Ogden Valley Residents Clean Up Monastery

Ogden Valley residents and others showed up in force this morning to help our neighbors at the Monastery. Thanks to the 115 volunteers and organizers who gave selflessly of themselves and their Saturday to help our neighbors in need.

Click here to view the KSL TV report

Valley help for Monica Fuit

Monica Fuit, a 31 year old resident of Liberty, Utah needs a bone marrow transplant. She also needs the help and prayers of family, friends and the community. In November 2007, Monica was diagnosed with a form of cancer known as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). In recent months, she has endured many medical complications and hospitalizations. Her only hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplantation.

Last month, Monica underwent a comprehensive evaluation and was deemed an excellent candidate for this procedure at The University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

To help please contact:

Nicole Householder
801-745-1122
nhouseholder@wolfcreekresort.com

Or

Candy Booker
801-644-9400
czbooker@aol.com

Monastery Clean up Saturday Morning

The long awaited Monastery clean up will be held Saturday, May 31 at 7 am. Your help is needed so please attend to help one of the best neigbors in Ogden Valley.

An related story appeared in Sunday's Standard Examiner.

Here is an article that appeared in the latest issue of the Ogden Valley News:

Monastery Cleanup May 31st - WE NEED YOU!

What started as a simple fund raiser to support a local farmer, has blossomed into an epic, community wide service project to help our neighbors at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, a.k.a. the Monastery. The massive cleanup effort will be held May 31, 2008, with registration and refreshments at 7 am and work starting promptly at 8 am. You are also cordially invited to attend the Monastery’s regularly scheduled mass which will be celebrated at 6:30 am.

During our near record snowfall this past winter, the Monastery suffered cave in damage to three outbuildings. One of those buildings housed tractors and machinery belonging to local farmer Tracy Woolsey. The Woolseys suffered extensive loss and damage, and the roof of one of the buildings is still being supported by one of their combines.

Many local contractors and businesses have generously stepped up to offer the use of their heavy equipment, complete with operators. Others will be donating everything from smaller equipment and hand tools to face masks and pizza for the volunteer workers. Now all we need is you!

Work will continue until the cleanup is complete. Individuals and groups are needed to help sift through the rubbish while separating the metal from the wood and other materials. The metal will be salvaged while other materials will be burned in an on site pit.

Safety is key, so be sure to wear heavy boots, gloves, old clothes and safety glasses. Sun protection will also be important, although the event will take place rain or shine. Tool belts, hammers and pry bars/nail removers will also be beneficial, and we are still in need of the following:

Chain Saws
Small sledge hammers
Shovels
Metal Cutter
Desserts
Blocks of Ice
6 x 6 or 10 x 10 Tarps
Garden Rakes
Stiff Brooms
Heavy Duty Dust Pans

Thanks for your generosity and support, and we look forward to working with you on the 31st. For questions or to volunteer, please contact Howard Schuyler at 801-209-4547 / bigsky@relia.net , Jim Truett at 801-540-2083 / jtruet@millerwelds.com or Richard Sorensen at 745-0945 / rsor@msn.com .

Additionally, donations are still being accepted for the Woolsey Farm Relief Fund. You may donate electronically at The Ogden Valley Forum, www.Ogden-Valley.blogspot.com or at any Zion’s Bank branch, including our own Valley Market branch.

Checks made out to "The Woolsey Farm Relief Fund" may be sent to:

Woolsey Farm Relief Fund
Donation account #553317405
c/o Zion’s Bank
2555 Wolf Creek RD
Eden, UT 84310

A portion of the proceeds from the Huntsville Town Independence Day VIP Package/Harley Give Away will also go to the Woolsey Farm Relief Fund. Visit www.HuntsvilleTown.com for details.

Attention all Veterans!

Leon Fielding, Chaplain for the American Legion would like to have a list of all living residents of Ogden Valley that have served in the Armed Forces. The American Legion would like to recognize all Ogden Valley Vets on the 4th of July of this year.

We need:

1.Your Name

2.Telephone Number

3.The area of the Valley where your reside

4.Branch of Service

Send to my e-mail address dhitman@aol.com and I will pass this information to Leon Fielding.

If you are aware of any neighbor that qualifies, give them my e-mail address and for those that may not be online, have them call me at my home number.

Thank you,

Larry Zini
745-9673

More on Property taxes

In yesterdays excellent rebuttal to the Standard Article claiming that our property system was 'well run,' we failed to include a link to the Standard's article. Here it is now for your perusal.

While we are on the subject, there was an excellent Oped piece in the Standard last week from Huntsville resident Erma Wilson. She concludes her piece by stating, "Being taxed out of my home definitely doesn't make me happy."

Ogden Valley residents will once again be surprised with an onerous (and we think unfair) tax bill this fall, but apparently we have all forgotten about the huge increases last year.

With the falling property values, do you think the assessors will reevaluate our properties this fall?

What say ye Ogden Valley?

Happy Memorial Day weekend, OVBA sponsored road trip "Promotion" and the best shakes in the state

We wish you all a Happy Memorial Day, but urge you to remember the reason for the day - to honor those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. A brief history of Memorial day reminds us that Decoration Day was originally started in 1868 to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves. Nearly 100 years later, it was changed to Memorial Day to honor those who lost their lives in all of Americas wars.

While many will take to the road this long, first weekend of summer, be sure to remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Speaking of taking it to the road, the Salt Lake Tribune recently rated the best Ice Cream shakes in the state, and one of our neighbors to the South made the final cut. Chris', of Huntsville, rated highly for their fresh raspberry shakes, but we can vouch for many of their other flavors as well. Be sure to try one out while staying close to home this weekend.

We will conclude with an email that was recently forwarded to us touting an ad that ran in last weeks Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News. The Ad "promotes" Ogden Valley as a vacation destination.

The email is fairly short, so we will include it in its entirety below:

----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Daniels
To: OVBA members
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: Ad Promoting Ogden Valley Will Appear in Sunday's Section on the JAZZ
This Sunday, OVBA will be running an ad in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News expended sports section about the JAZZ. The combined Sunday circulation for the papers is over 223, 000. They are anticipating readership for this section of 582,000.

The ad highlights summertime events and uses a new tagline and logo positioning Ogden Valley as a travel destination. Readers will be directed to
http://www.ogden-valley.travel/ for visitor information on Pineview, Huntsville, Eden and Liberty. The content on the website will be the same as ovba.org, but the effectiveness of the ad can be tracked by using a different landing page.

Since we are advertising to drive traffic to the OVBA website, you might want to make sure all of your information is current as well as take full advantage of the website. If you have changes, they need to be to [email address removed] no later than Monday morning.
Do you have a hot deal on the OVBA website? This would be a great time for lodging and restaurants to promote an early summer special.
Have you placed all of your upcoming events on the calendar?
Is the page describing your business up-to-date?

The marketing committee decided to target the Salt Lake metro area since research indicates that trips this summer will be closer to home. Ogden Valley is a perfect weekend escape from the city. Our plan is to make this the first of many ads to run in the Tribune and the Deseret Morning News. In future ads, members will have an opportunity to coop with OVBA so that we can pass the savings on to you and so that we can create a larger presence for OVBA.

The tagline 360 Degrees of Natural Adventure was selected to describe our high mountain valley with Pineview in the center surrounded by mountain peaks, national forests and three ski resorts. Pam Mitchell of Website by Design created the logo and the look of the new website. Thanks, Pam.

Carolyn Daniels

The exploitation of our valley continues!

Have we forgotten that people actually live here and are trying to live peacefully whilst raising a family?

And what about traffic?

Does anyone remember Snow Basin's motto from decades gone by? We will give you a gentle hint - "Utah's best kept secret!"

Why let the secret out of the bag? And to OVBA members, is this a reasonable expenditure of funds from your leaders who are desperately trying to sell their real estate projects?

A prominent local resident recently replied to the email with this, "Are you sure your marketing efforts aren't going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg?????"

We could not agree more.

Oh, and did we mention that Carolyn works for our world famous "Powderville?"

Humble readers, is this promotion of Ogden Valley or Exploitation?

Who is Kidding Whom on Property Taxes?

Today's Standard Examiner article stating that Utah’s property tax system is “well run” is self serving for many of the political leaders in our fair state and is disingenuous and misleading.

It may be that our property tax system in Utah looks pretty good to outsiders, but a close examination of the details of our property tax system indicates it is favorable to some and unfavorable for many others, such as the elderly, on a scale that is clearly not understood by most taxpayers.

Some facts you should know:

1. In Utah, about 55% or more of your property tax funds education. This can be unfair to many taxpayers because large families do not now pay their fair share when they have several children in our public school system. The property tax rate is based on the home assessment, and does not account for the financial burden large families place on the education system. Two neighbors with similar homes may pay a similar property tax, though one may have no children in school and the other may have many children in the school system. With a 55% tax share, if we are going to reform the property tax system, the funding of education must be the logical starting point.

One solution is to remove the education funding from property taxes and replace it with funding from sales tax in Utah. Using the sales tax, everyone who spends money in Utah shares the education funding on an equal basis and property taxes would be reduced by 55%. People with large families will then pay their fair share as they buy the normal taxable items for their growing families over the years. Safeguards can be put in place by the legislature to handle any downturn in sales tax revenue for a specific year. This change would not impact the County taxes that fund County services.

2. It also appears that less than timely assessments throughout Utah add to the woes of the property taxpayers. Property should be assessed yearly to keep pace with the changing value of our homes and properties. It seems that only when property increases in value does the reassessment come forward. If the property taxes rose and fell in concert with the market value every year, taxpayers would better understand and accept these changes. For example, in Ogden Valley home values dropped 17-23% this past year, yet the tax assessment was based on the value two years ago by the assessor’s office. If any home in question was reassessed yearly the taxes would be almost $900 - $1100 less this year.

What we must address with our state political leadership is that the counties and State do not wish to reassess your property if the value has decreased because it lowers their tax revenue stream. With a little effort in the computer age and using computer models, they should be able to reassess each property yearly based on current market value.

We attended a meeting in Huntsville that Gage Froerer called (to his credit) looking for input on ideas to improve the property tax system in the state. During the meeting one man said he attended a meeting of State County Assessors earlier in the year, and assessors from areas near Salt Lake and Provo admitted that some properties have not been reassessed since the 1980s. This kind of lazy, selective assessment work leads to other state taxpayers picking up this tax slack. When these same properties are finally reassessed, the taxes could double, triple, or worse in a single year.

Our investigation of the assessor’s office in Weber County last year clearly revealed two specific problems:

1. Property owners that may owe delinquent taxes on property are still issued petitions by the Planning Department to develop or build even though their property taxes are unpaid, sometimes for multiple years.

This was brought to the Weber County Commissioner’s attention last year and as of yet, only minor changes regarding subdivisions are being considered by the County. All delinquent property taxes should be paid before ANY petition or permit is granted by the County for that property.

2. The other problem relates to the 45% property tax exemption for Utah residents on their primary residence. It is a fact that many multiple property owners use a Post Office box for the mailing address on their additional properties. Some falsely claim and receive the 45% exemption illegally on those additional properties. This problem may not be unique to Weber County.

These problems in the County Assessors office affect cash flow to the County and place the burden on the other taxpayers to carry the tax load of these tax scofflaws because the County Assessor or County Commission refuses to close these loopholes when they could be resolved with some simple diligence by the Assessors office.

These are important points since, at the taxpayer’s meeting last year at the Jr. High School in Eden, the deputy County Assessor stated that the largest problem for Weber County is the uncollected and delinquent property taxes!

We suggest that you contact your State Representative Gage Froerer and State Senator Allan Christensen along with our Weber County Commissioners. Their contact numbers and e-mail addresses can be found at the VCRD Web site http://www.vcrdutah.org.(under Resources)

We need active citizen involvement on these issues now, the property tax system and it’s flaws will not be changed if our leaders believe our system is “Well Run”.

Larry and Sharon Zini

Bison Creek Ranch Hangin' By A Thread

The word is out and about in Ogden Valley that the Bison Creek Ranch subdivision near Huntsville may be hanging by a thread. This could have a significant impact on other approved subdivisions in the area on the South end of Pineview. The Rivers Cluster (South of Huntsville Town) and Trappers Crossing (old Trappers Loop Road) subdivisions were to link up with the Bison Creek project and use the new wastewater treatment facility that was to be constructed by the Bison Creek developers. If Bison Creek does not build their project, the other two subdivisions must return to the Ogden Valley Planning Commission to address and gain approval for how they are going to handle the wastewater treatment for their projects.

Click here for more archives about Bison Creek Ranch

For more archives, search our site using the "Google" search on the right column.

How would you like to be a developer in an overbuilt and declining market?

Ogden Valley Citizens Should Speak Out!

We encourage the residents of Ogden Valley to reach out and contact their elected representatives on the Weber County Commission regarding issues that impact our Valley.

The Ogden Valley Planning Commission and the voter elected Weber County Commissioners who appoint them, are going to decide the future of the Ogden Valley and they should clearly understand how the residents feel on significant issues of development, water, open spaces and traffic.

Contact information for Weber County officials as well as Federal and State elected officials can be found at the VCRD Website
under Resources. www.vcrdutah.org

Your VCRD staff

Hill AFB pilot sets F-16 flight record and Powderville Cartoon

The property tax and Powderville issues have simmered slightly, although they will surely heat up again sooner than we wish. We at the forum have taken some welcome time off in conjunction with the simmering, but could not overlook this newsworthy story about a local Huntsville boy.

Colonel Mike Brill became the first pilot in the world to fly 6,000 hours in an F-16 fighting falcon whilst flying a mission in Iraq. We are anxiously awaiting his safe return home and are proud to have Colonel Brill as a Valley neighbor.

Read the Story here


We will also post a very fitting Powderville Cartoon that was submitted by one of our humble readers. We think Devon Hoxer is quite a talent, and The Standard Examiner's Calvin Grondahl may have some local competition.

Enjoy your Sunday morning Ogden Valley.