UPDATED with a little trip down memory lane
Ouch. Disappointing news from the Boss Godfrey administration in this morning's Standard-Examiner. Ernest Health, Inc., the Albuquerque hospital operator which was expected to construct a $17 million rehab facility in the very heart of Ogden's beleaguered Leshemville Wasteland Project Area, is apparently now pulling the plug on the project. Here's the gist, from this morning's Scott Schwebke story:
OGDEN -- A 4-acre parcel owned by the city within the first phase of the Ogden River Project that was supposed to be the site for a rehabilitation hospital is back on the market.Thus the Ernest Health project joins an increasingly long list of Boss Godfrey schemes which have died on the vine due to the financial incapacity of the proposed developers.
Ernest Health Inc., based in Albuquerque, N.M., had a $1.5 million agreement to buy the property at 20th Street and Grant Avenue by the end of 2008 from the Ogden Redevelopment Agency.
However, Ernest Health missed the deadline to finalize the purchase because it has been unable to secure financing, said Tom Christopulos, the city's business development manager.
Sadly, it seems like only yesterday that Mr. Christopulos and the rest of the Godfrey Administration were doing the "high fives" and calling the project a "done deal." What a difference eleven months make.
And for Boss Godfrey and his claque of overly optimistic suits on nine, we offer some helpful and highly pertinent web-based advice:
• How to Count Chickens Before They Are HatchedReader comments are invited, as always.
Update 5/4/09 11:07 a.m. MT: Now that we're back on the Ernest Health topic, here's a little trip down memory lane:
• Ogden RDA Board Bends OverRemember, folks; the RDA bonded and/or tapped its credit line for $7.5 million to acquire the subject parcel for Ernest, among other things, upon which public debt the taxpayers remain liable for principal plus interest.
Don't let the cat get your tongues.
