The military is bequeathing Defense Depot Ogden to the city, but a tug of war has developed over some key property and items such as forklifts and fire trucks.

"They're going counter to the existing process," said Mike Pavich, director of the city agency handling the transfer of the depot into civilian hands.As the Defense Logistics Agency moves out of the Ogden depot, the agency will decide which items it wants to move to bases in California. But Pavich said Tuesday the military also is obligated to help communities redevelop closing bases, and if the communities need certain equipment it should be left behind.

"None of it comes for free, but we're hoping to get it at greatly depreciated costs," Pavich told members of the Defense Depot Ogden Reuse Committee, a citizens group advising Pavich's agency on how to convert the depot into a business park.

The Defense Department has said it plans to close the depot by September 1997.

Pavich said logistics agency officials have indicated they plan to take the fire engines, many warehouse forklifts and all of the maintenance equipment when they leave.

"Most coded items we feel are essential to our redevelopment plans," Pavich said. "It's basically unacceptable."

He said the Utahns have contacted Navy Capt. M.W. Casey, head of the Defense Logistics Agency's western regional operations, seeking to work out a solution.

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When Pavich's agency was set up last December, he said the city had an ambitious conversion timetable "and I think we're going as fast as we then thought possible. We're still kind of on that time line."

The next major step is to work out a master lease with the Defense Department, allowing Ogden to lease out depot buildings soon after they are emptied of military equipment. Pavich predicted negotiations on the master lease will start by this fall and probably be completed by next March.

"By next spring, up to 40 percent of the warehouse space should be empty, and we hope to start moving tenants into that space," he said.

By law, the leases cannot be for longer than five years.

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