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Ogden • Hours after Mayor Matthew Godfrey canceled further controlled burns of old homes in Ogden's Riverfront redevelopment area, the City Council here agreed to set aside money for demolition of the dilapidated structures.
Godfrey announced Tuesday that the torching of homes in the project area — bounded by 18th and 20th streets, Wall Avenue to the west and Washington Boulevard to the east — is not in the city's best interest.
Jonny Ballard, division manager for Ogden Community Development, was asked to compare costs between incineration and traditional demolition.
"We had talked about burning 10 homes but would only save about $30,000," Ballard said Tuesday.
The city has 44 vacant and dilapidated homes to remove, plus the debris from two homes burned in late August. Earlier this summer, the state Division of Air Quality notified officials that the fire department, by law, could burn two per year as a training exercise. Additional structures deemed eyesores or hazards could be torched if Ogden's fire chief issued a permit to do so.
City administrators later pared burn plans down to 10 structures and the Ogden Fire Department set two homes ablaze before dawn on the last Saturday in August.
However, thorough asbestos removal must be done first — dousing hopes of significant cost savings by burning rather than bulldozing the homes.
The City Council, in a 4-3 vote Tuesday evening that dealt with allocating funds for several projects, approved the use of up to $545,000 in Business Depot Ogden lease revenues to raze and clear away the unwanted structures this fall.
Ballard said the city has received a $541,794 bid that would cover all the demolitions and debris removal.