Texaco service station closes

The Texaco Service Station on Hwy. 20, at the western end of Sisters, closed indefinitely last week. Photo by Tom Chace

The Texaco service station, west of town on Highway 20, operated by Pam Neves and her husband Bill Westphal, has closed. The Westphals quit the lease.

"A new operator will be found as soon as the legal work has been completed," said Dudley Wolford, owner of the choice piece of property.

Speculation has been running rampant for several years about a fast-food restaurant going into that location. Neil Thompson, Sisters city planner, said that the property could be used for such a purpose.

"We do have a restriction against any drive-through operations in the downtown area," he said, "but this site is outside of that zoning regulation."

A new section, now being paved alongside this property will extend McKinney Butte Road, "making a jog beyond the Comfort Inn and heading due west to the new high school," according to Gary Frazee, public works director.

"McKinney Butte will be finished by August 15," he said (see The Nugget, June 4, page 1).

"There will eventually be a stoplight at the intersection of Barclay, McKinney Butte and Highway 20," Frazee said, "but we're working with ODOT on that and it could take some time."

At one time, when they owned the land and business property, they had a four- to five-year option with an agent for McDonald's, Inc., "to put in one of their restaurants. We had an estimate, back then, that it could cost as much as $300,000 to remove the underground gasoline storage tanks and tear down the building," Neves said.

"We gave up that option when we sold the property to Wolford," she said.

"For the past couple of years we have been operating the service station on a lease."

The lease reportedly runs until 2005.

According to a Texaco operator in Bend, if a new tenant is found to take over the service station, the national brand will probably be the Shell Oil Company which took over the retail operation of Texaco two years ago.

What is the future for the Westphals, who operated the Texaco Station here since 1993?

"We'll probably leave Sisters. I've always wanted to live in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County," Neves said.