CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Robstown Sheriff's Department has been collaborating with code enforcement to clean up several county-owned properties.
Inmate labor is being used to transform those county-owned eyesores into much cleaner lots.
"He told me, "Hey sheriff, what are some properties here in the City of Robstown that belong to Nueces County?'". And they are unkept. They are in violation of our city codes," said Nueces County Sheriff John Hooper.
Richard Ortiz is the Robstown Code Enforcement officer who contacted Hooper regarding the situation. He explained how homes came into the possession of Nueces County.
"What happens is that they get lost in taxes," he said.
Ortiz said a house on West Avenue C as one of the 21 properties he discovered owned by Nueces County. This raises the question of why the sheriff is involved with these properties.
"It's my responsibility now to see if those properties get auctioned off," he said. "So basically they've got my name on them so when the code enforcement officer from Robstown called me and told me about these properties, we needed to do something about it."
Hooper said he dispatched inmate work crews to clean up the properties, some of which had weeds and grass exceeding 5 feet in height. Currently, 10 of the 21 have been renovated.
"Just to have them come out here and take care of these properties. It doesn't only make me happy, but I think this is a step in the right direction in City Robstown," he said.
Richard Gonzalez, who lives next door to a home on West Avenue, said the place has been a magnet for drugs users.
"It's a crackhouse, and a lot of people going in and out but I'm happy they cleaned it up," he said.
Gonzalez hopes the area remains well-maintained because he has another completely overgrown and abandoned property across the street.
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