Even as Ogden Valley residents "take to the streets" this very morning in Eden to picket and march in today's "President's Day Powder Mountain Rally," we find even more evidence that a political storm of hurricane proportions is brewing in eastern Weber County.In that connection, we refer our readers to Ogden Valley Forum's most recent posting, consisting of an open letter from Kimbal L. Wheatley, a self-declared "Citizen of Ogden Valley and the United States of America," revealing some of the tactics expected to be employed in the Powder Mountain town incorporation fight. It's a nice long rant; and some would even call it a manifesto.
While some might debate the wisdom of disclosing the citizen activist battle plan before the war has truly begun, we believe there does exist some strategic advantage for Ogden Valley citizens in laying it all out in the open at the outset, thereby 1) encouraging the further recruitment of Ogden Valley citizens who've yet remained peripheral to the anti-corporate dictatorship movement, and 2) putting the Powder Mountain Developer on notice that it has a tiger by the tail which happens to occupy the "high moral ground."
All in all, we found the letter to be a very interesting read. And we'll add that we're exceedingly proud of our Ogden Valley neighbors to the east, for bravely fighting for one of the most cherished of American traditions: the right to have a voice in their own government. It's too bad our state legislature doesn't understand the concept.
And before closing, we'll single out one pre-incorporation tactical approach (from one of the author's bullet points), which we found to be particularly intriguing:
However, there is at least one big issue left that the PERPS have to deal with to finish squeezing through the loophole. Wolf Creek Resort has filed a petition to withdraw 160 acres of their resort that the PERPS included in Powderville. If the county commissioners grant the withdrawal, the boundaries will have to be redrawn and they may not reach the 50% valuation criterion of HB466; a citizen watchdog group is monitoring the situation. Even so, we have to assume the PERPS will figure out a way to bypass more rules and Powderville will become reality.And what about it, gentle readers? Any other tactical suggestions for our friends in Ogden Valley?
15 comments:
Hope you're right, Rudi, and that the battle has just begun. But my suspicion is that it is all but over and that the fix is in, the right legislators in the Senate at least have been "reached" [to to speak] by the Powder Mountain developers. Hope I am wrong. We shall see.
I'd regard the formalization of town incorporation as the signal of the beginning of the "war," Curm.
It would be in the nature of a "guerilla war," assuming today's letter represnts the views of Ogden Valley activists, as most of the proposed citizen actions revealed in Mr. Wheatley's "manifesto" deal with post-incorporation tactics.
This entire fiasco, along with the others around Heber City, is the doing of the leadership of the Utah Legislature. Curtis, Valentine, Bramble, Clark, to name the main perpetrators, are all intimately connected to the Developer and Real Estate interests, they all make very large sums of money from these connections and they have all turned their backs on the citizens of Utah.
Our current legislative leadership is the most corrupt self serving bunch in Utah's history.
Watch your TV's tonight, we had Channel 5 and Channel 13 out there this morning. Lots of interviews with protest leaders.
Powder Mountain fears publicity on this issue because they can't clearly explain why the homeowners involved have no choice.
I have a contact with the New York Times and they may want to do a story about the absence of civil rights in this case. The word is that Powder Mountain is still trying to get investors in the New York financial area.
KSL News at 6 pm should have another story of local interest as well.
I just had a radio interview with KVMUforthepeople.com out of Logan.
Thanks for all the support out there. This is just what we needed to rally the troops in "Powderville."
I for one, will continue to fight like hell.
Deja
Sorry to interrupt the discussion of this important topic, but...
Did anyone else do a double-take at today's top headline in the S-E? I suppose when they reported that the Titanic had just hit an iceberg, the headline must've read "Ship's Officials Optimistic".
I just caught KSL-5's 4:30 news broadcast. Although the reporter did report on the protest rally herself, with good video shots of the citizen protesters, she completely missed the main issue, i.e. the political disenfrangisement of the citizens who are being gobbled up under the authority of corporate dictatorship for the next 4 years.
No interviews, no substantive discussion of any of the real issues... fluff, mainly.
Perhaps KSL will do better in its expanded broadcasts at 5:00 and 6:00.
Look at this clip that was on KSL 5 at 6:00.
Some say Ogden River is being used as a dumping ground
This is how Godfrey is cleaning up the down town area by throwing it in the river.
Love that spin:
It was a truly nothing story. What did they expect the airport management to say? "We're doomed! All is lost!" Of course they're spraying optimism in all directions. I can see running the story, but back on the business pages, not bannered on the front page. Something on the Powder Mt. protests would have been a lot more appropriate across the top of the front page this morning.
I do wish that Hansen was the mayor because this would not happen on his watch. Where is Godfrey to stop this from going on?
I know there is more on at ksl at 10:00 tonight.
Just Watch and See...
You wrote: I do wish that Hansen was the mayor because this would not happen on his watch. Where is Godfrey to stop this from going on?
Watch, the election is over. Yes, I wish Rep. Hansen had become mayor too. But it is just plain silly to suggest that if he had, magically, all polluters would stop polluting, all scoff-laws would stop scoffing and that no construction trash would have gone into the Ogden river. Nor can we reasonably expect a mayor to spend his days prowling the back lots of businesses and construction sites, sniffing out polluters. [Though various city agencies presumably ought to be doing that.]
What might have been very different under Hansen, or Van Hooser too, is what happened following a concerned citizen's bringing the dumping of construction waste into the Ogden River to the attention of the Ogden police. I understand they were notified, came out to the site, spoke to the citizen, saw the dump site... and did nothing at first. And that the press was subsequently told by a police official [who was not so far as is known at the pollution site] that nothing was going to be done because probably it was just transients' fault.
The business behind which the dumping occurred is owned and operated by a strong supporter of the Mayor's re-election.I'd be very curious to know, once the initial report came in to police HQ that one of the Mayor's cronies was being accused of dumping construction waste into the Ogden river, if the police called up the line for... well, let's just call it "guidance." Did Chief Greiner get a call? Did the Mayor's office get a call from Greiner then, or anyone else in the police department? Did the owner of the business call the Mayor or anyone on his staff and did the Mayor then call the police to intervene? Did anyone instruct the officer who floated the "transients did it" story to take no action and to explain it all away as he tried to? I notice on KSL the owner of the building in question is not denying that construction trash went into the river from his project, so the "transients did it" story seems to have been abandoned. Good. That was a non-starter, and if someone on the Administration's damage-control team dreamed that one up, he or she needs a fast refresher course. The building owner blamed it on the snow. [Yes, he did.] I suspect that one's a non-starter too.
And it's also true, apparently, that once Rep. Hansen showed up at the site, suddenly the police began taking the matter considerably more seriously. Imagine that.
So, the question I'd be curious about is this: did the owner of the property involved get any special treatment, like the initial police lack of interest in the matter, because he's a Godfrey associate? I don't know the answer to that questions. But I'd like to, whether it's yes or no. Maybe the SE will do some digging around on that question. Right now, all folks have are questions and suspicions.
Here's the link to the KVNU interview about Powder Mountain. http://kvnuforthepeople.com/?p=1510
Fast forward your popup to 32:00 minutes. They also interviewed a spokesperson for PM.
Mr. Curmudgeon
I also wonder what the police and city administration's actions would have been had the river pollution incident happened just across the river on the property of Moyal - the guy the mayor and his cronies have been persecuting of late. My guess would be that there would have been an arrest.
"Some pigs are more equal than others" Napoleon
Ozboy
The correct quote from "Napoleon" the pig and leader of the animals in George Orwell's 1945 masterful allegory tale "Animal Farm" is"
"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"
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