There’s a desolate stretch of road in eastern El Paso County where vehicles rust in back pastures, refrigerators list on front porches, and tires lay in the weeds. But one of the most forlorn sights of all are the beached remains of mobile homes that sprawl across the brown hills, their outsides flayed by the wind and their insides charred by vandals’ fire.

It’s called Funk Road, but neighbors have nicknamed  it “Junk Road.” Fed up with the mess, they’ve turned to El Paso County for help.

“They’re dumps, absolute dumps,” said El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen, who represents the district in which the road is located.

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Although Lathen is sensitive to property rights, the cluttered homesteads have “an incredibly negative effect” on surrounding property owners.

“We have an obligation to protect everybody’s property rights, including the people who can’t sell their homes because they’re living next to dumps.”

Many roads in eastern El Paso County are strewn with wreckage. But Funk Road seems to have the “lion’s share” of the problems, Lathen said.

In late September and early October, county code enforcement officer Terry Rorick drove out to Funk Road, looked over the properties, then returned to his office and issued about a dozen citations to various homeowners for code violations related to the junked cars, the dilapidated structures and trash.

The abandoned mobile homes, which are classified as rubbish under a county ordinance, can be a fire hazard and also pose a danger to people and livestock, especially if the animals ingest the insulation, he added.

“We’ve had complaints going back 20 years on Funk Road,” he said.

Until 1999, there were no zoning regulations in eastern El Paso County. People who didn’t want government intruding into their lives moved in and opened salvage yards, used-tire dumps, and recycling operations.

One owner eventually accumulated between 50 and 100 junk vehicles, thousands of used tires and dozens of mobile homes. After long, arduous negotiations, which included the threat of litigation, the owner has begun cleaning up his property. County officials hope that others will follow his example.

But one person’s junk might be another person’s jewels. Mike Murphy, who has one of the messier properties along Funk Road and has been cited repeatedly for violations, has a thicket of antennas and 11 cameras on the roof of his mobile home. Thieves, he said, come in the middle of the night to try to steal his stuff. Motion sensors posted outside trigger cameras linked to VCRs inside the trailer, which record anybody on his property.

“I’m not paranoid as far as somebody attacking me, but people are constantly stealing from me. I’m sick and tired of losing everything all the time.”

Like many other residents living along Funk Road, Murphy has no-trespassing signs tacked to his fence. Government employees, in particular, are warned to keep away. “They harass you all the time,” he said.A sea of seeming debris surrounds Murphy’s mobile home, but he has a purpose for each and every item. The small oven on the front porch? It’s a barbecue. The two refrigerators? Both being used. The dozen or so vehicles?

They’re licensed and running, waiting for customers to pick them up, or being scrapped out for parts. “The county commission doesn’t understand. These are not junked cars.”

Murphy blames a lot of the actual garbage blowing about to the wild dogs and the feral cats that roam the county. He trapped two of the cats and let them go and killed a third with a crossbow.

Murphy moved to Funk Road 12 years ago from Henderson. He liked the wide-open views and the quiet, which is so profound that residents swear they can hear antelopes trotting across the packed ground. He bought a little more than 40 acres for $500 down. He didn’t have any indoor plumbing or electricity and had to haul in his own water. Eventually he got hooked up to the grid.

For a while, life was good. He worked as a mechanic and amateur weather chaser for a television station. Then his in-laws died, his parents died, his wife suffered a stroke, and Murphy went into a severe depression.

“I can’t get my mother’s face out of my mind. I can’t get my dad’s face out of my mind,” he said. “I keep spiraling down, down, down.”

Murphy’s willing to clean up his place, but can’t afford to rent the construction-sized dumpsters he needs.“I have $500 a month coming in,” he said. “That’s barely enough to pay the bills and keep the cars going. If the county could help me, I’d have 90 percent of the stuff laying around here gone.”

As long as owners are making a good-faith effort to clean up their properties, county officials are willing to work with them. By contrast, uncooperative owners can face criminal prosecution and fines and have their rubbish forcibly seized at their expense.

“It’s hard to decide where one person’s rights ends and the other begins,” said Rorick, the code enforcement officer.

Murphy, he added, has not contacted him, but when he does, he’ll be ready to listen. “We don’t want to be the bad guys here.”

Cars, boats and other debris accumulates at a house located on Funk Road on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009. Many property owners have been given citations for numerous code violations. Mariah Tauger, The Gazette Photo by MARIAH TAUGER, THE GAZETTE

MARIAH TAUGER

Tires and other debris accumulates on the yard of a house located on Funk Road and Mulberry on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009. Many property owners have been given citations for numerous code violations. Mariah Tauger, The Gazette Photo by MARIAH TAUGER, THE GAZETTE

MARIAH TAUGER

Property along Funk Road in Eastern El Paso County. Photo by EILEEN WELSOME