An Expert's Malan's Basin Feasibility Study

It's been almost a year since Chris Peterson emerged upon the Emerald City scene with his acquisition of the Malan family mountain property east of Ogden, and the announcement of Mr. Peterson's proposed concept, "envisioning" a new "ski resort" at Malan's Basin. During the ensuing period, the citizens of Weber County have witnessed considerable mission creep in this project, as it has transformed from a purely private one, (to be purportedly funded entirely by Mr. Peterson's own financial resources,) into a project that is now revealed to be entirely contingent upon very substantial public capital investment. In recent months, promoters of Mr. Peterson's Malan's Basin resort have aggressively pushed the proposition that public risk-taking in this venture is not only appropriate but economically necessary. Indeed, the "sacrifice" of Emerald City's precious and irreplaceable Mt. Ogden Parklands property has been characterized as a key component in Emerald City's ongoing "revitalization."

Throughout the course of the public discussion, proponents of the Malan's Basin Resort proposition have remained silent about essential details of this project, withholding information even so fundamental as the proposed Mt. Ogden Park purchase price and payment terms. Pertinent citizen questions have gone routinely unanswered by Mr. Peterson, and this so-called "private developer" has instead relied mainly to date upon a well-choreographed and intense public relations campaign, plainly designed to appeal to emotional citizen sympathy.

Among the details most noticeably lacking in Mr. Peterson's proposal has been objective information concerning the Malan's Basin Resort's feasibility. Whereas various individual citizens and citizen groups have repeatedly (and unavailingly) requested objective and independent engineering and ski resort feasibility analysis to justify the public's participation in this project, it appears that the only pre-development professional Mr. Peterson has hired so far in this endeavor is a real estate development lawyer whose avowed mission is to push for the a priori "gutting" of Emerald City's existing planning and zoning scheme.

As to the sorely-neglected feasibility issues however, we believe the public wait is over. We received last week a highly relevant document, focusing on the feasibility issues that have so far been absent from the public discussion. Prepared by Don K. Wilson, an Emerald City citizen with a professional background in both mechanical engineering and ski resort design, we believe this document presents the objective and independent professional analysis we've all been looking for.

Without further ado, we present this morning for our gentle readers' attention Mr. Wilson's Feasibility Study Letter, together with Mr. Wilson's Professional Resume, (which speaks for itself concerning Mr. Wilson's professional credentials.) Although these documents were submitted in mid-July to City Council leadership, we believe this morning's article will be the first general public dissemination of these documents. Mr. Wilson has put considerable effort into researching and assembling his primary Feasibility Study, and would like to have it circulated as widely as possible. Weber County Forum of course shares Mr. Wilson's interest in that regard, and therefore encourages its readers to read and study this document, and to pass this article and Mr. Wilson's herein-contained Study & Resume along to interested friends and associates.

Please take note that we have redacted Mr. Wilson's private contact information, (as it appears on the originals of the documents which we received) in the interest of Mr. Wilson's internet security and privacy. Interested individuals who would like to contact Mr. Wilson for more information, or to take issue with his methodology, analysis or conclusions, may do so by emailing your humble blogmeister through the contact link in the upper-right sidebar, or through the email links provided in each document. We will of course pass along any inquiries directly to Mr. Wilson.

We thank Mr. Wilson for his highly-competent and enlightening contribution to our community discussion, and invite our gentle readers, of course, to offer their own thoughts and observations in the lower comments section.

Update 9/23/06 6:35 a.m. MT: After exhibiting to Mr. Wilson a pattern of continuing disinterest in the matters contained in Mr. Wilson's feasibility opinion article, Don Porter does a complete about-face, and publishes a slimmed-down version in this morning's edition.

In classic Standard-Examiner "he said-she said" fashion however, Mr. Porter sees fit to distract from the cerebral content of Mr. Wilson's analysis, by running an offsetting, all-purpose, entirely irrelevant Boss Godfrey rah-rah piece, addressing none of the issues raised by Mr. Wilson's article.

We think Boss Godfrey sets a new personal best this morning, with more delusions, half-truths and tall-tales per column inch than anything printed in the Standard-Examiner ever before. He definitely has the mind-numbing gondolist spiel down pat. And why not? He's been reciting this carny-style sales pitch non-stop daily for almost a year now. Our personal favorite is the one where Godfrey reiterates, with a completely straight face, that Chris Peterson is going to reach into his own hip pocket and "invest" a half-billion of his own dollars in Emerald City.

And we breathlessly await the next upcoming Std-Ex editorial page Fact-based Reason vs. Blind Faith Showdown: Dueling articles between some local world geography expert, and Boss Godfrey's representative from the Flat Earth Society .

Have at it, gentle readers.