HILL AIR FORCE BASE — "Let's move that hoe!"
The order came from Col. Patrick Higby, commander of the 75th Air Base Wing, who jokingly borrowed and adapted the line from ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
The operator of an orange Hitachi excavator then made quick work of the red-brick duplex on Liberty Way, turning the 50-year-old military housing unit into a pile of rubble in about 15 minutes.
The demolition Wednesday afternoon marked the 466th home to be torn down in the past five years as part of a partnership between the Air Force installation and Boyer Hill Military Housing to upgrade on-base residential units for members of the military and their families.
"This is a success story," Higby said moments before the demolition. "This is a landmark event, tearing down a home that has served us well for 50 years. ... It used to be state-of-the-art. It's now run its course; it's done its duty, and it's time to knock her down."
In September 2005, the Air Force entered into a 50-year housing privatization contract with Boyer Hill Military Housing, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based developer The Boyer Co.
When the project wraps up later this year, Boyer Hill will have either built or renovated 1,020 on-base family housing units. Of those, 437 are new homes.
The new homes range in size between the 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom units and the 2,400-square-foot, four-bedroom homes. Boyer Hill serves as the landlord for the homes, leasing the units for between $1,000 and $1,400 per month.
With 102 homes still to be constructed, the on-base housing is 97 percent occupied, said Rulon C. Gardner, Boyer Hill Military Housing construction manager.
"People want to live on the base," Gardner said. "And now with these new homes, they really want to live on the base."
Boyer Hill also is trying to build a "sense of community" through the project, Gardner said, adding parks, trails and even a splash pad to the development.
The project called for all 21 historic housing units on base, as well as 562 homes built in the 1970s, to be remodeled. Most of the homes demolished as part of the project were built in the 1960s.
e-mail: jpage@desnews.com