Interesting Ace Reporter Schwebke article this morning concerning Boss Godfrey's $146 million Mt. Ogden Golf Course makeover scheme, from which we'll carve out a few excerpts. At this early juncture, WSU appears to be playing right along:
OGDEN -- A team of professors will explore whether a hospitality and tourism management degree should be offered at Weber State University that may complement a proposed $119 million Mount Ogden Golf Course hotel.Lest our readers grow alarmed, and leap to the conclusion that there are those of influence at the WSU campus who have already bought into this project, we'll just say that we believe WSU's current posture is exactly right:
Several faculty members are interested in evaluating the hotel proposal being floated by the Mount Ogden Golf Course Committee, said Lewis R. Gale, dean of Weber State's John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics.
"An opportunity has been presented," Gale said. "We want to know if we can help."
The formation of the Weber State faculty team to review the hotel component doesn't mean the school has formed an opinion about the committee's proposal, Gale said. [...]As an owner of a property adjacent to the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, and a public university which might reasonably expand its degree offerings to include a program in "hospitality and tourism management," University officials have an obligation, we believe, to weigh all the options and return a well reasoned decision on the merits, which is exactly what we believe University officials will do.
"What we are doing is not signaling support or lack of support. It's an opportunity that has come up. We want to be involved early on."
Moreover, WSU officials have been the undeserving target of blistering criticism from the Godfrey Slime Machine in the past, for not playing along with Godfrey and his fellow big spending schemers. WSU officials thus have every reason to at least "go through the motions" on this.
Notably, Dean Gale isn't exactly champing at the bit to get moving on this. "It hasn't been determined when Weber State faculty will begin evaluating whether the university should offer a degree to complement the proposed hotel," Dean Gale says.
And on a slightly different note, here's an interesting Kent Petersen quote from further down today's story, referring to "prospective" financing for this latest Godfrey boondoggle:
The complex, which would include 150 time-share units and 200 condo/hotel units, could be built without taxpayer money by a private developer or a major resort company like Marriott, Petersen said.This raises some interesting questions, we believe. Does Boss Godfrey actually have a private developer/hotelier already lined up; or is this just another Godfrey/Petersen pipe dream? Hopefully Mr. Schwebke will find the time to start digging on this.
So what say our gentle readers about this latest development?
17 comments:
When will the standard examiner ever Ask the hard questions?
If the Mayor and Mr Shreeve have nothing to hide and I mean Nothing,
Then they should call a public press conference and let the truth be known at it and clear the air. This should be done with every one that may have knowledge of what happened and who all was involved. The new county attorney should be there and then we will get to the bottom of all the corruption and get to the the truth. If they are all innocent then that will all so come out.
The paper could hold this open to the public and advertise it in advance so that plenty of people would be able to come forward.
Surely no one in this city,save the lying little mayor and maybe a geiger, would give this halfpipe dream any consideration what so ever. Unless Gayle is a closet gondolaist, or of geigarian extraction, he must be just trying to appear nice reguarding the skippers' insane waste of energy.
Speaking of geigers, short deck can rest easy, his concerns about being embarrassed by the WSU football team's academic standing has been given a clean bill of health. As I recall, that was the only point in his op-ed that was discernable.
from the wondering why? dept:
How many degreed hospitality professionals would actually work at ONE hotel? Seems to me, IMHO, that most of the employees would be service, and paid a baby step up from minimum wage. Same arena as how many meaningful jobs would be provided by Peterson's west-facing mountain village?
Would the few hospitality professionals come from a freshly graduated class at WSU with no experience? Or would the hotel's owner send trusted, seasoned managers over to get things off to a smooth start?
Hypothetically speaking, of course in the off chance there will be a hotel ....
Where did the hotel come from anyway? I thought they wanted to re-design the golf course and move the club house.
Money better spent would be in advertising and touting the golf course we have, especially now, with the season just starting. Remember when ... ahhh, when ... Snow Basin was Utah's best kept secret and touted as [having] the greatest snow on earth? The advertising of a best kept secret brought them by the thousands and now most of the residents can't afford to ski there.
TLJ:
There are hotel/resort management programs in the US, some of very long standing and good reputation, which place their people. I think the idea of having the hotel/condo/resort development adjacent to campus would be that it would provide opportunities for hands-on training, intern work, etc. not that it would necessarily be the, or even a, major employer of WSU program graduates.
One of the things the campus committee would be looking into, I imagine, is the already existing programs in the area, and how well they are doing placing their graduates in the field. Are Utah hotels/resort properties having trouble finding qualified people in the field to work for them? Would the WSU program fill a need in the state as well or better than existing programs? Is there a likelihood that financial resources from the state to permit the program to compete effectively for students with existing programs? Etc. etc. etc. These questions, I imagine, will be among those the WSU committee will be looking at.
WSU has much more to look into than just the hotel management degree. If this "plan" is to go through WSU needs to decide if it can relocate a couple of its buildings. If it will be worth handing over some of its land to the city, or some other entity for development. It even needs to determine if the proposed changes to the golf course will actually make it possible for it to be the home course for the WSU golf teams. In short, WSU - will have to be a major player. I certainly hope that WSU will do more than just investigate the hotel angle.
Too many IFs. How about get to a WHEN, then see if people are willing to commit. Even then, it could be iffy (pun intended).
We've already had too many IF debacles that are costing money and not happening - Gadi Lesham, Geiger-villains, Peterson villages, Gondola-nots, vagueries on Ogden City website, ....
TLJ
Curm - your argument is a good one for the university, about adding another program. Personally I like the one about adding a song-writing course to the English Degree curriculum. Help talented people center their muse - not starry-eyed short-pants' try to get more money in their pockets. After all, a university that brings more students to the town, eventually boosts the economy in some way, no?
:-)
The only reason WSU won't use the current facility as a home course is the lack of a driving range. The current one is a bit too short.
If Someone were serious about having WSU at Mt. Ogden a small investment of $25,000 to $30,000 is all it would take to enlarge the exsisting range.
The range the skipper has in mind, and his bogus projections are from Baltimore MD. how many million potential customers as opposed to here? And of course, year round operation. Not unlike everything else in his silly proposal, his range could never pay for itself.
Anyone thinking about any of these so called, playability issues, needs to consider that these are supposed to be good players, good enough to recieve scholarships, the so called playability issues are primarily being presented under the guise of being too difficult for weekend hacks.(not very good players)
It will definitely be fun to see a comittee of real academic businessmen from the Goddard School, in their effort to evaluate Boss Godfrey's latest bone-headed plan.
I guarantee the report will be comical, from the lumpencitiozens' point of view.
Time to send the Little shit back to Harrisville, I think.
Get real... The Standard Examiner is not going to get to the bottom of the corruption (golf cource, campaign money laundering, Envision Ogden).
They won't expose their fellow republicans.
The hospitality major may be a good idea, independent of the stupid-ass hotel/condo proposal.
It should be investigated as such.
"The complex, which would include 150 time-share units and 200 condo/hotel units, could be built without taxpayer money by a private developer or a major resort company like Marriott, Petersen said."
Oh great! the same Godfrey taxpayer funded infratructure buldout game plan which is costing the taxpayers $3/4 of a million a year at The Junction, which Godfrey promised would NEVER put the taxpayers on the hook.
The same gameplan that Godfrey proposed for the River Project...
When will Mormon dopes like Stephenson, Johnson and Stephens of City Council ever learn?
Utah MBA,
Remember when the WSU Geologists evaluated the proposed hillside land? Godfrey didn't like what they said (a large amount of WSU property was buildable) so he called the report "a farce." Actually he said it at least 3 times "a farce, it's a farce, a farce."
I'm sure the same will happen again and the WSU faculty will have their expertise insulted.
Godfrey: "It's a farce!"
More from the little shit... more Godfrey audio gaffes...
Matt Godfrey Dog & Pony Show MP3 Audio/Text Collection
We could beat the little prick to death, nut he's doing it his self.
Utah MBA
Please, oh please, don't send him back to Harrisville - he might end up in my ward!
TLJ
Comment bumped to top shelf.
comment moved to new article
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