The Standard-Examiner provides the story this morning, on the latest corporate insult to the civil rights of the citizens of Ogden Valley. Scott Schwebke reports that Powder Mountain Resort has put the arm on Ogden Valley Balloon Fest management, and has succeeded in barring the Citizens Rights Defense Fund from operating an informational booth at this weekend's Ogden Valley Balloon & Artist Festival.
POWDER MOUNTAIN -- Members of a group opposed to the incorporation of Powder Mountain as a town are feeling deflated because they won't be allowed to have a booth at this weekend's Ogden Valley Balloon & Artist Festival.Read the full text of Mr. Schwebke's story here:
The Citizens' Rights Committee was initially promised about two weeks ago by organizers of the festival, running Friday through Sunday at Wolf Creek Resort in Eden, that it could set up an informational booth at the event, said committee member Larry Zini.
However, on Tuesday, permission for the booth was withdrawn, said Zini, who is concerned officials with Powder Mountain resort, one of the festival's sponsors, may have used their influence to get the Citizens' Rights Committee booted.[...]
Carolyn Daniels, who handles group sales and public relations for Powder Mountain, said she contacted organizers for the Ogden Valley Balloon & Artist Festival to express concern that those at the Powder Mountain booth would be spending their time defending issues raised by those at the Citizens' Rights Committee booth.
"We wanted to be there to promote the upcoming ski season," she said, explaining the purpose of the Powder Mountain booth.
Daniels said she specifically told festival organizers that she was not asking for the Citizens' Right Committee to be banned from the event.
• Balloon fest booth permit pulled; Powder Mountain Town opponents' group deflatedThat's right, gentle readers. Ms. Daniels, a managing employee of Powder Mountain, which is also a sponsor of this event, readily admits she called on behalf of her employer to complain; but she also oh-so-carefully notes that she had no intention of interfering with the Ogden Valley citizens' booth permit. Therefore, in order to slavishly go along with Powder Mountain on this, the cowardly Balloon Fest organizers of course had to come up with a pretext. The flimsy pretext du jour? "Gladys Mundelius, booth coordinator for the festival, said event officials rescinded the Citizens' Rights Committee's permit because it is neither an arts nor a registered nonprofit organization."
It's pretty plain what's really going on here, in our never humble opinion. Powder Mountain plans to use this event to hawk season ski passes; and the citizens of Ogden Valley have been promoting a Powder Mountain boycott. Inevitably, when corporate entities weigh the conflicting issues, money (greed) always talks.
We've spoken with several Ogden Valley citizen activists about this, and it appears that there's a "Plan B" solution in the works. There's talk of setting up booths outside the Balloon Fest premises, and further discussion of another impromptu roadway sign campaign. Whatever they do, we'll predict it will be innovative and effective. Powder Mountain and the Balloon Fest promoters are trying to throttle Ogden Valley citizens' voices; and we can confidently assure you that's something which definitely ain't gonna happen.
And for those Weber County Forum readers who'd like to demonstrate their solidarity with the valiant citizens of Ogden Valley, who are fighting like demons against the ongoing corporate oppression, we have two suggestions:
1) Boycott Powder Mountain and ski with Earl at Snow Basin this year; and,
2) Boycott the Ogden Valley Balloon Fest.
We believe that those of good conscience will want to hit these corporate tyrants the only place it really hurts... their wallets.
Don't forget to check out Ogden Valley Forum this morning, by the way. Larry Zini has new article on this topic too, which has already drawn more than a few justifiably irate reader comments:
• Booth Permit Rescinded!That's it for now, gentle readers.
It's time to throw in your own 2¢.
Update 8/13/09 5:45 p.m. MT: Breaking news from the Ogden Valley Forum blog:
• Gage Froerer Steps up for The Citizens’ Rights Committee!From the Larry Zini Article:
After the Citizens’ Rights Committee booth space at the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival was revoked, our own State Representative Gage Froerer has offered space in front of his Century 21 office on Hwy. 158 for an information booth. The office is located on Hwy. 158 a few hundred yards south of the Valley Market intersection.This story definitely grows more interesting by the moment.
Update 8/13/09 6:51 p.m. MT: Here's a great MSFT Powerpoint file sent to us this afternoon by one of our alert readers:
• The Farmers - Robert DuncanThis truly fantastic file arrived with the following message:
Kinda what Ogden Valley used to be ... and what Powder Mountain "Townies" want to take away. Other than that, enjoy -- these paintings are beautiful ... my dad found them.Your blogmeister agrees. These paintings are highly reminiscent of what Ogden Valley looked like not so long ago when he was growing up there as a kid; and there still remain many vestiges. The depicted characters, structures and terrain features are uncannily accurate, as a matter of fact.
Can we preserve any of this from the heavy hand of greedhead developers? Only time will tell.
20 comments:
May I suggest to them another tactic that might be worth a think? Have tee shirts made up saying "Boycott Powder Mountain" or some such, and have volunteers wear them on the Festival grounds. [Of course, my preference would be a tee saying "Bankrupt The Un-Patriotic Bastards: Boycott Powder Mountain." But that's a lot to get on a shirt.]
The organizers may be able to stop, say, picketing or carrying signs, and they can, at least in the short run, stop the booth on the festival grounds. Be interesting to see them trying to stop people wearing these particular tee shirts but not others that carry messages. [And at any outdoor festival I've ever been too, there are a lot of tees about carrying messages.] Banning only the group's tee shirts would be message discrimination and [if the Arts and Balloon Fest organization is a public one] open them to serious legal problems, I would think.
Oh, to live on Powder Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Powder Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon ...
The T- Shirts should be Bright yellow or lime green with bold black print. You need to draw attention, and pass them out at the gate.
Ofttimes a whisper is louder than a shout.
Just having most of the folks who do not support Powderville walking about the grounds asking, politely, one person after another, Did you hear about the scheme to deny local citizens their voting rights, using company-town tactics in the appointment of our town mayor?
Just a little hand-shaking, eye to eye, and honest discourse as peers; NLP suggests such tactics are worth a try in these situations.
How about some big ass vinyl signs attached to the basket bottoms of the balloons?
Too bad the Reverend Harris has gone on to the big BarBeQue in the sky. We could just have him go lay down in the road and block all the traffic to the damn balloon show. Maybe those valley folks that are fighting for their own civil rights could borrow a page from the late reverend's book and do a mass lay down in the road protest. It certainly would get them a grundle of publicity.
I remember the Reverand Harris ... really a nice guy.
BB
It will be interesting to see if any other "not non-profit, not an arts group" booths are there.
Ozboy
If I were you, I wouldn't take that lying down, But, I think that most people will stand up for what is right. Who is the person that revoked the permit. Those people should just call her, tell her phone dies.
If they let these crackpots have their little anti-whatever booth, they would have to let every other crank with a anti-government agenda have their 15 minutes also. Which is cool, but why is there always one guy who ruins the fun for everyone else. I say lets have a balloon festival, and leave the sour-grapes at home.
This is why we cant ever have nice things.
Patio Springs...
You have huge balls calling it government, when we all know it was the biggest scam and rip off of peoples rights. Take your moldy money and shove it in your moldy ass.
Patio Springs:
Interesting that you dismiss the folks who were granted booth space only to have it yanked back when the PM developers complained, as "crackpots." Interesting that insisting on the right to decide by ballot if a new town should be created, and if it is, insisting on the right to decide by ballot who should be on its governing council is, in your mind, a "crackpot" agenda.
I figure either you fell asleep a lot in high school civics, or your teacher was Rob Bishop. One or the other.
Good one Curm~! Laughing out loud at your last post putting Patio in his/her place.
Funny, very funny. Good on ya!
I liked the Robert Duncan art. (Dragged and dropped it into Powerpoint so I could view at my chosen speed.)
People figure that slow, peaceful, largely happy way of life must give way to the fast paced, greedy pursuit of money - that it is inevitable.
But it is not. It is government, under the control of parasites, that causes the transformation.
Note how Godfrey is consumed with construction. It doesn't matter what it is, he must find a way to borrow, build, borrow, build, borrow, build, everywhere.
Also note that the people who give him money are almost all developers, bankers, realtors, etc.
Godfrey is not a leader. He is a pawn, a toady.
The environment has only so much carrying capacity. That's why as population increases, taxes always go up, quality of life always goes down.
Let us be grateful that the Weber County Commissioners are standing up to the Powderville parasites, rather than lying down with them as Godfrey has and does.
Machster:
TY. Have to admit, over on the SE discussion on this, I've been having a hard time [and maybe just a little fun] trying to imagine you as a layabout pot smokin' hippie in a red dress. [Someone over there claims that describes all the opponents of Powderville.]
Great Pics, Rudi!
Let's hope everyone within the scope of this blog will think to save the PPT file, then email it all around -- a gentle reminiscence of days gone by -- it's too bad so many of the "newcomers" to the Valley cannot recall the bucolic beauty that was ours - let's keep at least a portion of it for posterity and not allow another Park City to happen here. That would be inexcusable. Park City is a blasphemy.
just sayin
BB
"...not allow another Park City to happpen here..."
You will see it within your lifetime. When development arrives, most everyone sells, cashes out, and moves on.
The out-of-town new-owner grandkids are always the first to sell.
When development arrives, those already in office have a next to impossible task of saying no to increasing revenues, saying no to growth.
Is there an example of intelligent, progressive, conservation-oriented growth management in a valley this close to a materopolitan, anywhere in Utah?
I doubt it.
Sad but true, Rockford J. Among estate planner lawyers, the "out-of-town new-owner grandkids" are sometimes referred to in insider lawyer jargon as "the grubby group" (more or less estranged family members who descend upon the ancestor-decedent's estate looking to loot it for whatever they can get.)
Sad, but true.
If you want to hit them in their wallets. Tell the Republican County Commissioners to make them have a sewer system up there.
But then again the Republican Commissioners are full of sh!t too.
Rockford J and RudiZink
"out of town new owner's grandkids"?
do those out of town people really stay long enough to pass the property along to said grandkids?
I knew an old-timer old-owner couple who raised 13 kids in Eden, starting about 70 years ago - and both of them passed away in the same home, Grandma about three years ago. The grandkids had to sell to pay off property taxes owed on a mortgage-free home because of the out of town new owners coming in and building their $20M monstrosities.
just sayin
BB
Post a Comment