A quick drive around Tracy shows there is plenty to be excited about
By Per Peterson
Negativity has been around every corner in Tracy seemingly the whole summer. However, walk the streets in town today and you can see there are literally much better things around the corner.
On Friday alone, three signs were put up on buildings in Tracy: A sign signaling the coming of 1412 Market Cafe in the former Dairy Queen building, a “sale pending” sign on the former Super-Valu building on 3rd St., and a “coming soon” sign on Dale Johnson III’s building at the corner of 4th and Morgan (the old Gulf station).
“Just the sign itself is the most important thing right now,” EDA Director Jeff Carpenter said as the “sale pending” sign was being affixed to the old Super Valu building — a structure that was recently deemed hazardous by the city council because of mold issues.
Carpenter said it has been determined that the structure of the building, besides the roof, is in good condition.
“We don’t want to lose a building downtown that can be saved,” he said.
The sign is a step in the right direction for downtown Tracy, which has its share of vacant buildings that because of time and/or weather are seeing their final days.
“It’s amazing,” said contractor and Tracy Development Corporation member Dale Johnson III. “When they decided they were going to potentially have to tear it down, I spent probably three to four days trying to find somebody that could utilize the building, figuring out the different uses it could have, making sure the building was in good shape, getting prices on a new roof.”
Johnson is well aware there are buildings on 3rd St. that have major structural issues and will likely be razed and said the ones that don’t need to be saved.
“And we want to keep them on the tax roll,” he said. “The whole game is, try to generate tax dollars in the community.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.