OGDEN -- Two full days of excavation work on the Weber River is making it possible for what police believe will be a successful search for a 4-year-old boy who presumably drowned April 28.
Water is to be diverted at 7 a.m. today , allowing Weber County Search and Rescue personnel to search where they haven't been able to look all week.
Corbin Anderson is believed to have drowned when he slipped off a rock and into the river near 300 Exchange Road.
"I really think we will be successful in four or five hours," said Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Mark Lowther, noting that there's no way to predict how the today's operation will go. "It's not like we've done this before. ... Even with the water level down before, it was still so turbulent."
In addition to diverted water, the water flow will be limited as Echo Reservoir has begun limiting the water flow from its spillway.
"It's kind of a time synchronization thing." said Lowther, who noted it would take 18 hours following the reservoir's water hold for levels to go down at the site of the search.
The excavation work at the river was being done as a donation by E.K. Bailey Construction Company.
Owner and President Brent Bailey said he was happy to be able to help out.
"We're just glad to be here," he said. "We're hoping it does some good."
Lowther said the work was not to create additional waterways but to clean out existing river channels.
"We've had hydrologists consult (with) us," he said.
He said the search and rescue operation worked with both the state and the Utah Army Corps of Engineers for project permits.
Lowther said Ogden City would take over completion of the planned improvements in the Kayak Park, which includes the area where the boy drowned.
Jay Lowder, Ogden's public services director, said the Kayak Park is just one area the city is working to improve following last spring's flooding.
He said the improvements are starting now as city officials have worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for approval and funding for the project.
"We're just trying to get back what we lost," he said.
Already, work has begun on Serge Simmons Field, just south of where the excavation was under way Thursday and Friday.
There were more than a dozen workers and a mound of dirt more than 12 feet high at Serge Simmons Field on Friday.
In last year's floods, the ball park lost more than half its outfield, Lowder said.
Work needed at the Kayak Park, he said, will include repair of flood damage to a park structure and a rock wall on the east side of the river.
The city also will be repairing trails and an underpass, he said.
"It's all one big project," he said.
Ogden isn't the only city looking to make waterway improvements following last spring's floods.
Lowder said other communities, including Riverdale and West Haven, were applying for similar FEMA help.
Service planned
Community members plan to hold an informal memorial service at 7 tonight at the Ogden Kayak Park, off Exchange Road and 24th Street, to allow individuals to light candles and leave flowers.
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