The Clinton, Oklahoma, Economic Development Authority last week ultimately accepted a bid to tear down the closed Glancy Motel along Route 66, but not without resistance from a trustee and one resident who both questioned the move.
The vote was 4-1, with the only dissenting vote by newly appointed trustee John Lee Cornell. He noted that between asbestos abatement and the demolition bid, the city will have spent about $500,000 on the property before turning it over to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for its new headquarters.
“We have invested half a million dollars into this property to turn around and donate it,” Cornell said, according to the print edition of the Clinton Daily News. “What is the City getting out of the deal?”
“We’ll be trading jobs,” authority director Roland Mower replied, adding that up to 19 positions will be created with the headquarters, plus more jobs from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs that will locate there.
“So in the long term, we are securing those jobs and will receive payback for greater private sector funding by having those jobs in the community.”
Local resident Jessica Williams also opposed the motel’s demolition, according to the newspaper.
“Clinton has several other places we could offer for an OHP headquarters and in my opinion the biggest mistake we could make is demolishing the Glancy,” she said. “We have no identity as a town and Route
66 is the easiest way to pull in an identity.“I understand the benefit of new jobs, but before we decide to get rid of what’s left of the Glancy, what’s wrong with looking at other locations? There have been multiple investors interested in the Glancy property that haven’t been pursued. It feels like we are slicing our own throats to have OHP at the site.”
Trustees pointed out that other proposals for the Glancy site — including senior housing and an Airbnb-style motel — lacked funding.
Local oilman Rick Koch also was interested in restoring the property and the adjacent Pop Hicks restaurant but backed out to work instead on the Whitten Inn on the city’s west side. A fire destroyed Pop Hicks in 1999.
Cornell and Williams still held out that the Glancy still has other potential.
“Once we do the final demolition, we can’t undo it,” said Cornell. “Revitalization could be popular.”
“But no one will do it,” said Meacham.
The authority accepted Midwest Wrecking’s bid of $62,840 to tear down the motel. Once demolished, the city will give the property to the state in the form of a quit claim deed.
The Glancy Motel at 217 W. Gary Blvd. (aka Route 66) had been in decline for years — to the point where it was condemned by the city in 2019 after numerous code violations. The motel was built in 1950 and remodeled in 2007.
(Image of the Glancy Motel in Clinton, Oklahoma, via its Facebook page)
Another sign that will disappear and end up in a private collection like many others already ? too bad, demolition is often the easy solution. The 66 loses its identity and historical markers which are the attraction of these cities