Country-western bars in the far West Valley have held their own for decades. Now they’re trying to stay current as fields turn into freeways.

Although “2010” headlines a fresh calendar, many far West Valley watering holes happily cling to a 1986 aesthetic. Those were the days before Westgate, before chain-owned bars, and before boulevards plowed through the crops.

Has the influx of new people and new developments helped or hurt these bars? Well, both. But people aren’t quite crying into their beer mugs – yet.

Roman Comer, 75, owns two of the far West Valley’s oldest standbys – Roman’s County Line, at Indian School Road and 107th Avenue in Avondale, and Roman’s Oasis, at Yuma Road and Cotton Lane in Goodyear. Both are country-western bars, with a little more of a NASCAR theme at the Oasis. The County Line opened in 1991; the Oasis in 1993.

Since then, Comer has stepped out of the game and appointed Kenny Harrell, 52, as his right-hand man. Harrell is a plumber and met Comer at the Oasis three days after he moved to the West Valley in 1999.

Roman’s County Line has pretty much stayed true to its roots. Harrell says most of the bar’s décor has been on the wall since it opened, but they try to keep things fresh. “We’re just continuously doing new things,” Harrell says. “Right now we have poker, dance lessons, karaoke, new bands – whatever makes the crowd happy.”

Harrell says he thinks this bar and that crowd will always be here. “[Comer] has had an offer or two, yes. Is it interesting? No, because he’s not interested in selling it,” he says.

Patricia Brunson, 54, has been coming to County Line for 13 years, as both a regular patron and a bartender. During that time, she’s watched the surrounding area develop. “There was nothing around here but cotton fields,” she says.

But for the past year or so, Brunson says she’s noticed a change: She doesn’t see a lot of new people coming in. “This is just a little country bar out here and it’s done real well,” she says, “but the economy beat it up like everything else.”

Farther west on Indian School Road is Lighthouse Sports Bar, built by the late Arnold Clayton in 1986. His son Bob Clayton, 63, has been running things since 2004. When the bar opened, there were only so many neighborhood patrons to fill the seats.

“When my dad built this, our sign out front lit up the road for a half-mile either way,” Clayton says. “And now, we’re just another sign on the road.”

The Lighthouse has nightly karaoke and pool. A second room that once had a Mexican restaurant with an area for off-track betting on dog races is now a hip-hop dance floor on Friday and Saturday nights. “We had some extra time after the racetracks closed, and we started putting a DJ back there just to bring people in,” Clayton says. “Before we knew it, we had people in the bar waiting for the dogs to be over so they could dance.”

There are only a few bars left in the far West Valley, he adds. “We’re like little outposts,” Clayton says. “Now they have bars in restaurants, and those aren’t true bars.”

Lighthouse manager and bartender Oscar Caballero, 52, says he misses the good old days with the restaurant and the gamblers. He’s not the biggest fan of the new developments, like the bar’s new dance floor, but has learned to live with them.

“Now there are all kinds of people,” he says. “Now the whole city just passes you by.”