scone eee if ‘ Se Nicuien | ial oy Standard-Examiner saree Mainstream polygamy Utah legislator wants polygamists in mainstream society/2B ‘ ele Danis é... 7” Local News Editor: 625-4220 Wednesday, March 17, 1999 Ogden council targets slumlords ra[=] City could place sign in front of buildings that violate codes By CHERYL BUCHTA “Standard- -Examiner staff OGDEN -— Slumlords beware. You won’t be able to hide anymore. Tuesday night, the Ogden City Council _ passed an ordinance allowing the city to publicly identify property owners who refuse to follow city rules. After two citations within one year, the mayor could order a large sign erected in the front of the ' property with the landlord’s name and address and a notation that the property owner was in violation of city zoning codes. The object is to embarrass owners who do not keep their property up, a problem that has faced Ogden since the 1980s when a large chunk of the inner-city was bought up by investors and turned into cheap rentals. “City government has the responsibility ~— even the obligation — to protect (the -neighborhoods),” Councilman Garth Day said. The project has been a priority with Day since he learned about a similar program in Syracuse, N.Y. Not everyone felt the same. Councilman John Wolfe said that while he sup- Obituaries ported rigorous code enforcement, he felt the city should use the courts, not signs, to get its point across. | “YT don’t believe it’s appropriate for the governmentto use tools of shame and embarrassment to bring about code enforcement,” he said. His words were echoed by homeowner DeAnn Soto, who said many on Grant Street are working hard to clean up the neighborhood. She objected to the sign’s wording implying the neighborhood was blighted due to one property Owner’s misdeeds. “As a property owner, I find this very offensive,” Soto said. Soto said the sign, placed in front of a rental unit, would imply the people living inside were not maintaining the property and would cast the whole neighborhood 1 in a bad light. “That’ s not fair to me as.a citizen or a renter.” The council nated to change the wording of the sign, taking out the reference to a blighted neighborhood and more clearly identifying the property owner. The measure passed with Wolfe voting against it. You can reach yejotier Cheryl Buchta at 625-4225 or cbuchta@standard.net NEws BEAT AT A GLANCE > Police investigate © possible homicide OGDEN - Police are investigating the discovery of a man’s body in an Ogden house today as a possible homicide. | Investigators do not know the identity of the body discovered stabbed to death just after midnight-at 863 23rd Street. It is described as a white male, approximately “ 40-years-old. “We-have a dead body from” a stab wound,” said Ogden... police Lt. John Stubbs. “We don’t know the circumstances: in which it occurred.” The state medical examiner ° READING TIME: Virginia McDowell helps Edison Elementary first-grader Nick Cragun with reading during Paula Searle’s class in Ogden. ~. Despite recent cancer Surgery, McDowell returned to the school to volunteer to help students learn to read. ALAN MURRAY Standard-Examiner is scheduled to perform an : autopsy on the body this morning. Stubbs said there was too much blood on the body to determine exactly where and -~ how many times the body was.’ stabbed. _ Stubbs revealed little about the investigation this morning, ° but admitted investigators do not know much. He said detectives will be pursuing leads today Police began their investigation when they received a Call at 12:04 a.m. - from aman who said there was a body in the house. No signs of forced entry were found at the home, Stubbs said. > 12 charges filed in child sex cases NORTH OGDEN - Twelve charges have been filed against a 20-year-old North Ogden man suspected of sexually molesting five teenagers over a four-month period. Jarrod Craig Ames was initially booked into the Weber County Jail last month on suspicion of four