FORT LUPTON — A long-term neighborhood nuisance and potential health hazard may soon be remedied, provided funding comes to fruition.
    Fort Lupton’s Elm Court residents, particularly those closest to lot 913, have long suffered with what amounts to an abandoned meth lab and overgrown dump site in the middle of their neatly kept street. Now there is hope that things will change for the better, for the first time since police raided the house in June 2006.

    Acting on a tip, a SWAT team cleared the house, arresting Timothy Horton, 36, on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine. Inside, police discovered bottles of chemicals such as iodine, potassium hydroxide, camp-stove fuel and the gasoline additive Heet, all ingredients used to make the toxic drug. Police subsequently arrested Tammy Horton, Timothy Horton’s sister and the owner of the house, on similar charges.
    “My understanding is, she is still in prison,” Holton said.
    Therein lies the problem. With an absentee owner and the stigma associated with a meth lab, the house remains uninhabited and virtually unwanted by anyone in a position to clean up the mess.
    “Nobody wants to take responsibility for the house,” Holton said. “The county doesn’t want it for taxes, and the bank doesn’t want it. They don’t want the responsibility. So we are going to go back to the finance company and try and get that thing bought and either tear it down or fix it up.”
    Holton plans to pay for the renewal and seven others around the city in similar, if not as dire, straits with the help of some outside funding.
    “We have a program that we are trying to put together right now with the county. It’s through HUD,” Holton said.  “We are going to take those properties – once we get this approved, hopefully right shortly – and either fix those things up or scrape them, clean them up, put them in the housing authority, or putting them back on the market.”
    The most infamous takes priority, according to Holton, who has his sights set on 913.
    “That’s the No. 1 house on the list – to get that meth house cleaned up and replaced with another house. It’s a nice neighborhood. It’s horrible that they have that house there and they have weeds all over it. It looks bad, but we have plans to do something with it.”
    That “something” most probably includes razing the property and starting over, despite a clean bill of health offered by Weld County.
    “The county has cleared it as far as being hazardous any more,” Holton said. “Regardless, it has that reputation now, it might be better just to clear it off, just scrape it, maybe keep the foundation or not, whatever they decide to do.”

Contact Gene Sears at 303-659-2522, ext. 217 or gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com