Davis County to fence storm basin

LAYTON — The 85 homeowners surrounding a 10-acre detention basin are getting a fence.

Davis County commissioners awarded a contract Tuesday to Salt Lake City-based American Fence Co. to install 5,600 feet of 6-foot, chain-link fence around the county-owned detention basin in the area known as Mutton Hollow west of Fairfield Road.

American Fence will build the fence for $53,685.

The project, which has been on hold while the county held a town-hall meeting and met with homeowners, is expected to get under way shortly.

In November 2008, the county originally awarded a bid to build the fence, but after various homeowners approached county commissioners and expressed concern that they wouldn't be able to use the basin for walking and recreation, commissioners opted to put the project on hold.

County public works director Kirk Schmalz consulted with the Utah Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, both of which told him the best way to manage a detention basin is to keep it fenced.

"It is a storm-drain area," Schmalz said recently, acknowledging that residents have had years of access to what they thought was designated open space. "I wish people hadn't been led into thinking that it was for their use."

The county has been planning on fencing the area for years, and the fence project finally made it onto the county's to-do list in 2008, he said.

Schmalz said the county will work with homeowners who may already have fences around their yards. Any existing fences that have gates currently opening toward the storm basin will be locked.

e-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com

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