Standard-Examiner: River Project Not Flowing Smoothly (To Say the Very Least)

Another delightful illustration of the Godfrey administration's "three stooges" style of management

Delightful story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, which once again clearly illustrates the "three-stooges" style of management which is so typical of the Boss Godfrey administration. Regular Weber County Forum readers will recall that Ogden City qualified for a $1 million state Water Quality Board grant in late June, which funds were designated to rehabilitate a polluted mile long stretch of the Ogden River. During the application process, the Godfrey administration apparently represented to state Water Quality Board authorities that property owners with parcels adjoining the river were "onboard" with the project, and willing to donate easements along the river, to accommodate the project. According to this morning's story however, that's not, well... quite true.

Interestingly, important elements of the story vary, depending upon whom Mr. Schwebke managed to interview. Whereas Caroline Bradford, a spokesperson for RiverRestoration.org, (the outfit who'll be the ultimate beneficiary of these grant funds,) represents that 85% of the property owners are all lined up, Ogden City Engineer Justin Anderson frankly admits the number of property owners who have actually donated necessary easements is exactly zero. And when the ever-diligent Scott Schwebke dug in deeper, to seek out property owners who might verify Ms. Bradford's statement, all he apparently could come up with were three obviously disgruntled riverfront property owners who said, "hell no." Of course regular readers of WCF already knew that. Here's Mr. Schwebke's full morning story, for those folks who'd like to read up:

• River project not flowing smoothly

Inasmuch as there's reportedly a mid-November drop-dead deadline for commencement of this project, it appears that Ogden City and RiverRestoration.org will need to do some fancy footwork, and do it soon. Encouragingly however, Mr. Anderson exudes the same brand of confidence that typifies the Godfrey administration any time it's confronted with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle:

If Ward, Berrett and other landowners refuse to provide easements, the river restoration project can be reconfigured around those properties, said Justin Anderson, the city's engineer.

Perhaps Mr. Anderson is contemplating moving the river?

And the beat goes on...

(Nice work, Mr. Schwebke, by the way.)

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