Friday Morning News Northern Utah News Roundup - Updated

Four local news items, plus a "treasure" hunt

In our never ending effort to keep our readers abreast of danged near everything of importance in our Northern Utah journalistic bailiwick, we once again present a few more local news items to provoke  a little typically-spirited lumpenicitizen dialogue. These folks, are a few choice selected stories which we stumbled upon this morning whilst Googling:

Ogden "Hood" Infill Project

1) Central City Infill Project. We learn from the Standard-Examiner this morning that the Ogden City Residential Development Company, formerly know as the Ogden City Council, on Tuesday embarked on another ambitious real estate development project, i.e., the construction 23 new $170,00 single-family homes in the central part of Ogden City, affectionately know around these parts as "the hood"

• Ogden OKs CDBG funds for new homes, new hopes

Although the subject no-man's land "target area" is "currently populated with homes around its perimeter but is virtually vacant through the center," City Council real estate development expert "Neil Garner said similar council-approved housing projects in Ogden have done well." So this economically suspect project is now "off and running," we guess, in which connection we'll invite any WCF readers who might question the wisdom of plopping down a couple of dozen $170,000 "Arts and Crafts style spec homes" in the heart of Ogden's Central City to helpfully utilize our handy lower comments section to "chime in" with their own views on this subject.

2) Wall Avenue Crosswalk. In an notable exception to the usual bureaucratic dawdling, and in the wake of at least one tragic Wall Avenue auto-pedestrian fatality, "tear-jerking public protests, together with a plaintive plea from the Ogden City Council, it seems that Utah's vaunted state-level Utah Roads Bureaucracy has quickly arrived at a "no-brainer" decision which, frankly, ought to have been made long ago:

• UDOT says Wall Ave. needs crossing system near St. Anne's

We won't be holding our breaths however to see this much-need project to reach early fruition however, as it'll no doubt take a few more months for UDOT to requisition the paint and schedule the crews to "paint" a couple of crosswalk stripes. Moreover, this project will at least be temporarily put on further hold, while UDOT bureaucrats confer with Ogden City bureaucrats to decide, as Fox 13 News reports, 1) exactly where the crosswalk will be painted, and 2) which of these government entities will pick up the tab. But what's whats the hurry? UDOT's immune from road defect related legal liabilty, in any event, right?

3) Ogden Community Pools. Big decisions are looming for Ogdenites, as the Standard announces that "the Ogden School Board on Thursday voted unanimously to stop subsidizing the maintenance and operation of pools at Ogden and Ben Lomond high schools"

"A June 25 election will let Ogden voters decide if they’ll approve a property tax increase, amounting to $24 annually on an average home valued at $120,200, that would fund repairs and maintenance to save the pools," the Standard further reports:

• Fate of community pools now rests with Ogden voters

Cooling off the old-fashioned way

So what about it folks?  If faced with a $24 annual property tax increase what would you choose?

• Cough up the dough to provide Ogden City's High School swimmers proper training facilities and Ogden lumpencitizens convenient local swimming venues, or:
• Go along with the School Board decision, send the high school swimmers packing and cool off in the summer the old fashioned way.

What would be your choices, people?
 
4) Star Noodle Dragon Treasure Hunt. Long time Ogdenites will of course fondly remember the old Star Noodle "Dragon," the iconic Ogden architectural sign which adorned Ogden's 25th Street landmark Star Noodle Parlor, until a political "Friend of Matt Godfrey",  Thaine Fischer, acquired that property and thereafter unsuccessfully attempted to develop it. We won't go into a long historical narrative on this subject, but we do believe that those Ogden residents who do still fondly remember this eye-popping downtown steel/porcelain,neon work of art sorely missed it, once Mr. Fischer removed it from the building, and "disposed" of it in a manner that's still a mystery to many.  Having said that, we're pleased to announce an effort by a group of devoted Ogden citizens to locate and "save" this remarkable downtown Ogden icon.  Check out their "headquarters," which are lodged on Facebook, (of all places):

• Save the Dragon

In that connection, these nice folks of the SOD Facebook Community have enlisted WCF's support.  So we'll accordingly start with first things first, and pose this question to our relatively broad WCF reading audience:

Click to enlarge

Is there anybody out there in Weber County Forum-land who's recently seen, or otherwise knows the present whereabouts of the sign displayed to the immediate right side of this page? 

The "Save the Dragon Group" references various "sightings" in recent years; and the differing theories of its present location and condition abound. In the final analysis however, nobody seems to know where the sign is at the present time; so were asking our Gentle Readers to give us the word publicly in our lower comments section or privately via our WCF blog email. And if you don't know where the Star Noodle Dragon is right now, we hope you'll all take a vow to keep your "eyes peeled" and blow the whistle if you do stumble upon it.

It'd be great to see this wonderful Ogden sign-art piece back onto the road to full restoration, don'tcha think?

Thanks in advance, folks.

5) WNIT Championship Tournament. Attention Utah Utes basketball fans and hard-core college basketball fans in general. Looks like WSU's not the only B-ball squad who will have had a crack at a national tournament championship this year, as the Standard provides the news that the University of Utah Women's Basketball Team has risen to the top of a field of 64 teams and qualified to play in the 2013 Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), the single-elimination tournament of 64 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2013 Women's NCAA Tournament:

• Utes top Kansas State, reach finals of WNIT

The Utes will square off against the Drexel University Dragons in a game scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET, tomorrow (Saturday, April 6).  You can catch live audio and video broadcasts at ESPN 700 and the CBS Sports Network, so we're sure you'll all want to join us in cheering on our Utah Utes.

That's it for today, folks, barring any late-breaking red meat news.

The world-wide webosphere eagerly awaits your ever-savvy utterances, of course.

Update 4/5/13 1:15 pm.: Looks like we can already call off the dogs on the "Dragon treasure hunt," in view of this item, just now received via the "Save the Dragon Group":

from Thaine Fischer:
Bryan J. Smith with Only In Ogden notified me people were inquiring about the Star Noodle neon dragon sign. The sign is safe and in storage. Upon the restoration of the Star Noodle builiding the sign will be reinstalled. Thank you for your interest.

That, folks, is what we call results!