Okay, gentle readers. Some of you Emerald City citizens are wondering and grousing and emailing your blogmeister about why we haven't devoted ourselves to some of the semi-red meat news about Ogden in the past few days.
Grumble no more, Emerald City lumpencitizens. We have two stories to discuss this afternoon, one from this morning's Standard-Examiner, and one from yesterday's Std-Ex edition.
First, we'll highlight today's marvellous Std-Ex story, wherein it's reported that building a $1.6 million climbers' Ice Tower is one of the city council's "top priorities."
Your blogmeister has talked to several Emerald City council-people today. None of those we talked to agreed that "The Council" has ever set any such priorities as the Std-Ex suggests.
Cutting to the chase, we wonder whether a $1.6 million "ice tower" is the best use of Emerald City (taxpayer) money, especially with a world recession in the wings.
The gentle reader who persuaded us to post this article also provided this:
I dug up some old articles on the ice tower to see how the cost has escalated over time:
June 2005: $275,000
April 2007: $400,000
November 2007: "just more than $1 million"
January 2008: $1.6 million
And now they're asking for another $200k from RAMP. I see red flags all over the place on this one.
Food for thought, we think. We know real inflation is bad. Perhaps the City Council needs to snap up this deal immediately, before the price really goes to the moon! Gawd knows an Ice Tower will put Emerald City On THE MAP!! Our city council had better hurry up, before this essential project becomes even more expensive.
Next, we'll shine the spotlight on yesterday's Std-Ex story, wherein the supposedly well-heeled out of town investor guy, Larry Myler, is purportedly arriving in town to build a $100 million hotel, and a $20 million water park, from which he expects to make millions of bucks.
If this guy has the juice to put together such a project, we ask... Why does he need a $1 million dollar no interest loan, and a deferral of the property purchase price?
Just asking.
Time to hear from our gentle readers.
You asked for it; time to talk about it.
16 comments:
One remembers when Mecham was mayor. He said the ball park would be funded privately. Then he asked for a few hundred grand. Then a few more. The taxpayers ended up paying for all of it. Government: LIARS!!
This asinine ice tower is the same thing. They'll suggest the RAMP money is basically free, so why not ask for it? Then. once they get the RAMP money they'll say they have to fund the darn thing or they'll "lose" the RAMP money. It's so predictable.
Yet, why should the sleazoids change tactics? They work every time.
How does the jerk who wants to build the ice tower catch the government's eye is beyond me. The scum who support this among the business community will not raise so much as 10% of the cost. A bunch of dishonest trash they all are.
in regards to the news story yesterday about the new hotel at the junction it was stated they are looking for rda approval. why
if they are not looking for city rda financing why should this project go before the rda board rather than just the city council unless the referred to assessment for parking is somehow going to be some kind of rda project or unless the other shoe has not dropped yet on the whole development.
why is the developer and godfrey after all the property between washington and adams on 23rd street for the project water park. godfrey has been hounding the ycc to push them out so he can get their land and buildings. the developer certainly does not need that much land for his water project.
something isn't adding up.
Danny, this ice tower represents the hight of stupidity and insanity.
Where's any valid market study that can confirm this thing can generate 1/10th of it's operating cost? That's just operating, it can never pay for itself.
The folks in Colorado that must be terribly relieved to have found someone stupid enough to take this white elephant off their hands never concidered anything as bone headed as housing the thing for year round use.
This thing came from a much more affluent place than Ogden, and they even host climbing events, festivals. If they found it to be a waste of time and energy, shouldn't we be a little smarter?
When I first heard about the ice tower I liked the idea. That was when the cost was $275,000. When the cost escalated to over $1 million, they lost my support. They should scale the thing back, forget about trying to keep it operating in the summer, and see what they can do for the money they've already raised--which is more than enough to cover the initial cost estimate. If that's just not enough to do anything, then I say pull the plug.
What is the "ycc"?
It's the Ogden version of YWCA
YCC - Ogden
The article says that the $200,000 ramp money was already granted to the project last year and is "still available" for it. So at least some of this crap about the public subsidizing another Godfrey mushroom dream must be old stuff?
Who exactly is it that is going to be paying big money to climb on this thing? The climbing wall at PeeWee's playhouse (along with everything else in there) is a bust. The Via Ferrati up Waterfall Canyon was a bust. I mean really, how many people, young or old, are motivated to go climb up a damn giant icesicle?
Does the insanity ever stop flowing in the Godfreyite movement?
It will just end up being one more thing the poor and disenfranchised kids of inner city Ogden (that surrounds it for at least two miles in each direction) can go look at - from the outside - to see what life would have been like in Ogden had they been born whitesome and delightsome with rich daddies and well coiffed mommies in Mercedes Benzes.
Meanwhile Godfrey is too mean spirited and cheap to even maintain the Marshall White Center properly, and he has cut virtually all city support from the great programs they have there for those inner city poor kids.
You can bet your poor tax paying ass you will be picking up the vast majority of the multiple millions this dumb ass boondoggle will really end up costing. I bet it will end up closer to three million than two.
On the hotel.
I agree with Rudi, if this fat cat from Orem is going to build a $115 million dollar extravaganza in Ogden WITHOUT PUBLIC MONEY, then why does he need a $2.9 million dollar no interest loan, for at least 5 years, from the tax payers of Ogden? Yes I wrote $2.9 million loan. He wants the land for the alleged "appraised value" of $1.7 million, and he wants the interest free loan of $1.2 million, and he doesn't want to pay any of it back until three years after the thing is finished. Assuming it takes two years to build it, that is five years from when he gets the money before he has to pay it back. Interest alone on that much money for five years is damn close to a million bucks. So the least it will cost the tax payers is a cool million - that is if everything they represent today is actually true. That of course is a huge IF considering the multitude and magnitude of the lies the Godfreyites have told us about everything else they do behind closed doors for the benefit of their cronies.
On the other hand if a hundred and fifteen million dollar hotel and amusement park is built in down town with private money, it could be a good thing for the town, and possibly a savior of our otherwise totally wasted $20 to $40 million we will have in the mall and PeeWee's playhouse.
If it's done with private money I am for it - if it ain't, I ain't.
Damn, I wish I had befriended the little dick head when I had the chance. Shit man, I coulda been a rich contender instead of the poor dumb tax paying chump whose paying for these obscenities while on the outside lookin in!
Ozzy, I would rather be a poor dumb tax paying chump, as we are, than a Godfrey follower and swallower of DNA.
ozboy
dont you know by now that godfrey is committed to the total extermination of all the support services to the less advantaged in ogden. by dislocating and dispersing the services outside the ogden central area he hopes that the services will lose their critical mass and as the services diminish and the intra support that the various organizations fail he thinks the less advantaged will move to roy clearfield or anywhere but ogden.
if youre not blond haired and blue eyed look out.
amy should pay close attention as her organization is on the list too.
Such negativity.... You guys need to learn to think outside the box...
It's simple, really: build the multi-story indoor water park with removable windows. Come each December 1st, simply remove the windows, wait 72 hours and the indoor water park becomes a multi-story indoor ice park. And a green one to boot, since no power will have to be used to make the ice. No problemo....
Curmudgeon, you're back. Hey, get Jeff Lowe and come on out to my house, I have one hell of an ice tower growing in my back yard.
Now, that everyone has been bitten by this high adventure euphoria, I suggest that Patterson and Harmer be fired immediately. For 2 reasons. First they are both totally out of character. These 2 would get lost on a walk thru the Big D parkway. I doubt either of them own a backpack or even a decent sleeping bag. I also need to point out that hair spray is not reccomended in wild places, it attracts mosquitoes and bears.
The second reason is, these two have demonstrated no savy whatsoever on how to make a sound high adventure investment. Ice Towers and indoor waterparks, glow in the dark bowling, wind tunnels and plastic climbing structures, get real. I say we fire them and hire the guy in charge of future developement at Lagoon. This guy researches what he's going to invest in, and rarely fails to bring in the big bucks.
Harmer and Patterson are hairsprayed panty waisted chumps, they kill the whole image and have displayed terrible judgement. I'm so full of adrenaline right now, I might snowshoe to 7/11.
But common Bill, Ya gotta admit that Harmer looks fab in his two thousand dollar suits us poor torn jeans wearing tax payers are buying for him. He also cuts a might fine figure in that sixty grand Porch he cruises around in, on our dime of course. Perks of the ruling class you might say.
And "disgusted", why are you being so kind to the mayor? Bottom line, he is a venal little racist pig and has demonstrated that repeatedly through out his reign of incompetence.
Damn! You guys have got yore panties all in a wad! Would a City wide petition drive saying no to these giant popsicle and wet dreams of the outdoors adventure promoters do anything? The last thing Ogden and Weber County needs is yet another RDA which ends up a taxpayer funded boondoggle. We are already infamous statewide for being suckers to this imbecilic group of sycophants and thus having the most RDAs and therefore the highest taxes in the State.
Tell'm if they want outdoor winter recreation to come on up to Huntsville Town. I started an ice skating rink on the park back in 1992 and it is still going with all volunteer help and its free. If that doesn't do it the ten foot high snow banks along side the streets are good for the kids to create imaginative ways to be pulled behind just about anything that moves and do Olympic jumps as they launch airborne over the mounds. It's free too.
The a city wide petition drive to stop this madness.... The voters damn near put an end to the "Godfrey Daniels!!!" vision recently. I highly suspect they would be more than happy to tell him where he can stick this giant icicle and make everyone happy. Grins....MM
This ice tower is total nonsense. Jeff Lowe is a wonderful fellow but there seems to be some ego + blinders driving this project.
Just how many ice climbers are there out there. Ice climbing got cut from the X-games for lack of interest. And why would this unit not be located in the center of the Junction. They must have some vision of backpacker types cruising around downtown taking in all the high adventure. What a friggin' joke. There is a total of no more than 5 regular users from those companies at the flowrider. Never seen Dowse there. Never seen Bob G. or the Kahuna guys or the Goode's. Of course these facilities are there for the public not the vaunted HiAdvent Companies but you would think they represent the epitome of the HiAdvent citizen. If they don't hardly use these facilities how can the public be expected to generate interest. Gold's does practically nothing to promote the flowrider. This in the face of the fact that they pay absolutely nothing for it's use for their own profit. Could I lease a building with a million dollar fixture within for my own use and business plan. Another water park? The Grand Sierra Resort in Reno(previously Hilton) is building the world's largest indoor water park which includes a flowrider to open now after major delays sometime in '09. It probably won't be long til Lagoon invests in a flowrider thus "watering" down the market for it. I would not doubt that Wendover will soon get in on this kind of action. You cannot bet a downtown and local economy on entertainment. Not even Anaheim or Orlando has shown that Disney is the be-all for their economy.
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