The praise that Mayor Godfrey has received is especially gratifying because the man has done more for Ogden in the past few years than anyone in the past two decades. He and his associates deserve to have the good people of Ogden's support.Yeah, the Emerald City citizens are now over $90 million in debt; and we yet await one project that's a proven success. With PeeWee's Playhouse opening in May, we're all holding our breath, hoping the Godfrey house of cards won't start tumbling during the coming summer. And there's no hint of a letup in the grand scheming. As a matter of fact, Boss Godfrey continues to ratchet-up the borrow and spend machine, and will no doubt do so until he's ushered out of office (by the grace of God) ten months hence.
He consults with the people of Ogden, his associates and experts who know what they're talking about.Apparently this Irons kid hasn't heard that Emerald City is a republic; and that the opinions of the lumpencitizens don't mean jack. As for the so-called "experts," we know who they are: Brown, Reid and Harmer. These are the geniuses, of course, who engineer deals like BDO management, which is now running a $750 thousand annual shortfall. These "associates" are the guys who continue to mortgage free-and-clear Emerald City properties, like the latest one, which the Standard-Examiner STILL hasn't reported. And we certainly don't want to omit mentioning Chris Peterson, the would-be "expert" developer who has zero development projects on his "expert's" resume.
If no resurgence was taking place in Ogden, I'm sure the letter writer would be complaining that the mayor isn't doing enough to make Ogden a better place to live.We have to admit we love the lame-brained certainty of faith-based Godfreyites like Mr. Irons. No unsupported assertion is ever too audacious for the Godfreyites.
As for my family and me we love the Boots and Bunker show.That one was priceless, we thought. We didn't understand the reference either, and thus googled it. No. It's not a Saturday morning TV cartoon show.
We think this letter is notable in that it clearly reflects the shallow mindset of local folks who still blindly support the Boss Godfrey regime. There are many people in this community who remain unable or unwilling to look behind the shiny new Godfrey monuments which are now springing up in our city. What's frightening is that some of these people are old enough to vote. What's sad is that these misguided folks entirely fail and refuse even to to comprehend the tremendous risk our administration has recklessly and ruthlessly imposed -- and will continue to impose upon the taxpayers of this city -- and their grand-children.
Those of us who look forward to a new mayoral administration in Emerald City clearly have our work cut out for us.
28 comments:
Boots and Bunkers and a hundred million in debt for a bunch of failed and failing boondogles.
Sounds like an old Stooges comedy routine, but the joke is really on the tax payers of Ogden!
Where does Godfrey come up with these starry eyed morons?
This letter is as ingratiatingly pukey as the interview Abby Bonnell had with a LO tenor on KNRS this as. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear all of it, but did alert several to tune in.
It MAY have been Mike Dowse, but didn't catch the name. the mayor "rolled out the red carpet" for him tho...and even 'flew out to meet me'.
Will have 'about 50 employees".
Anyone else listen in?
It was the President of Goode Ski Company, Mercy.
And thanks to the gentle reader who gave us the heads-up this morning, so we could tune in.
I loved the way he danced around Abby's question about "the (singular) gondola."
Let's just say that the President of Goode, who moved his company to Emerald City from Michigan two summers ago, was EXTREMELY NON-COMMITTAL.
Isn't Goode Ski company that humungous 3 employee empire that is going to put a chicken in every pot and a Cadillac car in every garage in Ogden?
Goode, along with Descente's 6 Ogden employees and huka's 2 man operation is going to do for Ogden what the railroad did in another age!
Come on you people of little faith, get on the "G" train, times a wasting.
You can listen to the interview here. Scrll down to the march 16 show and click listen, download or podcast.
KNRS
Goode is quite general and non-committal in the gondola discussion. I have to wonder about the 50 employee claim. The description of his arrival at OGD(Ogden Airport) sounds comical to me. He and his wife stumble out of their private plane after flying all the way from Michigan to a regular civic welcome wagon affair hosted by the mayor and his well known circle of LO backers. I'm sure he used the 50 employee line to butter up the reception. In the interview he definitely jumbled the numbers. My understanding it is only a handful of employees and look at the executive effort expended. Do they roll out the red carpet, as Dave Goode described, for every convenience store, taco stand, and nail salon.
Granted the mayor has been trying to build cache so he is overweighting the attention to ski companies, but now that a major player like Amer is here it could be doubtful to attract anyone else in their league. Burton is comfortable in Vermont, Jake's hometown. Many of the others are Canadian and Euro based. It's not like these larger player's are constantly moving around. The next larger one's likely would not locate in the same town as the greater competitor especially with the Salomon Center looming as a city landmark. Would mid-echelon companies like Ride, LibTech, Sessions, etc locate with their larger competitor's name emblazoned on downtown landscape. That would be suicide.
With Rossignol/Volant/DC/Roxy/Quicksilver recently located in Park City the remaining players get thinner. The very small niche independents are very locally based, many in SoCal and the Pac NW. Again you are talking about hundreds of very small companies that contract out all of their manufacturing overseas. At some point their is the anti-chic effect that dictates that once a place is discovered it is too late for the cutting edge to be attracted.
Let's just focus on our city and let things happen naturally and drop the stupid and misleading gondola claims. The mayor has so overhyped this thing that it is a toss-up what is more embarrassing,
to not build it after all the wotldwide hype or...
to build it, have it go to massive cost overruns and never live up to projections and eventually have it sit unused than wrangle over dismantling to sell to Powder Mountain for a pennies on the dollar...
A number of folks have posted that the $2 mill lien on the new justice center is something the city did to pay for the rec center. But if you read the article in the SL Trib, this is something required by HUD as a back-up. While I would like to see everything as a Godfrey boondogle, this doesn't qualify.
See the following from the opening of the SL Trib article:
A federal agency plans to place a lien on Ogden's new Justice Court building as a backup to a $2 million loan for the city's new high adventure recreation center.
But Dwight Peterson, director of the Utah office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said HUD has begun doing the same thing in cities and towns across the country.
"It's to convince the city it's serious," Peterson said Wednesday. "It's to make sure they commit themselves to repaying the loan."
Many cities and towns have defaulted on Section 108 loans - the kind Ogden is seeking - and then turned to their senators and representatives, asking them to pressure HUD to forgive the debt, Peterson said.
In order to qualify for the loans, a city must pledge part of its yearly HUD grant as repayment. Turning to Congress is an attempt to get out of that obligation, he said.
Loan officer:
Sorry, but I don't quite see the distinction. Regardless of HUD's motives in demanding the lien on the municipal court building, it did demand it to secure a HUD loan that went to finance [in part] the city's participation in Rec Center and allied construction.
If I'm wrong about that, I'd be happy to be corrected.
The other point raised about it was the Administrative Review Meeting at which the lien granting was apparently to be formally approved [is that right?] by the Mayor. ARMs are public meetings, and so the question arises did the administration make a good faith effort to notify the public that this specially scheduled ARM was coming up? It seems, from what I heard so far [mostly the SLTrib piece], it did not, but I'd be glad to be corrected on that, too, if I am wrong about it.
Rudi:
There's yet another piece in the SLTrib today [link here] that might bear on matters in Ogden. It seems SLC is now looking at yet another rail or BRT line, this one nearly two miles long, to link Suger House with the TRAX light rail. And to link Westminster College [along the route] and the Salt Lake County Government Center [also along the route] with the rest of the city and make accesss to both sites much easier. And to link Sugar House to the transit oriented development already happening, big time, at the TRAX end of the the spur line. And to bring more shoppers into the Sugar House MU area from the rest of the city.
There is apparently a lively [and remarkably civil] discussion going on about what kind of public transit would be best for the area. The government representatives involved don't seem to be calling those who do not agree absolutely with their preferred form of transit "naysayers" and enemies of progress. Imagine that.
What are the transit options they're looking at? "Vehicle choice could be anything from light-rail, jazzed-up bus service [i.e. BRT], state-of-the-art streetcars or vintage trolleys. "
Hmmmmm.... an urban transit corridor linking a university and government center with the rest of the city by improved public transit. That sounds vaguely familiar, somehow. And yet absolutely nobody involved inthe SL project, including UTA, seems to be touting a flatland urban gondola. Can't imagine why....
Curm,
I agree with you re: the issue of public notice. But as I read the SL Trib article, the lien is a back-up that is now being required by HUD because local gov'ts around the country are defaulting on their Section 108 HUD loans. So as long as Ogden pays off its loan the back-up lien never comes into effect. Am I misreading this?
So lets see, HUD has taken a real beating by other cities with over reaching and incompetent leadership so they are now requiring dead beat administrations like Godfrey's to pony up with addition security, therefor it is some how not a bad reflection on Ogden with its completely out of whack financial picture! Am I misreading this?
Loan:
No, that's how I read it too. I agree the implication that Ogden City is somehow a greater than usual risk and that that's why HUD demanded the back up lien is [so far as we know] not established. But Ogden has still put the building up as security for the loan. Granted if Ogden pays on time, the lien is moot. But if Ogden does not pay on time [let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the Rec Center flops], then the city would have to take funds from general revenues to make sure the lien on the court building is not exercized by HUD. So there is some city exposure on this, that's all. [Note: I hope fervently that the Rec Center is a drop dead stunning success and that the entire Mall RDA will be too. But that remains a hope, at this point, and not yet demonstrated, which means the City's exposure on the loan, now secured by the court building, is still there.] Really, LO, I don't think we're disagreeing about much, if anything, on this since it does seem that HUD did not single out Ogden for special treatment on this.
Before you start thinking that Boots and Bunkers are the Mayors messengers, think about the way that the Mayor wanted to have Firefighters use their influence on the Council to support the Gondola. The Firefighters didn’t endorse the Gondola because the same questions that everyone else has asked were not answered; the firefighters didn’t endorse the Gondola and was called liars by the Godfrey Administration. Do you really think that the firefighters would go out and promote a Gondola after their integrity was placed into question?
It's nothing more than a spoof. The real Joke is on Godfrey and his pack of idiots.
The firefighters have not endorsed the Gondola, nor do I believe that they ever will.
So, am I misreading this? Let's say the rec center flops (oh pray thee, that it doesn't), and the city can't find enough funds somewhere...say, snow removal monies? Then HUD exercises its lien against the so-called Justice Court.
Does that mean that HUD will make a stunning 4 plex or loft apartments out of the building?
A swell downtown location like that could bring in big bucks.
Hate to see Ashton and Lockwood with no tax paid benches upon which to park their bums...but, the mayor is hankering for more nifty downtown housing to lure investors.
A special rate for the civic minded...so close to City Hall...and also a hop and skip away from the jail to make visiting easier for tenants who may be a tad unsavory.
All traffic tickets will be paid by mail or contested cases could be taken to the District Court Building.
Boots and Bunkers is an extremely entertaining and educational program for the kids!
I was lucky enought to see one this year!
The 'gondola' was a hoot! Good for bird watching.
Go see the show before thinking the Firefighters would ever be stumping for Godfrey's goofy visions.
Maybe the Geigers can pick up a great deal on a Justice Court condo. That way they can be a little closer to their touch-hole buddy (The Mayor). I am sure that they can find some of the cash that was dropped on the floor by Mark Johnson while he was sweeping up the cash cow.
If you people don't stop making fun of me, you're all going to be in a whole lot of trouble. I am a very important person in Ogden city, and you'd better start showing me more respect.
Curt Geiger
President, Riverside Technology Foundation
The Geigers are not only the main cheerleaders of the Mayor's and the number one FOM's, but now it appears that Geiger Sr. may very well have his finger prints all over this American Can scandal that is brewing up with the recent shady ownership changes!
It will be sweet justice to see these crooks doing time in the Jail behind the City Bldg. From the American Can to the Ogden Can!
Mr. Geiger:
What makes you such an important person in Ogden?
It appears the Riverside Technology Foundation is defunct.
Curt,
Isn't Riverside Technology Foundation that Ogden City owned company that bought the American Can building?
You must be a very important person.
I don't believe anyone bought the American Can Building. Ogden filed for state and federal grants, under false pretense it would appear. High Tech center, Godfrey even claimed companies were lining up to get in. Fancy microscopes,computer wizz, all that good stuff. Little silicon valley he said. Somehow it has been given away to private concerns and will become the U.S. offices and warehouse for manufacturers in Beijing and Shanghai that are paid by some dude from Finland. Kinda like the Geigers,but their checks come from Japan. Can't see how renters that don't retail and have giant subsidies bring alot to the bottom line. A well fed ego don't equal a full stomach.
I guess the loss on the ticket quota deal made the kangaroo court expendable.
what loss on the ticket quotas? they are still required...just under another name 'PERFORMANCE STANDARD'....SEE HOW THAT PUTS BREAD IN A COP'S BASKET?
seems to me that dave goode wants his products on you-tube along with descente.
Please take note, Mr. Anonymous:
The "anonymous" ID has been banned from this board.
Please click "other" and make up your own unique "handle."
(Flaming other readers ain't a real good tactic here either.)
Chief, Senator, Greeiner I got your ticket quota right here.
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