Logan City remembers three landslide victims
In the wake of the Jan. 28 settlement of a multi-party lawsuit resulting from a tragic landslide that killed three people, Logan City officials look to develop the land where the slide occurred.
“When we were going through the mitigation side of this lawsuit, the family was down there,” Logan City Mayor Randy Watts said. “I told them we felt, as a city, it’d be fitting that we put a memorial to the mom and her two children. When we get the thing cleaned up we can find out where that memorial would be positioned.”
He said he pictures something similar to the Olsen Memorial Park on Canyon Road where a memorial for Merlin Olsen’s mother and father was established near their former homestead.
On July 11, 2009, after heavy amounts of precipitation weakened a canal wall near 915 Canyon Road in the Island Neighborhood, several tons of earth gave way. The resulting landslide demolished the home of Evelia Jacqueline Leavey, burying and killing her and her children Abbey Alanis and Victor Alanis Jr.
The lawsuit was between plaintiff Victor Alanis Sr. – the husband and father of the deceased – and USU, UDOT, Logan City, Logan Northern Irrigation Co. and the former owner of the property.
“It’s been a long, drawn-out process,” Watts said. “Now that the lawsuit is behind us, we can move ahead to making some great strides with what we’re doing to clean up Canyon Road.”
Logan City Parks and Recreation director Russ Akina said he and the Mayor have discussed turning the site into a public park of some kind once the city purchased the homes and cleared the area.
“There are a couple of things that are going to need some attention,” Akina said. “That includes continuation of the stability of that slope.”
The site is located at the foot of a bluff that supports Interstate 89 and USU property.
Akina said most people think of a park as a place with baseball fields and volleyball pits. With the space that is available, he said it will most likely be more of a passive park with benches and easily maintainable plants.
The trail that once ran along the canal was washed out by the landslide. Public Works director Mark Nielsen said City Council members have said they want the canal trail put back into use.
“It’s always been our goal in the Department (Parks and Recreation) to connect parks with trails,” Akina said. “The location of a public park, that Canyon Road location and the canal would seem to make a lot of sense in terms of that idea.”
Nielsen said the Canyon Road site is just over two acres of land and consisted of five separate properties.
The Public Works Department has recently cleared a large portion of the area, which caused frequent road closings in order to allow bulldozers and other land moving equipment room to work.
“We do have one more house that’s being closed on,” Nielsen said. “We now have all the houses that were involved in that slide.”
Watts said most people didn’t realize there is a lot of nice property behind those Canyon Road homes. The owners of the last remaining piece of property were going to begin a lawsuit just before Logan City officials arranged to buy the land.
“It’s unfortunate that the residents down there have had to put up with this eyesore for such a long time,” Watts said. “I really, truthfully could not move any quicker than the lawsuit moved along. As soon as the attorneys and the insurance people got that behind them, now we’re making progress.”
In May, when the City Council does a budget review, Akina said the Council has asked that he present a priority list of capital projects – projects that require city funding – that his department recommends for fiscal year 2012.
He said there is an existing memorial on the property put in place by the survivors of the landslide victims that will be preserved by the city. There has been no talk, however, of naming the park in honor of those victims.
“There aren’t any resources at the time, in terms of what to work with,” Akina said. “We would be working with the City Council as this firms up from what to do, to design, to funding it.”
He said closer to May, he and the other city officials involved should have a better idea of what is going to happen as far as development of the Canyon Road site.
Nielsen said another deciding factor rests in the hands of Logan Northern Irrigation Co. and whether the canal is refurbished and put back into use.
“If that canal goes back in service, you’ve got to stabilize that canal,” Nielsen said. “What now may be a 100-foot wide lot may be a 25-foot wide lot. We don’t know any of those details so that’s why it’s really unknown what this is going to be.”
– dan.whiteny.smith@aggiemail.usu.edu