North Salt Lake City officials have declared they are not responsible or at fault for the recent landslide that destroyed one home and damaged the Eagleridge Tennis and Swim Club.
North Salt Lake City Mayor Len Arave says officials posted the statement on the city’s website to clarify their position and correct what they saw as misinformation. While Arave says the city isn’t responsible, he wouldn’t offer up who he thinks is to blame.
“It’s a big incident up there. I don’t think I’d be doing anyone favors if I started pointing fingers now.”
But Arave says the city isn’t going to wash their hands of the problem either. They will be coming up with a remediation plan in the coming weeks, even though he doesn’t know who’s going to pay for it, and he isn’t offering up taxpayer dollars.
“Is everybody going to have to get together and say ‘we footed this portion of the bill. Is it more or less than we should have paid?’" he asks. "It wouldn’t surprise me if that happened, but our hope right now is to get a plan in place and get it funded and get it fixed, and then worry about whether everyone has paid their fare share and what fare shares are.”
But none of that is very helpful for Brad Ferreira, who is the owner of the Eagleridge Tennis and Swim Club.
“So we closed down for a week and a half," he says. "So, the employees were out of work. We were out of business so there’s no way to generate any income to help pay for bills and with no idea what was going to happen from thereon.”
Ferreira says while he’s been in contact with the city and the developer since the slide, neither has offered to compensate him for his loss or to clean up his property.
“No, I’m expecting someone else to do it. We can’t afford to do it and I don’t think I’m at fault," he says. "So, we are expecting someone to step up and do something about it and hopefully sooner than later.”
Ferreira has now reopened part of his club, but the south tennis courts remain closed. Those courts are still covered in dirt from the landslide.