"Not Tall Worried"

The west Texas town of Wink (pop. 1,863) enjoyed temporary oil booms and momentary prosperity in 1928 and again in 1936. But since the last riggers and roustabouts moved out. Wink has experienced nothing except silent decay and slow death. Wink's housewives watch warily for rattlesnakes slithering through the mesquite and catclaw bushes in their yards. Because the town lies 23 miles from the Fort Worth El Paso highway, only an occasional tourist passes through. There is no train service beyond an occasional Texas-New Mexico freight clattering over a weed-sprinkled spur line.

Chickens wander at high noon along the seven-block stretch of Hendrick Boulevard, the town's main street. There are only about six sturdy downtown buildings; most of the others are empty, or sagging so dangerously that pedestrians step out into the street to avoid them. There seems, in fact, no reason whatever for the continued existence of Wink-except for the surprising fact that the U.S. is forking out more than $1.000,000 to rebuild the town.

Three years ago. a desperate group of Wink's citizens determined to seek federal funds to keep the town alive. Driving to Fort Worth, they approached regional representatives of the Housing and Home Finance Agency about urban renewal funds. Government officials not only encouraged them, but also enthusiastically suggested that Wink could become a pilot project for rundown small towns across the U.S. The Wink businessmen returned home, passed zoning laws to comply with federal requirements, held the necessary referendum. Overjoyed at the prospect of reviving Wink with federal money, the town voted overwhelmingly (187-51) accept aid. Said Storekeeper G. I. Young: "Why shouldn't the Government do it for us? They do it for the niggers and Puerto Ricans in New York all the time."

"Not Worth a Thousand." Last month the Federal Government, true to its word, advanced $1,034,758 in urban renewal funds for Wink. Don McBee. 28. the town's ecstatic urban renewal director, promptly set about spending the money. McBee has mapped a 75-block area that includes practically all of Wink. In that space, 192 buildings will be torn down, ancient automobiles long rusting on vacant lots will be hauled away, tin shacks thrown up by the vanished oilfield riggers will be demolished. McBee has already bought eleven pieces of property, has options on 92 more. When the land is assembled, it will be sewered, paved, sprinkled with new stores, off-street parking. malls, homes, an industrial park, a $25'000 city hall. Says Winkler County Commissioner J. A. Scogin. happily: ''We've got more than enough money to handle the whole program." Says McBee: "We'll be the only town in the country that has been completely remodeled."

Property owners are. understandably, enchanted. Says Druggist Clyde Godfrey: "I have one building that on the open market wouldn't have brought a penny. My drugstore isn't worth more than a thousand dollars. I own another store over there that isn't worth more than $1.000. And I've got a piece of rental property that wouldn't have sold for more than $800. The urban renewal agency paid me $11,700 for the lot."

Calm & Confident. Godfrey, now that he has his money, has no particular plans for spending it. But. apparently, other citizens of Wink do; of the first eleven property owners who sold to McBee, three are making plans to move away. For that reason the project that was supposed to have saved Wink may sound its eventual death knell. Says one merchant: "A lot of people would have moved out a long time ago. only they didn't have any way to get the money to go." Says Wink Bulletin Editor Melvin Dow: "I'm just afraid we're going to end up with a well laid-out city but no people."

But at least one person would surely be left to enjoy the malls, the trees and the new city hall. Wink's town character is an aging Negro known only as "Buffalo." Reaching for his wine bottle one morning last week, Buffalo was calm and confident about the onward march of urban renewal.

'I ain't 'tall worried," said he grandly. "The Government's going to take care of all this here."

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