Buildings at entrance to Beaumont are eyesores
More than a dozen abandoned buildings in the lower Beaumont area of Fort Bliss are finally scheduled for demolition.
The entrance to the area, the only access to Beaumont hospital on weekends, is located off of Fred Wilson Road and Lazear, just East of William Beaumont.
“It doesn’t look good at all, it’s abandoned, it looks scary honestly,” said Carlos Diaz, who lives across the street.
The lower Beaumont area, located just below William Beaumont Army Medical Center, has certainly seen better days. Boarded up windows and structurally unsound staircases are a common sight in the nearly 100 year old buildings.
There’s an old chapel that doesn’t appear to have a prayer and scattered shingles on an old gym, where ABC-7 even spotted a cactus growing out of the roof!
“It’s like a halloween attraction, because it’s all broken down, nothing is boarded up nicely,” Diaz added.
The condition of three buildings right at the entrance to the lower Beaumont area is so bad that it had to be fenced in by barbed wire.
“Fort Bliss can do a lot better,” said Diaz, whose front window of his apartment looks right at the lower Beaumont eyesore. “I actually worked inside William Beaumont and people talk about it too. Honestly, it’s not a good view, it’s not a good view.”
Father and son John and Antonio D’Addezio also live in the area.
“It is an eyesore,” Antonio D’Addezio said. “It would be nice to be able to look out over the city right there.”
Added his Dad, John D’Addezio: “They could use a little work. Either fix them up or take them down … One of the two.”
Fort Bliss officials told ABC-7 demolition of the buildings has been the top priority of commanders for years, but due to military budget cuts the funding was not available. However, funding to demolish 13 of the buildings this year is now available, according to Fort Bliss’s master planner Lee Green.
“They do need to do something about it,” Diaz said. “They do.”
Green told ABC-7 they’ve requested funding to demolish nine other buildings in the area. However, while 13 are expected to come down this year, the others will have to wait until at least next year.
