By Jennifer Neil
OK, the new Powder Mountain company: Pronaia, based in Las Vegas, took over management six months ago, according to today's Standard-Examiner story:
• New Company Pushes with Powder Mountain incorporationJoseph Pierce, executive VP & partner said they have "an open mind and ... [want to] negotiate ...reasonable entitlements for ownership." What the heck does that mean? PM is at the "top" of Weber County, and people with $$$ use the facilities and live there ... do they realize Weber County stretches clear out to the lake? What happens "up there" affects everyone "down here". I know I've said this before, but I think it is even more important now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given corporations (such as Pronaia) the same rights as individuals in elections where campaigning and financing are concerned!
The area of Ogden (i.e. "down here") has had rights to the water "up there" for many many years, and if this goes forward, who can say if the Vegas based company can buy a legislator or two with influence in the State Water Board to give away Ogden's water rights? My family specifically actually owns water shares for our property, as do many other Weber County residents. Will Pronaia be using something similar to Eminent Domain to take away our shares and deprive us of water for the sake of the few rich who would buy a summer condo, or build a $5M home they intend to sell in 3 years ... Those of us "down here" take umbrage at such disregard and dismissal of the American tradition of settling in and raising and sustaining one's family in a secure place to call home. And that is putting it lightly!
I think I read something somewhere about Nevada wanting to divert water from us to build more homes in their desert, too ... So, if they can get our water for Powderville, where does it stop?
Pay attention folks -- let's not let this one get out of hand because we don't live in the valley - it affects us as much or more than the folks who live "up there".
Sign the petition, folks!
Editor's addendum: 1) The above-linked Di Lewis story mentions Rep. Gage Froerer's H.B. 218 (Municipal Disincorporation Revisions), which the new Powder Mountain managing partner, Pronaia, admittedly opposes, notwithstanding Mr. Pierce's curious double-speak assertion that his company "doesn't want to disenfranchise the citizens of that area." In that connection, it's come to our attention that Rep. Froerer is moving right along with this bill, and that it's already set as the third agenda item for consideration by the House Government Operations Committee on Monday, Febuary 1, 8:30 am. Hopefully a few of our steely-eyed readers will plan to be in attendance, torches and pitchforks in hand. You can bet your bottom dollar Mr. Pierce's own people will be there.
(For those readers who can't make the meeting, we'll post a live committee meeting audio link in a new WCF article on Monday.)
Update 2/1/10 8:34 a.m.: Althought we promised to feature a live audio link to this morning's committee meeting, such a link has not yet come online. We'll update with anew story as soon as the audio is availaable.
15 comments:
When smash-and-grab developers like these talk about wanting to reach a "reasonable" accommodation with locals, it generally means, at most, "they must agree to 90% of what we want, and we'll agree to 10% of what they want. Maybe." And when the jackals say they are searching for "reasonable entitlements for ownership" [Owellian double-speak is alive and well and living at the Pronaia company], they generally mean "how much will we have to pay these yokels to sit still for what we want to do to them?"
Only difference I can see now is that the jackals are from out of state instead of home grown.
Jennifer
FYI the Nevada water grab you mentioned has just been dealt what appears to be a death blow. The Nevada Supremes ruled yesterday that the deal didn't pass muster and that the water grabbers in Sin City screwed up on their statutory requirements in pursuing the water rights on the Nev/Utah border. This ruling could possibly kill, or at least set back the attempted water grab for decades.
Strange that the Nevada courts would make a legal ruling that was to the benefit of Utah and to the detriment of Nevada. Damn near restores my faith in the black robed ones.
As to the Gage Froerer charade, I still think it is just part of the GOP game of appeasing the voters while intending to stiff them. I still got a Ben Franklin that says this Froerer bill will not pass and become law in the end. Meanwhile Froerer will get lots of pats on the back from the Valley residents for "going to bat" for them. Basically the same old same old GOP BS.
When the dust settles, Ogden Valley will look like Park City, and few current residents will be able to afford to live there. If you live up there and do not like unbridled growth you should be planning to move.
ozboy - I didn't know that about the Nevada water-grab decision, thanks for the update
TLJ
If Pronaia specializes in "the acquisition and management of operating companies in the lower and middle market segment," what the heck are they doing at Powder Mountain?
js,
BB
[Just fyi, the SE is having a hell of a time today staying on line. Its site has been down off and on all morning. And what it has up at the moment is its front page from yesterday, not today. Wonder what the problem is this time....]
This is Deja Vue of a project in California in the last century.
The precedent was set in the Owens Valley in California. The city of LA bought all the water rights to the mountain runoff streams in Owens Valley (some 280 miles north of LA) and started pumping the water south for the "future" growth of Los Angeles.
The result was Owens Lake dried up and became a dust bowl and many Sierra mountain streams were diverted to feed the Los Angeles aqueduct. Historic Mono Lake started the shrink until a lawsuit was settled a few years ago between the residents in Owens Valley and the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles.
Remember what John Huston said in the movie Chinatown,"If you can't bring the residents to the water, you bring the water to the residents." Oddly enough, the premise of that movie was correct. The city of Los Angeles grew and grew and grew (still going) by taking the water from another part of the state without regard to the impact on other California residents and wildlife. It has made millionaires out of many a real estate developer in the greater LA area but has created an ecological disaster in the Owens Valley.
While visiting Nevada last year, we noted that it appeared that many Nevada residents were aware of the danger to both Nevada and Utah with this same kind of a reckless plan to move the water south.
I have lived in both Owens Valley (Bishop) and LA (Long Beach, and I can tell you, Owens Valley is a shitehole. LA should just keep moving until it absorbs those yokels and their silly dust bowl. Progress rules. LA is progress. Go LA! Go Powerdermountainville!
Poole, the word on the street is you have been identified as having an IQ of 53 (or am I too high) and run out of both those California towns.
To get run out of bishop you just need to be a democrat with a brain and a loud mouth. I have no idea what It would take to get run out of LA. Cher still lives there, after all!
I know it's a stretch but along those lines maybe PowderVille could grow NORTHEAST and absorb Rock Springs.
js
Stretch? 180 miles IS quite a stretch ... and think of all the interesting and high adventure terrain in between ...
AWM, what are you smoking?
js,
BB
Hopefully he is smoking something green!
Well..Poole was referencing absorbing "shiteholes"...And yes 180 miles is a fair distance but shouldn't be too hard if they (Powdervillians) keep the corridor down to 10 feet wide..seeing how things are developed around here thats doable
ahh, yes ...
the local tradition of building homes that cover 1/4 acre and putting them on a 1/3 acre lot ... with plastic fences in between
But Rock Springs isn't exactly a shitehole, as Poole would describe ... it is just another regular Wyoming mid-size town.
And Wyoming is really a beautiful place, especially if you get off the beaten track
js,
BB
Post a Comment