Although we've been somewhat sidelined here at Weber County Forum by this week's tragic 1/4/11 Ogden Shootings story, we suppose it's time to get back into the regular "red meat news" swing of things, and resume our role as community watchdog for all things political, in and around Weber County. So here are a few recent news items, which we'll throw out in the hope of getting a new discussion going this morning:
1) Interesting article on the Standard-Examiner's business page this morning, reporting, that as a followup to Tuesday's RDA session, wherein the the Ogden City Council approved a parking lease agreement between the city and the successor developer of the Earnshaw Building Condo Project, we now learn that the subject parking lot will be turned over to the new developer, Steve Hopkins... get this... rent free.
We are not making this up, folks. Here's the key paragraph from this morning's S-E story:
While the city won’t be getting rent from the deal, Richard McConkie, the city’s community and economic development director, said the city figures that the property tax revenue generated by a completed building would increase the tax increment available to the city by as much as $200,000 annually through 2026.Read the full S-E story here:
Well, at least the beleaguered Ogden City taxpayers will be getting something out of this "sweetheart" developer deal, right? It's a lot better for the taxpayers than Ogden's last couple of parking lot giveaway deals, no?
Seems that around Ogden City, the more things change, the more they remain the same, dunnit?
2) Here's something we received by email yesterday from another alert WCF reader:
MAYORAL FAVORS: Yesterday I heard a bunch of pissed off people talking about Kym and Pete taking over the welcome wagon. A gal that was running it was wondering why rent is half of what she'd been paying, and why do they get the equipment etc., for "free"?The reference to the "welcome wagon" refers to last week's Wasatch Rambler column of course, wherein Charlie Trentelman reported that "Pete Buttschardt, owner of Rooster’s and Union Grill, is making extremely positive noises about taking [the Tourist Welcome Center's Choo-Choo's Cafe] over."
While Mr. and Mrs. Buttschard did make a small ($150) donation to Mike Caldwell's 2011 mayoral campaign, we're not ready yet to suggest that Mayor Caldwell would on that basis alone give them preferential treatment; although we'll nevertheless be keeping a close eye on this situation, of course, and would welcome any further detailed "insider" information that any of our Gentle Readers may be able to provide, regarding The Caldwell Administration's efforts to to enter into contract with a new cafe operator.
3) Here's the latest S-E Op-ed contribution from Alan Hall, wherein Ogden's own "Captain of Industry" discusses "how to grow our local economy" and "add more people to the area workforce":
After several earlier columns which were outright "snoozers," it's nice to see Mr. Hall finally launching into a topic where he has actual real-world expertise, we suppose.
4) And here's a thoughtful commentary from Weber County Democrat Steve Olson, who comments on the politically ridiculous Jon Greiner situation and also makes a strong and well-reasoned pitch to his "Republican friends" regarding the "need to respect the nation's conflict of interest laws, even if they disagree with them":
As a lifelong registered Republican (full disclosure here) we'll give Mr. Olson a definite thumbs up on this one. And what say my fellow liberty loving fellow Republicans about this?
That's it for now, O Gentle Ones. We do have a couple of additional items remaining on the WCF back burner, but we'll save them for later this week.
Have at it, WCF readers. The world-wide webosphere is sitting on the edge of its seat, waiting to hear what you think.
