Standard-Examiner staff?sschwebke@standard.net?

OGDEN — The city plans to tear down two vacant homes in the Ogden River Project area this week to compare debris-removal costs with that from a pair of nearby dwellings burned down early Saturday as part of a fire training exercise.?A brick home at 1962 Childs Ave. and a wood-frame home at 1862 Childs will be removed using traditional demolition methods, Jonny Ballard, the city’s community development manager, said Tuesday.?He didn’t know the exact day the houses would be destroyed.?Between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. Saturday, the fire department burned a brick home at 1948 Childs and a wood home at 1887 Childs.?Burning and conventional demolition should give city officials a better idea of cost comparisons for debris removal arising from the two methods of razing the homes, Ballard said.?However, even if burning proves cheaper, the city’s administration is committed to burning no more than eight additional homes in the river project, he said.?The city council is scheduled to consider on Sept. 7 a request from the administration to allocate $545,150 for the demolition of homes in the river project. ?Of that amount, $25,000 would be set aside for the cleanup of debris for homes burned by the fire department.?The homes targeted for demolition are owned by Ogden Riverfront Development Company, a firm managed by developer Gadi Leshem.?The city could recover costs associated with burning or demolishing the homes through liens placed on properties owned by Ogden Riverfront Development or a value-for-value exchange for land belonging to the company in the river project, to be used for a public park. ?The proposed mixed-use river project development encompasses about 60 acres straddling the river from 18th to 20th streets and Washington Boulevard to Wall Avenue.?In July, Fire Chief Mike Mathieu originally proposed that many of the 45 homes in the river project area be burned to provide training for firefighters and to remove the unsafe dwellings. ?However, Mathieu’s proposal was significantly pared back because of the cost of asbestos removal and concerns about the adverse impact on air quality.?Mayor Matthew Godfrey and City Council Chairwoman Caitlin K. Gochnour reached an agreement to burn two homes. No more than eight additional homes would be burned if it’s determined that method proves more cost effective than anticipated.?The burning of the two homes Saturday was done without advance public notice to minimize rubberneckers and take advantage of favorable weather conditions, according to the fire department.?Godfrey said he informed the city council in advance that asbestos abatement on the two homes was under way and that the burning was imminent.?However, it was impossible to provide an exact date for the burns because the air quality and smoke-dispersal index, along with wind conditions, change daily, he said. ?”You don’t have the luxury of giving advance notice,” said Godfrey, adding he wasn’t notified beforehand by the fire department that the homes would be burned. ?Still, Gochnour said she’s disappointed that the city council was kept in the dark about the fires that lit up the early morning sky. “We always knew there would be two homes (that would be burned). Did we know it would be that day? No.” ?Councilwoman Amy Wicks also criticized the administration for keeping the council and public out of the loop. ?”I am extremely concerned that the Ogden City Council was not informed and that this occurred before we even approved funding for the demolition activity and debris removal,” she said in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner. ?”I’m even more concerned that area residents were not notified and given the opportunity to vacate the area if they had concerns about breathing the air. Citizens living in the river project area and adjacent streets have put up with a lot over the past few years. We owe it to them to at least provide proper notification for an event that is a public health and safety issue.” ?Dr. Peter Clemens, director of the Wound and Hyperbaric Center at Ogden Regional Medical Center, also criticized Godfrey’s administration for failing to notify the public in advance of the burn but is optimistic no more homes will be destroyed in that manner.?Iain Hueton, a city planning commission member who owns a home at 340 18th St., which is a couple of blocks away from the dwellings that were burned, isn’t overly concerned about the lack of advance warning, but he said he is grateful the plan for the large-scale burning of homes has been dramatically scaled back.?”The administration is behind programs that have given Ogden environmental credibility,” he said. ?”We would have compromised the credibility that Ogden has worked hard to achieve over the last decade (if a large number of homes were burned).”