This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
West Valley City • The man has a potential zoo on his hands, if only he could find a place to display it.
Reptile rescuer Jim Dix has 15 days to move one of the largest private collections of snakes, lizards, turtles, spiders, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks and other wild animals anywhere in Utah. On Wednesday, the West Valley City resident was scouring property listings and planning visits to lots in Herriman and Tooele County's Rush Valley — with no firm plans yet on where he and his hundreds of reptiles and mammals will end up.
"It's been a lot of stress," the 52-year-old plumber and state-licensed rattlesnake handler said.
Officials with the Utah Department of Transportation insist Dix must vacate his West Valley home by Sept. 30 so the house can be razed to allow preliminary work on the Mountain View Corridor.
Largely as a hobby — he says he doesn't earn a living from his rescue service — Dix has spent 18 years assisting police, animal control officers and private residents statewide in capturing dangerous animals, usually venomous snakes, large lizards and wild mammals. He does extensive educational outreach to schools and youth groups, is a fixture at local fairs and regularly trains police and firefighters in the handling of poisonous snakes.
Because few Utah shelters are equipped to handle them, most rescued reptiles that Dix hasn't been able to get adopted have remained with him, living in the stacks of well-kept aquariums and cages that line the walls of his modest three-story West Valley rental home.
As UDOT's deadline nears, animal shelter officials across Utah are watching his plight with growing concern.
"He has always been willing to take these animals," said Jim Barker, animal control officer for Springville and president of the Utah Animal Control Officers Association, which represents about 140 municipal shelters statewide. Barker said most member shelters would be faced with euthanizing wild reptiles they seize without Dix to rely on.
"It's payback time," he said. "It's time for us to help him, if there's any way that we can help."
Dix missed a May 31 deadline to move out, but he is on notice from the Utah attorney general that state authorities view this latest date as a hard deadline to get out. One possible site proposed by Kennecott Utah Copper on the western edge of West Valley City has fallen through, over the city's concerns about public access to a reptile zoo there.
His backup plan, Dix says, is to rent a warehouse to temporarily hold the animals until a permanent site turns up.
West Valley officials, meanwhile, say Dix has known for almost two years that he would have to move — a claim Dix disputes. The city's attempt at an interim solution — offering him 90-day access to the city's abandoned animal shelter — got shot down by both Dix and a majority of members on the West Valley City Council.
City officials have reluctantly begun to contemplate forcibly evicting Dix, seizing all wildlife on the property and euthanizing animals that couldn't be sold or adopted. West Valley Assistant City Manager Paul Isaac said it would be a massive and unpleasant process the city hopes to avoid.
"We absolutely do not want to do this," Isaac said, adding that the city "would explore every avenue before we resorted to destroying those animals."
"But 20 days from now, this could be the worst of all possible scenarios," said Isaac. "I hope he doesn't bring us to the point where we're forced to act."
Dix has been working with UDOT right-of-way officials on a near-daily basis in hopes of finding new digs. Kennecott tried to help beginning in late August, when it proffered a 10-acre site near 4100 South and 8400 West, currently being leased and worked by a livestock rancher.
John Birkinshaw, a Kennnecott land manager, said the company stepped forward to donate the property as an act of compassion, in light of Dix's extensive record of community service. Dix, who was selected as Salt Lake County's Vital Volunteer for 2011, submitted a conditional-use application to West Valley's planning department to build a permanent reptile park on the site.
A cadre of West Valley City officials — Isaac, the city's building inspector, its fire marshal and two city planners — visited the spot in the Oquirrh foothills last week with Dix and Birkinshaw. They got no farther than the end of an entrance road to the property before deciding the locale wouldn't work out.
Dix's future plans to open his collection to the public would trigger city rules on fire and ambulance protection. That, in turn, would require construction of a two-vehicle-wide paved road and installation of 1,000 gallon-per-minute water lines to feed fire hydrants.
"It's not that it can't be done," West Valley City Planning Director Steve Pastorik told Dix, "but it's a pretty big expense." A prohibitive expense, they concluded.
Dix and UDOT have faced similar obstacles with other municipal ordinances, according to Teri Newell, UDOT's Mountain View Corridor project manager. With time running out to complete early utility work on the transit corridor, UDOT has made a final offer to Dix of $16,000 in relocation costs and approximately $22,000 in rental assistance, Newell said — with a provision that the state agency would move him twice if needed.
As required by federal law, she said, "we've done everything we can to find a suitable location. We've worked with Mr. Dix for a long time. The ball is now in his court."