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Right now, 14052 N. West Ave. is little more than a large pile of dirt with dying grass and a faded for sale sign. By August, it will be home to what city leaders believe is “the answer to our economic woes.”

El Dorado Mayor Mike Dumas announced on Wednesday that the Soap and Shine Automated Car Wash Company plans to operate a seven bay, “super deluxe” car wash on the property. Construction will begin next week, and plans are already in the works for a free car wash day, Dumas said.

“How exciting is this, that we can put our El Dorado Forward dollars to work by bringing in something as vital to the community as a Soap and Shine carwash,” Dumas said, leaning on his city-owned Ford Crown Victoria, which has the words “wash me” scrolled on the back bumper.

“While the Soap and Shine won’t bring any jobs to our city, it will bring cleaner cars, and we hope that clean cars will show people that we know how to take care of our things here in El Dorado. This, in turn, will make folks want to relocate to town.”

In addition to speaking about Soap and Shine’s plans, Dumas spent much of Wednesday touting a new task force that has been created to “clean up the city’s automobiles.”

The “Clean Car” Task Force will begin operating next month and is designed, in conjunction with Soap and Shine, to “make every car in El Dorado spit shined and beautiful,” Dumas said.

Don Wales, president and CEO of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce, said that the Clean Car Task Force will allow El Dorado to clean up its image, along with showing potential industries and families that the El Dorado Promise is not all the city has to offer.

Wales will work in conjunction with a yet-to-be-named Clean Car Task Force chairman and a representative from Soap and Shine on the project.

Cost for car washes at Soap and Shine have not been determined, but Dumas assured on Wednesday that “if someone cannot afford a car wash, we will get them one, one way or another.”

Further details on the Clean Car Task Force were unavailable on Wednesday.

Back on the economic front, Wales said that he has already had several calls from a company in North Carolina that’s interested in relocating to El Dorado because they are “tired of all the dirty cars running around” in their own city.

“We’ve known for a while that this was the hidden answer to boosting an economy,” Wales said. “We are at the forefront of this thing. No one else knows about it yet. We are going to ride the wave of clean cars all the way to the bank. Get in line, because our buttons are set to hot wax and shine.”