Hillcrest demolition looming; vocational school named Ogden Technical HS
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- The outside of Hillcrest Elementary in Ogden, photographed Friday, June 16, 2023. The school is tentatively set to be demolished in July.
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- The area where Taylor Canyon Elementary in Ogden, torn down in 2022, once sat, photographed Friday, June 16, 2023. Grass sod is being placed where the building once stood.
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- The main doors of Hillcrest Elementary in Ogden, photographed Friday, June 16, 2023. The school is tentatively set to be demolished in July.
OGDEN — Time’s ticking for those with a soft spot for the old Hillcrest Elementary building.
Asbestos is being removed from the structure at 130 N. Eccles Drive in northern Ogden and demolition of the school, built in 1958, is set to start the first week of July.
“We would like to get the building down as soon as possible so that we can start preparing the site and continue moving forward with the design and preparation for the construction of the new Hillcrest Elementary,” reads a report from Ogden School District staff.
Hillcrest, which will be closed for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years, will be torn down and replaced with a new school on the same 9.5-acre site. The topic came up at Thursday’s Ogden school board meeting, when school officials OK’d the demolition plans.
The plans, focus of discussion dating back over a year, generated limited discussion Thursday. Queried about the fate of the trees on the site, Superintendent Luke Rasmussen said some currently stand in areas destined to become parking areas and a driveway.
“They will save what they can, but some will have to go,” said Zane Woolstenhulme, the district business manager.
The cost of the rebuild — meant to give students in the area a more modern facility — is estimated at $47 million, which includes the $1.63 million demolition price. Hillcrest students, meantime, will attend nearby Bonneville Elementary or other schools during construction.
Also Thursday, Woolstenhulme reported that the site of another Ogden school that was demolished, Taylor Canyon Elementary on Ogden’s East Bench at 2130 Taylor Ave., will soon become a grassy expanse. The school, closed after the 2021-2022 school year due to declining Ogden School District enrollment, was demolished last fall.
The footprint where Taylor Canyon once stood has been a vacant patch of dirt, but Woolstenhulme said workers have started installing a sprinkler system on the expanse and placing grass sod. As soon as the new sod takes hold, chain-link fencing around the plot will be removed “so people can go out and play on the lawn for a little while,” he said.
The school board also approved the naming of the new vocational school taking shape on the grounds of Ogden-Weber Technical College. It’s to be called Ogden Technical High School, or OTECH — also a nickname for the college. Work on the new $13.9 million facility started last April and it’s to open to students in time for the 2024-2025 school year.