We haven't found much Emerald City news to spotlight in northern Utah newspapers this morning, so we thought we'd dredge up something interesting which appeared yesterday in the Standard-Examiner. Sunday's edition contained what looked to be an out-of-context article, about a little Idaho town near the Washington state border, which has been suddenly and miraculously transformed from a chemical-plagued toxic "basket case," into a "swanky ski resort." We duly incorporate the article lead paragraphs here:
KELLOGG, Idaho — It may seem an unlikely candidate for the Pacific Northwest’s latest vacation hot spot, but this former mining town has survived decades of decline to boom once more.If the town of Kellogg Idaho seems familiar to our regular readers, it certainly should. Kellogg was also the subject of a Standard-Examiner write-up last year, when the sudden resurgence of that little "superfund cleanup site town" was mentioned, with an entirely different "catalyst" suggested. These Dave Hardman quotes from the earlier Sep 18, 2006 Ace Reporter Schwebke article (part two of a three part Std-Ex series) clearly establish that article's mendacious theme:
The once-polluted mining community — a massive Superfund site — seems to have been transformed virtually overnight into a swanky ski resort with newcomers flocking to buy condos and open businesses.
“It was a definite surprise it took off the way it did,” said Mayor Mac Pooler.
In a place where homes were selling for $30,000 five years ago, brand-new condos costing more than $800,000 are selling as fast as they go on the market. A huge indoor water park is under construction in the ski village. A destination golf course is being built.
Catalyst for much of the growth is Jeld-Wen Communities, the real estate arm of the Jeld-Wen wood products company of Klamath Falls, Ore. The company purchased the Silver Mountain ski resort in 1996 and began making plans to expand.
A key event occurred in 2004, when its first 68 condos were placed on the market and sold out immediately, some for as low as $100,000, as developers were unsure if there would be any demand. A second offering of 110 condos sold out in one day in 2005. The third and final phase of 99 condos sold out in one day late last year.
Dave Hardman, executive director of the Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce and one of those who made the trip, said visiting Kellogg and Telluride gave him insight into how gondolas can drive tourism and provide effective mass transit.Oh how the Std-Ex themes have changed over the last year. Whereas a gondola was the supposed economic engine that transformed Kellogg, Idaho in last year's story, the Kellogg gondola wasn't even mentioned in this year's version. Boss Godfrey, Dave Hardman and a whole claque of Emerald City gondolist lemmings were the sole quoted sources for Ace Reporter Schwebke's Landgrab/Gondola Sales Pitch last year, whereas the author of Sunday's story actually interviewed Kellogg's mayor.
“I gained the idea that gondolas were the catalyst to get people to come to the community and created a transportation system that didn’t disrupt other traffic,” he said.
The Kellogg gondola is particularly impressive because it virtually saved the town’s economy when silver-, lead- and zinc-mining operations went belly up, Hardman said.
“Even though the magnitude is much smaller than what is planned for Ogden, the gondola was a catalyst for economic opportunity,” he said.
And the Mayor of Kellogg's conclusion? A private developer bought and expanded the local ski resort, and built and marketed some Kellogg condos -- all apparently on the developer's own dime. Once again, there's no mention of a gondola as the catalyst for Kellogg's recent revival -- no mention of the city's "partnering" with the developer either. As Kellogg Mayor Mac Pooler explains it, “It was a definite surprise...”.
At this point we could carry this discussion in several directions; but here's where we're going with this (here comes the segue):
Ever since Boss Godfrey did his magnificent landgrab/gondola flip-flop in early July, it isn't merely the sale of the Mt. Ogden Golf Course that Godfrey has attempted to "take off the table." Anything and everything related to the Godfrey/Peterson Landgrab Scheme has been swept under the pre-election rug. Even the mention of the word "gondola" is verboten in our Brave New MattGodfreyWorld these days, it would seem.
And with an election looming 49 days hence, several candidates for municipal office would like the lumpencitizens to forget the two years of torment Boss Godfrey and his Gondolist fellow travellers put this community through, prior to the Godfrey's purported admission that the Landgrab Project wasn't feasible from the start. Several of Boss Godfrey's Gondolist co-conspirators are candidates for city council offices. However neither of them will even so much as mention the word "gondola." Frankly... we think they'd like the lumpencitizens to "forget the whole danged thing."
But we're not going to let that happen.
Accordingly -- and thanks to one of our gentle readers, we're able to provide our readers with a visual reminder. To the right of this column we provide a scanned version of a Lift Ogden ad, which ran in the June 12, 2006 Standard-Examiner. For a full version, without the highlighted inserts, our readers can click this link.Notable among the names of Gondolist Cult members whose names appear in this ad (which we've dubbed the "gondolist manifesto") are those of council candidates Royal Eccles and Kent Petersen. These are two rabid Gondolists who were willing to endorse a plan even before it was proposed -- a plan that indeed was never presented -- a plan that Godfrey himself later admitted to be infeasible. These are people whom, if elected, will be called upon to exercise good judgment, and to apply reason to the decisions they will make as city council members.
God help us all if either of these two "shoot-from-the-hip" nitwits are ever elevated by Emerald City voters to city council offices.
And one more thing for those trusting souls who believe (or would like to believe) that the Gondola/Landgrab Plan will REALLY be "off the table," if we're gullible enough to elect a slate of unreformed gondolists in November: We're sure the Godfreyite Pod People Ticket has a nice viaduct over in West Ogden that they'd be glad to sell you cheap.
Take it away, gentle readers.
We hope our segue didn't snap your necks.
What's on your minds, this fine Monday morning?
