Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Debbie Dujanovic reporting
Produced by Kelly JustIt can happen in any Utah neighborhood. Amongst the neat-looking homes and well-kept yards, there's a warning for a meth house.
In six years, more than 600 contaminated houses were reported in Salt Lake County. Half of them were so bad, health inspectors shut them down.
But what happens when the one in your neighborhood never gets reopened? One frustrated resident turned to investigative reporter Debbie Dujanovic for help.
They sit abandoned behind tall weeds and trash in one neighborhood after another. Some have been boarded up to ward off vandals and transients. All are empty eyesores residents want gone.
German Lopez considers the empty and burned-out house in his neighborhood a dangerous place for everybody. Debbie Powell calls the abandoned home across the street "wrong." Rex Proud's take on the deserted house next door? "Course it trashes the rest of the neighborhood."
The "it" Proud is referring to -- a home with a big pink warning sign that reads "Closed to Entry."
We found it doesn't matter where you live in Salt Lake County. They are all over.
When a meth lab is found, the Salt Lake Valley Health Department puts up one of these warning signs telling people to stay out. The home also goes on a public list of contaminated properties.
Maurine Oviatt wishes someone, anyone, would deal with the meth home in her Salt Lake neighborhood. "Please clean it up," she said.
The concerns go far beyond how bad these places look. Powell is scared the deserted house across the street is inviting to criminals. She pointed out, "So many of them are broken into and used for drug homes."
Ten minutes down the road, Proud worries that vandals or vagrants will start a fire in the vacant house next door. "There's only, like I say, 5 feet between the two houses," he said.
That happened to Lopez. Transients broke into an abandoned meth house next door. The flames damaged Lopez's building and destroyed two vehicles. Two months later, not a thing has changed.
"There is something that has to be done on this property -- and soon," Lopez said.
Neighbors thought the health department warning signs would bring swift action; houses would be cleaned up. But that's not the case. Instead, we found homes shut down for nearly 10 months, two years, even five years.
Frustrated residents turned to us for help. They want to know what's taking so long. They may not like what we found.
These homes may never be cleaned up. First, the people who own the contaminated property don't always have the money for cleanup, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Then, as the executive director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, Gary Edwards explained, there are no mandatory deadlines for decontamination.
"Our role is to secure the property which removes the public from it, and then to oversee that decontamination process," said Edwards. "If the property owner chooses to leave it vacant, and it is secure, then that part of the public health interest is being met."
We also discovered these properties are not subject to regular health inspections. Weeds grow, trash builds and even the health department warning signs disappear.
We figured that out when we noticed signs missing from several homes the county lists as contaminated. We gave that information to the health department, and within 24 hours, inspectors had taped up new signs at six homes.
"We've had staff going out today to do that and re-placard them," said Edwards.
"Is that because of us?" asked Dujanovic.
"Mmm-hmm," replied Edwards. "Because you drove around last week."
There is some good news for neighbors tonight. The health department has asked lawmakers to create a low-interest loan fund to help property owners cover those clean-up costs.
And some of these meth houses are bank-owned.We contacted two of those financial institutions. Both told us they understand resident concerns and plan to step up efforts to decontaminate the properties as soon as possible.
E-mail: iteam@ksl.com
