Monday Morning Emerald City News Roundup

OWCAP has a belated epiphany... and there's good news for several downtown apartment owners

Just to kickstart the discussion as we embark upon a new week, we'll briefly highlight two Emerald City related stories appearing in this morning's Standard-Examiner, the two of which completely dominate today's Std-Ex hard-copy edition front page:

First, we learn from Scott Schwebke that Boss Godfrey's new Marshall White Center manager/lessee, OWCAP, has applied for a $450 thousand federal grant:

• OWCAP seeks grant / $450,000 would build classrooms at Marshall White

Whether this is newsworthy at this stage of the game we don't know; but we will again remind everyone that there's a big difference between applying for a grant and actually having the dough in the bank. We'll certainly be keeping our eyes peeled for Mr. Schwebke's followup story however, wherein he'll hopefully advise us if or when the feds have come through.

Mr. Schwebke does provide one tidbit of new information though, which we found to be particularly enlightening. Apparently OWCAP management has experienced a bit of a belated epiphany, regarding the importance of keeping the MWC pool open:

The grant application demonstrates OWCAP's determination to keep the pool open, said Donald Carpenter, administrator of the nonprofit organization.
"We are more and more committed (to the idea) that the swimming pool adds value to the Marshall White Center," he said.
"Our ultimate desire is to see the pool prevail."
Carpenter said he has become increasingly aware of the importance of the pool to local residents since early July, when OWCAP assumed management of the Marshall White Center for the city.[...]
Carpenter would like to see Godfrey and the city council settle the policy dispute, but believes OWCAP should be unaffected because it intends to keep the pool open.
"I hope they can resolve it so that it's a win-win with what we are trying to do at the Marshall White Center," he said.

Perhaps Mr. Carpenter would have been more aware of the importance of MWC pool operations, if he'd negotiated his original deal out in the open from the start, with the full participation of all MWC stakeholders, rather than secretly, in a dingy Godfrey back room. Too bad Mr. Carpenter had to learn the realities of the situation by having the council slap him upside the head. Looking on the bright side however, it appears that Mr. Carpenter may have learned the same lesson which is inevitably learned by anyone who's been unfortunate enough to enter into a business transaction with Boss Godfrey... do your own due diligence... don't take Godfrey's word for anything.

Secondly, we'll briefly take notice of this morning's chirpy story, wherein Mr. Schwebke reports on the burgeoning residential community which is reportedly rapidly filling up the several apartment complexes in and around The Junction:

• Life at The Junction / Residents live, work in the heart of Ogden

Good news for these individual property owners for sure. Probably good news for downtown Ogden in general. Whether this will ultimately translate into good news for the Emerald City taxpayers, who remain burdened by The Junction's unsustainable bond debt, we'll have to wait and see, won't we?

We have a busy personal calendar this morning, so we'll skip the microanalysis.

Perfect opportunity however, for our gentle readers to opine on the true meaning of all this, we think.

Have at it...