Like all of our Ogden Valley friends, we salute Commissioners Dearden, Zogmaister, and Bischoff for their courageous decision to refuse to appoint a Town Council not representative of the citizens of the potential town. It’s nice to see our elected officials truly represent us!
Those of us who live in “Powderville” care about our neighborhood and all of our neighbors. We care about what the actions of the past few months could do to destroy our sense of community. To that effect, we request that a distinction be made between the petitioners and the petition sponsors.
The petitioners are the 22 individuals who signed the incorporation petition, including 8 who live in the neighborhood. Motivations of these individuals have been speculated upon ad infinitum, and none of us will ever know exactly what was going through their minds. Had the neighbors not signed the petition, it would still have been a “qualified petition”. Since the petition has now been approved by the Weber County Commission, the petitioners are no longer players in the story, except as potential mayor/council members and citizens with rights to have and express their opinions.
The petition sponsors are 3 individuals: Mark E. Arnold of Layton, Lee A. Daniels of Park City, and Edward F. Bates of Salt Lake City. None of the 3 is a resident of the “town” or a registered voter in Weber County. Kimball Wheatley’s excellent post reveals how much they pay in Weber County property taxes. The commission has refused to appoint from the very limited list(s) provided by the non-local petitions sponsors, and it is the petition sponsors and their hired guns who have publicly challenged the commissioners’ actions.
In our efforts to protect citizens’ rights to be meaningfully involved in the process, we should exercise extreme caution to respect the rights of those who disagree with us. We in the neighbourhood would appreciate it if negative comments be directed at the petition sponsors and not at our neighbors.
Thank you again for your continuing involvement and support.
A Guest Post by
Darla Van Zeben
6 comments:
Morgan Bowen who is running for Congress for the 1st Dist. will have an open meet and greet here in Ogden this Saturday Aug 23 from 4-7 PM.
He is a Seminary Teacher, never been a lobbyist and has a son enlisted in the Air Force. It would be great to have a Represenataive with a family member on active duty. He is against imported nuclear waste from Italy. Come with your questions and meet someone who shares our values.
1234 33rd ST, Ogden
Sat Aug 23 4-7 PM
Those are very kind words from Ms. VanZeben, but Petitioners or Petition sponsors, the whole thing stinks. From Jamie Lythgoe and her beau Douggy, to Erin Stokes to of course the Cobabe's, who once had integrity, the whole Powderville situation leaves a dirty taste in my mouth.
And why did Jamie finally resign? It seems like a certain admission of guilt or at least conflict.
Sorry, but I lump the petitioners and petition sponsors in the same batch. Enablers, if not direct participants.
I agree. Those who signed the petition, be they neighbors, Cobabe relatives, PM employees, or whatever, said by their signatures:
1. Ignore the OVPC and all its hard work to try to keep the development sensible.
2. Let the Perps do what they want with PM, and hang the effects on the Valley.
3. Allow the Perps to shanghai those who don't want to be in their town, and deprive those citizens of their right to vote, to boot.
4. Throw the Ogden Valley General Plan into the toilet. Riverdale and Park City, here we come.
The signers, whether out of greed, family loyalty, gullibility, or sheer stupidity, aided and abetted ruthless land speculators who would, and will if they get their way, start the ruination of Ogden Valley. The fact that they are neighbors is irrelevant. They are as culpable as the sponsors, and deserve to be condemned along with their masters.
These neighbors should have known that these "Petition Sponsors" were snakes. They jumped on the petition bandwagon and now they don't want to be splattered by the negative backlash. "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen". Have these homeowners ever thought of telling Powder Mountain they want out of the petiition?
Great post Ms. VanZeben; however, I don't think that we should pay much attention to this post as it is addressing vague and seeming illegal business practicums that Ms. VanZeben's husband [Dan] has been involved with almost "ad infinitum."
Hummmmmmm... Interesting, I don't know how to address the rhetoric in this post, Darla. I think that you have spun a complex web of fallacies and erred conundrums. I hope that I can say something of logical value here.
1] "We care about what the actions of the past few months could do to destroy our sense of community."
- what does that mean? This is a pathetic declarative statement; are you trying to say that if X is the case then your sense of comunity will be destroyed! What a slippery slop of bad information and false causes. I think that your sense of community is something that is built into what one percives as "community" and I am shure that if "Powderville" ever becomes a reality, you will retain the same sense of "community" that you possessed prior to the its establishment.
2] Will OV residents ever come to the realization of the benefits of the possible establishment of a development project of the size that these developers have in mind. Why do you look at the negative instead of what the positives may be.
People just need to wake up and see the light of reality, which is that this stuff is inevitable. It can't be stopped, it cant be controlled, it is fundamentally part of our system of government. We must, instead of fighting it, use it and manipulate it to our benefit.
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