Fresno motel’s beds, furniture given away to make way for high-speed train

Beds and furniture from a central Fresno motel that will soon be razed to make way for high-speed rail are being donated to nonprofit organizations that expect to put the furnishings in foster homes, group homes and shelters.

It’s a nice gesture by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, but there’s a hiccup to the agency’s good intentions: The former owner of the Flamingo Inn is still using the beds, dressers and other furniture because, as of Friday, the motel is still open for business renting rooms to people.

The Flamingo is one of a string of motels along Golden State Boulevard that are in the bullet train’s path. The sale of the 38-room motel to the rail authority was finalized last week in a deal that included not only the land and the building, but also the furnishings in most of the rooms. But Bhupendrakumar Rameshchandra “Sam” Sharma, the former owner, said he was told by the rail agency’s relocation specialist that he has until Aug. 10 to close up shop. In the meantime, he’s upset that the authority is trying to give away the furniture while he’s still trying to make a living.

“Nobody from high-speed rail call me about giving away furniture,” Sharma, a native of India, said Friday. Two days earlier, a television news report triggered a flurry of people calling him to beg for furniture. “I get 15 calls in a half hour, people telling me, ‘Give me a bed, give me a dresser.’ I’m tired and I’m mad.”

“Last night a guy just show up with a big trailer and say, ‘I need five bed, five TV and five dresser,’” Sharma added. “I tell him go away, I’m still in business.”

The 60-year-old motel has definitely seen better days. It sits on a stretch of Golden State between Olive and McKinley avenues — an area long notorious for unsavory activities since its heyday as part of U.S. Highway 99, before the modern freeway was built through Fresno in the late 1950s. A handful of the rooms are rented to longer-term tenants, but the motel still sees the occasional overnight visitor.

Fresno County property records show that Sharma bought the motel about 10 years ago. The title transfer from Sharma to the state was recorded July 8, according to the Fresno County Recorder’s Office.

Diana Gomez, the rail authority’s Central Valley regional director, was surprised to learn that Sharma is still renting rooms after the sale closed. “He has personal property in four of the rooms that we are not touching…and he has several people living there who will relocate when he relocates,” Gomez said. “But he should not still be doing business.

“We own the property, and we own the furniture, too. That was part of the contract. We closed the escrow, he got his money, and we gave him 90 days to relocate.”

As with some other issues the rail authority has encountered as it acquires property and begins construction in the central San Joaquin Valley, the confusion appears to boil down to communication — in this instance, between a state bureaucracy and a business owner for whom English is a second language.

The first that Sharma learned of the rail agency’s plan to donate the motel furnishings wasn’t from the state, but when a Bee reporter talked to him. On Friday in the motel’s small, sweltering office, Sharma called his relocation specialist to try to confirm his understanding that he has until Aug. 10 before he must close. But whoever was on the other end of the line hung up when a frustrated Sharma handed the phone to the reporter.

Gomez said the authority has run into similar situations with several other motels that are being displaced by the railroad right of way through Fresno, “still trying to do business when they shouldn’t after they’ve sold the property…and we only have this kind of issue with the motels.” She added that the rail authority hopes to deliver the Flamingo Inn site to its contractor “as quickly as we can” so workers can begin removing any asbestos or other hazardous materials prior to demolition.

Rather than just hauling the beds, dressers and nightstands to a landfill, “we’re trying to give it away before the demolition contractor comes in,” Gomez said. “We have a lot of nonprofits here in the Valley that house people who are in need.”

Valley Teen Ranch, which operates a group home and foster services, will be taking some of the beds to distribute to its roster of families that serve as foster homes to abused, neglected or abandoned children referred by county social services agencies. Valley Teen Ranch CEO Connie Clendenan added that she’s also picking up some of the motel’s mini-refrigerators that will be provided to nearly a dozen students who graduated recently from high school and this fall will be starting college and living in dormitories.

“A lot of people criticize the rail authority,” Clendenan said, acknowledging the controversy over the state’s planned $68 billion bullet train line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. “I know they’re hoping to pump up some good news, but I don’t care. Donating these beds and furniture is helping our kids and our families.”

Clendenan said Valley Teen Ranch will start picking up furniture as soon as she gets a green light from the rail authority. The beds will be cleaned before they go into the foster homes.

There’s plenty of other furniture that will remain for donations, said Elizabeth Jonasson, a spokeswoman for the rail authority, including desks and nightstands. “We’re opening it up to nonprofit organizations that want to receive the stuff in as-is condition. It’s all used; some of it is in newer condition, some of it is in less-new condition, but it’s all usable.”

People who want the furniture should not call Sharma at the motel because, really, the furniture doesn’t belong to him anymore. Jonasson said nonprofits interested in learning about possible donations of the motel’s furnishings need to call Victoria Sandoval at the rail authority at (559) 445-6767.

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 5:14 PM.