broken out, the lack of utilities, garbage, and items outside in in the yard, electrical lines frayed and broken.
Once a property fits the criteria to be designated as dangerous, the owner of the property is notified and given a timeline for action, typically 35 to 60 days to bring the property up to building codes. When that deadline is missed, Scott said the city will secure the property.
As part of the process, the building is tested for asbestos and then, in coordination with other city departments, demolition is scheduled through a contractor or by the city’s public streets department.
Casper fire and police personnel were called to the intersection of 13th and McKinley streets on March 10, 2024, to find a driver suffering a medical emergency who had plowed into a house. (Courtesy: Casper Fire Department) 
The Econo Lodge Motel at 300 W. F St. in Casper had closed because of water damage, but has since had millions of dollars worth of damage done to it by homeless people squatting inside. (Todd Titus, Cowboy State Daily) 
One of the trashed rooms at the Casper Econo Lodge motel. (Courtesy Photo) 
The vacant Econo Lodge at 300 W. F St. in Casper has become a haven for squatting homeless people. (Todd Titus, Cowboy State Daily)
Private Property Rights
In answer to a question from city councilman Kyle Gamroth about private property rights and the timeline involved for making a “dangerous building” designation, Scott said he has discretion to give property owners up to 60 days to act.
“It’s a case-by-case scenario,” he said, adding that “most of these building have a multi-year history” with police or fire department interventions.
A house at the corner of 13th and McKinley streets in the city has been plowed into by vehicles several times, and the latest event in March took out a load-bearing wall. It is now on the “dangerous” list.
“The floor and foundation were structurally compromised,” Scott said. “That was the immediate life safety, structural scenario.”
The process to deem a house dangerous often involves obtaining an administrative search warrant that allows a property inspection to take place.
If a property owner disagrees with the “dangerous” designation, an appeal process is available.
City Attorney Eric Nelson said the goal of the city is to get property owners to rehab these dangerous and detrimental properties. He said the city has run into situations where a property is vacant because of a death and there are no heirs. In one example, there was a mortgage on the property.
“Part of the strategy is to secure it and we will work with the mortgage companies if they have a buyer or if they are in a foreclosure process,” Nelson said. “We will do all that we can to get that property off of our rolls, but if not, we will go to that last step.”
A spokesperson for the city said Friday the Econo Lodge Motel at 300 W. F. St. is not one of the buildings the city has designated “dangerous.”
The former motel has been sold and officials expect renovations will take place in coming months. The building was trashed as it became a squatters’ encampment last summer and the city condemned the property. It was boarded by at that time by the bank that owned it.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
