More good ink for Ogden in today's Standard-Examiner. First, a new much-touted industrial training center located at BDO is about to open. Here's the opening graph:
OGDEN -- More than 700 tons of high-tech machining equipment is installed and ready to go in a new manufacturing training center at Business Depot Ogden, which is being billed as the first of its kind in the nation. The 53,000-square-foot training center, at 550 S. Depot Drive, is a unique public-private partnership between Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College and jet engine manufacturer Williams International.Second, a front page story announcing that the folks who ran the summer XTERRA games in Ogden last year will be running winter games at Snow Basin next summer. Here are the opening graphs:
OGDEN — Team Unlimited, a television events and marketing company, announced Thursday the first-ever Xterra Winter World Championship will be held March 8-9 at Snowbasin Ski Resort.Rumors that Mayor Godfrey, following the XTERRA winter games announcement, was heard throwing paper weights against the wall in his office and muttering curses because the XTERRA people had been so stupid as to choose the Ogden area for their winter games when it does not have a flatland sky-ride to carry contestants, staff and spectators between downtown and Weber State University have not yet been confirmed.
The championship is expected to draw as many as 300 athletes from around the world who will compete in a new multisport event that combines cross-country skiing, mountain biking, running and snowshoeing, said Tom Kiely, chief executive officer of Team Unlimited.
Media exposure and local spending by event organizers, athletes and their families for meals and lodging and other expenses could eventually be worth an estimated $5 million to Weber County’s economy, he said.
30 comments:
Will the repair of the holes in his wall ( if he can throw those wights that hard) come out of the mayor's budget?
It's called a hissy fit!
any pictures of the fit that he had
okay, who has the straight skinny on the $250,000 bux godfrey is getting from UTA?
i heard he wants to do a 'bogus study' on a streetcar to Roy!!!???
then he can say, 'we need the gondola for around town'.
who knows about the meeting of the mayors on monday? seems like all interested persons need to be there.
rudi..can you help out here , and link the LO's site in which they show us two gondola's gliding over wall ave?
it's so much easier to type without capitals. who did that? ee cummings, i think.
What a great asset for Ogden and Utah to have this new learning center at BDO.
Curm...you are so astute...all done without a gondola or a little mountain resort perched on a snowless ravine.
XTERRA Winter World Championship will be in our AREA...hope it's cold enough for the participants to come to Ogden and buy a ski cap or two.
Hey...I notice they will be stopping in and are not clamoring for a gondola ride to nowhere!!
Probably read about Ogden in the City Weekly or the WSJ. Or, could have heard about Ogden's visionary mayor whilst lounging in the lodge at SnowBasin...and just had to make Ogden a tourist stop.
I'm very sad that the High Adventure Center won't be open, so that these athletes can climb a real 8o ft faux INDOOR wall! Dangit anyway, these athletes coulda had fun hang gliding INSIDE the building, brought their swim gear to ride that massive INDOOR wave!
Curt Geiger could probably have sold them the swimming trunks. Or does he stock that kind of apparel?
Why oh why couldn't Scott Brown have let the ladies alone and concentrated less on the porn on his computer and more on getting this mall OPEN??
Rats...300 athletes from all over the world. When they get bored with SnowBasin and the other venues, they could have had the thrill of fun fun fun in the country's first ever mall anchored by a gym, faux climbing wall and a bowling alley!
Guess they can always visit Historic 25th Street. Looking at the construction going on down at the mall is interesting too if you're in to watching paint dry.
Well, if you are out and about greeting the tourists, steer them into Ogden's ski apparel shops which mark us as the Outdoor Recreation Hub of the World!
If that is true, then why do we have a faux INDOOR climbing wall, INDOOR wave pool, and INDOOR hang gliding?
Oh yeah, I remember now. We have a little visionary who is looking for a legacy.
Those of us who appreciate real outdoor recreation will be glad that the recreationist wannabes will be hanging out downtown bowling, soaring and faux surfing instead of crowding up the trails or slopes.
I ask again....what's the scoop on the meeting of mayors?
Do we even know if the 300 athletes will be staying in Ogden? They might just stay in SLC and take I-15 to I-84 to get there. Takes longer, but they don't know that. There is more to do in SLC at night (I hear they have Indian restaurants there) and more hotel rooms too.
Odgenlover:
Yeah, but I hear the Indian restaurants in SLC are housed in older building, not brand new ones on freshly bulldozed lots, and they're not owned by friends of the Mayor. What fun could they possibly be, then? Of course, in SLC the atheletes will be able to hop on TRAX cars without difficulty since, as we know, practically nobody rides urban rail in Utah.
Snarking aside, the decision to locate the winter XTERRA games in the Ogden area and at Snow Basin is a good one for the city. I'm glad they're coming. Hope the summer XTERRA games may return too.
I read this morning that armiCAN bought the building from the Ogden Cumunity foundation. How did a private foundation get its hands on a public owned building anyway? something smell really fishy, or ratty, or poopy, or well it stinks and stinks way more than the dog food plant. maybe this is where the committee should look first and see where all the dead bodies are laid.
boy oh boy come mayor tell us how this whole thing stacks up to being legal. if you don't know then get uncle bernie over there to bail you out.
Waitaminnit, waitaminnit....the "Indian" restaurant hoping to open here isn't owned by FRIENDS of the mayor! Just the opposite.
Don't forget the bogus moratorium 'ordinance' this FRIEND of business snarkled past the Council to keep the Indian restaurant out of the Riverfront 'project'.
So the Xterra athletes will be dining on more exquisite cuisine in SLC, Sandy, Layton. However, Best Burger on Riverdale Rd makes a fantastic burger! Oops...that's not in Ogden, is it?
History,
Keep asking the right questions. LOTS of people in the 'right' places are asking those same questions, and coming up with verrrrry interesting answers.
Stay tuned.
Matthew will be OK. Trust us. We know how to make him feel better.
who are the girls from the airport????
Just got off the X-tierra web site. Very image conscious, they are very proud of their Green Team. I get the sense they would not be in favor of the mayors plans, and don't believe these are the type of fpolks that would have an interest in this indoor amusement facility. They are probably offended at the mere nomenclature Little matty has chosen to use in his discription of the place, in other words they would be hardpressed to find adventure, let alone "high adventure" anywhere in the downtown area.
Seen this yet. There's a billboard on Riverdale near the river... leaving Ogden? Odd placement.
The website is a regurgitation of all the dated newsreel of the last year and a half. Pretty half-baked stuff. Poor website design. Numerous typos. The via ferrata page is hilarious. Referred to as a technique?? As though climbing via ferrata somehow introduces one to technical climbing. As though getting high up on the rock is the best intro. Climbing is not about getting high up. It's about technique, foothold to handhold. The view just happens to be there. Via Ferratta has nothing to do with rock climbing. Via ferratta routes were placed originally to locations where regular access was necessary for reconnaissance or checking instruments. They were never intended as recreational routes.
Envision Ogden
Bill, Sure hope they can get the Junction halfway functional before the August Xterra event. Not holding my breath. Just drove by and it looks like more than 4 months out.
Tec:
On climbing being all about technique: yes, for those into the sport. But it takes a substantial investment in time and money to become fully invested in the sport [not counting bouldering]. For those who have no experience climbing nor the time, money or [yet] the inclination to invest such in it, the VF routes might be fun as well as something of a challenge for someone who's never climbed anything more demanding than a step ladder. And they do lead to some spactacular views. Things look different from a rockface halfway up a cliffside, even, I suspect, if your safety line is wire rope and you've used rebar steps to get there.
And it can be an entry to something more. I know long-distance backpackers who sneer at Boy Scout weekend hikes, camping trips and such like. But that's exactly what hooked me on hiking [niether of my parents were outdoorsy in any way]. Progressed from that, over the years, to long hikes, often solo, in the Wind Rivers, the Teton wilderness, the Guadalupes in Texas, Big Bend, the Adirondaks, the Smokies, the Catskills, the Big Horns, Isle Royale and elsewhere. Without those little overnight Boy Scout trips, none of that would have happened and that would have been, for me, a hell of a loss. So I wouldn't sneer too loudly at the VF routes as a possible "gateway" experience for some people.
Not everyone is, or has to be, a purist. Kind of like claiming that anyone not first in line at Snow Basin on a fresh powder mid-week morning isn't a real skier....
Curm,
My point was that in the article via ferrata was referred to a technique. That is like saying a sidewalk is a walking technique.
As for fair weather skiers...
If you do not make the sacrifice or effort to make it to the mountain on a fresh powder day than what is the point of all this easy access stuff. When all the cheerleaders for a gondola either do not ski or ride a board or do not show up when conditions are best and crowds the least then I have to wonder at their judgement of easy access and why they care.
Your typical fair weather skier never ventures off-piste and cannot ski powder. They are satisfied with groomed slopes and tolerate icy, crowded conditions on holidays. They are well served by, any groomed slope on any day, on any mountain. They are not the best judge of ski area design, access, terrain.
The ommission (obvious) on the convention center's webpage and the envision Ogden of the golf course could be telling. Most fair weather conventions, if not all,(the ones I've attended over the last 30 yrs.) have golf outtings incorporated into their activities. In fact the Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Association has the golf as one of the PRIMARY requirements, when choosing where to hold their meetings.In fact many of the Industries top execs. can only be seen at the golf outtings. The lack of emphasis on golf could explain their short commings at the convention center. Not all, but some. In fact there is no real advertizing of our golf done by this administration. As for the via ferratta (sounds like some Italian Pastry) Purely some gimmick. Tec's right when he states it origins are to provide a somewhat safe and timely way to get somewhere that needs attention occasionally. Not much different than climbing a ladder combined with an occasional rope bridge. Might be fun for a novice, but is not an introduction to climbing.
Curm, didn't know you were an avid backpacker, your list is impressive. Before age takes this pleasure from you, I recommend you explore the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. It consists of 5 adjoining wilderness areas in northwestern Montana. The Canadian Border south to Missoula, between Kalispel and Great Falls. It's a must.
Have you all noticed how on the city's "recreation/golf" webpage, the first courses that are listed are all privately owned and not in Ogden - the first being the Ogden Country Club, which isn't even open to the public. Mt. Ogden and El Monte are listed last. You would think that the city would want to put it's own courses first and then mention other courses around Ogden that are available second.
Bill C and Mt. Ogden golfer:
In re: being a backpacker. Was, Bill. Was.
Not being a golfer, I've never checked Ogden's golf promotion websites. Not at all surprised that Hizzonah's administration would be actively trying to run down usage numbers on what I believe Golf Digest recently listed as one of the ten best coures to play nationwide this year.
And very nice catch, Bill, on the convention website not listing golf access as a major element. Very nice catch.
Boys, boys, boys....don't you know that the best place in the entire country to get the TECHNIQUE down pat on rock climbing is in the country's very first taxpayer-owned faux climbing wall in the country's very first taxpayer-owned mall anchored by a gym and a bowling alley?
Sheeeesh!
Two years ago the Firefighters of Ogden hosted a State association convention at the Eccles Conference Center and the Hampton Inn.
As one of the activities for the four day event we held a golf tournament at the Mt. Ogden Golf Course. I have heard nothing but rave revues about the course and the convention facilities. And I am still hearing “we need to have convention in Ogden again".
Everyone thought that Mt Ogden was the best course they had played on and a fantastic setting.
iaff:
That cannot be, for Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey has pronounced, to the press, that Mt. Ogden Golf Course is not a golfer-friendly course. Surely he wouldn't tell an untruth, would he? Since part of his job as Mayor is to promote Ogden as a destination for visitors and conventions, can you imagine how hard it must have been for him, how painful, to have to say that Ogden's only public 18 hole golf course was not golfer-friendly? Bet he was up all night dealing with the angst.
And yet you guys and Golf Digest inxplicably keep insisting that what the Mayor has told us about the golf course is not so. You guys are so critical. Next thing you know, you'll be suggesting the Mayor is running down Ogden's golf course hoping to drive user numbers down, and deficits up, in order to justify selling the course to his buddy Chris Peterson for a gated community of summer homes for the rich so Hizzonah can finance his flatland sky ride for tourists.
You guys are so unfair to Hizzonah....
Curm:
We pride our selves on integrity and truthfulness.
Whaaaaat? Don't you know Hizzonah 'has the highest integrity in the room?"
Just because the little guy says it, does'nt mean it's true.
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