Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Good News for Ogden City: Rails open At The Jibyard

Evidence that at least one of the Geiger clan actually possesses sound business acumen

By Curmudgeon

Looking through back copies of the Standard-Examiner for the last few days, eagerly seeking some good news for Ogden City [to take the edge off Hizzonah's latest antics and name-calling melt-down regarding the Marshall White Center pool closing and such like], came across this Jeff DeMoss story:
Rails open at The Jibyard
From the story:
OGDEN -- Skiers and snowboarders who suffer from snow withdrawal in the off-season have a new option to help satisfy their cravings. Three local adrenaline junkies have opened The Jibyard, an indoor ski and snowboard park.... in the former Browning Arms shooting range at 2450 Grant Ave....
The Jibyard is named for the growing sport of "jibbing," which generally refers to using such man-made features as rails and tables to perform tricks, jumps and "just dink around," said Brad Geiger, who opened the park in May along with partners Mike White and Weston Charlesworth.
The owners did most of the building themselves, scavenging the downtown neighborhood for materials they could convert to better use:
The Jibyard's design is as unique as the business itself. The interior is dominated by large, weathered wooden beams laced with barbed wire (well out of the range of riders, of course), and the owners hired artists to paint graffiti panels for the walls. Geiger, White and Charlesworth... gathered most of the items found inside from the surrounding area downtown. Those include old camping trailers and buses the three are refurbishing into "office space," and the wooden beams. "We built the entire substructure by cleaning up junk from a five-block radius," Geiger said....
The owners drew on financial support from family and were helped by winning a new-business-plan competition for a $5000 start-up grant from Ogden City:
...which provided the required down payment for bank financing to build the park. "That funding allowed that to happen," he said. "That was huge."
They certainly have it priced right: twenty bucks for a full day pass [that's up to 15 hours use]. Geiger thinks "It's the least expensive full day of entertainment in town." He may well be right. [Certainly the pricing is a lot more attractive than what I-Fly is asking for mere moments in a its wind-tunnel ride.]

Good to see a new business open in a largely blighted area downtown. And the environmentalist in me likes the ingenuity involved in the owners' scrounging materials and putting them to new use in their building. Good on 'em. [Hizzonah, Mayor Godfrey, has not yet attacked Mr. Geiger and his party for running up water costs and sewer fees by their environmental approach to recycling. I expect it's only a matter of time, though....]

Hope the business does well. Seems like a plus for downtown.

6 comments:

Kevin said...

I took my teenage nephew down on Friday, paid for one hour and he had the time of his life! Hope this works out well for everyone.

Daryl said...

Five thousand bucks out of the city treasury for a Geiger, but not one penny for the thousands of inner city residents that depend on the Marshall White Center. Of course the MWC folks don't have mothers holding feather bedding jobs with the city, and who make decisions like giving these thousands of public money to her own kids as "winners" of a so called contest.

Given the description of the enterprise, I seriously doubt if any one else would ever be allowed by the mayor to do such a thing. Is this up to code? Not that codes matter to the Godfrey crowd, they only apply to the little people in Ogden.

Curmudgeon said...

Another fantastic comment goes straight to the front page

Danny said...

This silly little jibyard business is nothing. It's another hairstyle parlor, another home dog grooming business, nothing significant, nothing worth note.

It might be good news (if it was news at all, which it isn't) if not for the $5000 in taxpayer money funneled to the Geiger family.

Here is what I posted at the SE site.

Godfrey created a sham competition purely to funnel money to the offspring of one of his primary cronies and campaign contributors.

I for one, assured everyone that Geiger would win this for his "jibyard" proposal - a nothing business that in sum is not worth $1000, much less $5000, must less that much in TAXPAYER MONEY.

It's no surprise at all that Geiger "won" the money since the "competition" was just a cover to front him the cash.

This is another example of Godfrey's famous dishonesty in almost all he does.

Ogden is resembling less a city than a crime syndicate where you play ball and receive tax money goodies. If you don't play ball, Godfrey's henchmen (taxpayer funded) extort you until you do.

What a great place to live and do business.

No wonder Ogden is falling off the "great places" lists. Thank you Don Godfrey.

Ozboy said...

Danny

Perceptive fellow you are. Thanks, you hit it right on the head with your above analysis.

Yourpathetic said...

Ever thought the kids in the downtown area needed something to do to get them off the streets? how about a youth centered business that works out to being less than $2 an hour for baby sitting? I mean I don't want to burst your bubble but it would be a pretty crappy cover up contest if the whole point of it was to give someone the third place prize...... good work sherlock you figured it out, how about you tell me how africans are the Children of Cain next?

You have the equivalent of a 3 million dollar facility in your town built by local people that will be putting tax dollars into your precious city coffers. I'm 22 years old and I honestly believe George Bush allowed 9/11 to happen and as much of a conspiracy theorist that makes me, you blow me out of the water. I think you are a sad group of people that ought to silence themselves before the indignity of who you really are escapes to the world and your children leave your family in shame. You don't like Godfrey great! how about you offer someone better? the sock puppet theory didn't work with John Kerry it won't work against Godfrey. face it your town was a complete dump before he changed it. people still haven't realized its not a total cesspool. I can't believe my Social security is getting blown so you can complain about medicare. have fun hating black people and complaining about problems but not getting off your lazy butts and doing something about it.

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