Fatal Accident on Powder Mountain Road

Updated 8-31-09 @ 2:30 PM (scroll down)

A fatal rollover accident on Hwy. 158 Sunday evening once

again has highlighted the dangers and steep grades that exist on Powder Mountain Road.

The existing single road to Powder Mountain is a difficult and dangerous road at best. It has several grades that exceed 13% and has been the site of numerous accidents in recent years, including a number of fatalities. According to UDOT, there is virtually no room to improve or widen this road and no modifications can be made to lessen the grades, which are hazardous for drivers any time of the year.

This is the latest incident to reinforce the opposition by many Ogden Valley residents to any large expansion at the Powder Mountain resort that would result due to the incorporation of the proposed town.

Blogmeister Update:

Click here to view the story on KSL and be sure to read the pithy comments.

Click here to read this morning's article in the Standard and be sure to view the video footage.

It was a huge weekend for Life Flight as they made some 6 - 8 flights to area hospitals.

In response, Powder Mountain President and CEO Greg Greer said,

Injuries are to be expected at motocross events, Greer said.

"It's part of the sport," he said, adding a medical helicopter was on standby throughout the event. "They (riders) go fast, they go high and when they fall they break things."

The motocross is expected to gross about $100,000 for Powder Mountain, said Greer.

That makes it all worthwhile?

From Friday's Standard:

EDEN — Two motocross riders were injured in separate accidents at Powder Mountain’s motocross track Thursday afternoon. The first accident occurred around 2:15 p.m. and the second at 3:30 p.m., according to Carolyn Daniels, a spokeswoman for Powder Mountain. Names of the riders and details about the accidents were not released but Daniels said both individuals were transported by helicopter to a local hospital. The riders were among more than 200 practicing on the course for a motocross competition this weekend.

And From Saturday's Standard:

EDEN — Two more motocross racers were taken to hospitals by helicopter ambulance Friday for treatment of injuries they incurred while preparing for the motocross races being held this weekend. The first incident occurred at 11 a.m. Friday, said Weber County Sheriff’s Lt. Phillip Howell. He said a 35-yearold Sandy man crashed and suffered multiple bone fractures. He was transported to McKay-Dee Hospital. The second incident happened at 2:30 p.m.A 21-year-old male was taken to the University of Utah Hospital. While Howell said his injuries are still unknown, he was unconscious when the call was made and when he was flown to the hospital. Two racers also were injured in practice racing Thursday. No information on their conditions or their names was released.

After all, they made $100K

UPDATE 8-31-09 @ 2:30 PM

The Standard Examiner has identified the victim as Tanner Krahenbuhl, 16, from Henderson, Nevada.

Click here to review several previous posts regarding the safety (or lack thereof) of the Powder Mountain Road.

And from the Weber County Forum, click here.

Powder Mountain Support Waning - Developers Feuding in courts

Time is short this morning so we will be brief and somewhat lazy.

First, Doug Gibson of the Standard Examiner was spot on in his editorial yesterday. Click here to view the article as well as Rudi's run down.

Next, this mornings Standard has some juicy tidbits of internal strife within the Powder Mountain organization.

Read both articles here:

Resort owners in dispute / Company sues developers, seeks damages in fraud claim

Powder Mountain council-mayor issue not resolved yet

As Rudi says, don't let the cat get your tongue!!!

Save the Vote, Save the Valley

If we can save the vote for the Homeowners

by stopping the town incorporation

We may save the Valley from overdevelopment

Steve Clarke Sounds Off!

Taylor Lets us know!

"Pro Powderville" Takes Over The Standard's Message Board and The Voice of Deseret Blog weighs in on the issue

An interesting debate has been taking place over on the Standard's Message board in response to the Balloon Festival's Board pulling the plug on Citizen's of Powderville who are being forced into the Company town.

A truly arrogant loser calling himself "Pro Powderville" and "Let the Courts Decide" has resorted to trash talk and priesthood meeting talk to denigrate the Powderville victims. The spelling errors below belong to this mental giant:

By: Pro-Powederville @ 08/15/2009, 8:19 PM

Lets see. You tried to get your voice heard in commissions so that we could not develop our land as we see fit.
We just laughed, put a big red thumb-tack on your house for future reference, made a couple of phone calls. and had a law passed; we went right around your precious commission.

You then tried to have legal manuevering stop us from the right to develop our own land, and you were symied by the court.

You now appeal that ruling...

In the meantime others are jockeying all over the valley to develop their land as they see fit.

You stoner freaks just dont get it. Big development has come to your little corner of the world. People like the valley, are going to flock there, expoentially.
All the while, even while your little tea pot tempest simmers, my land becomes more valuable because of this. Which is good for me.
Wait until I descide to develop. Best of luck stopping my plans, skippy mc bearded-freak.

Win. Win. Win. and... Win.

This is only a snippet of his rants, but his arrogance should incense all as his is the attitude exhibited by the Powder Mountain developers over the last couple of years.

Earlier in the thread, Standard Assistant editor Doug Gibson weighed in with this sage comment:

By: Doug Gibson @ 08/13/2009, 12:27 PM

It's a recurring lesson for corporations and groups: When you try to suppress another group's voice, it ultimately becomes a bigger news story than if you had just left well enough alone.

It is time to keep this issue alive. Visit the Standard's message board and weigh in to let Mr. Pro Powderville know how the majority of Ogden Valley residents feel about the developers fascist tactics.

The Voice of Deseret blog also sounded off on the issue in a recent post. Deseret writes about a recent Standard article citing Ogden as a prime place to retire.

Yet the story includes not a single word about the one issue which will change the "low traffic" and "small-town feeling"; namely, the proposed Powder Mountain incorporation plan. Detractors fear an upsurge in vehicular traffic and the complete erosion of that "small town feeling". Eden could easily become another Park City - which might not be a problem, except the people who live there do NOT want it to become another ersatz assembly-line "apres-ski" clone, replete with close-order drill on how to paint one's house, where one can park, how high one's lawn can be cut, whether or not tree houses are allowed, etc.

The forum is now yours. What say ye Ogden Valley?

Weber High Cheerleading Clinic for Kids 3-15 years Old

We will shift gears away from the Powderville fiasco to a fabulous and inexpensive upcoming event for kids. Thanks to one of our humble readers who just informed us of a clinic that did not make the deadline for latest issue of the Ogden Valley News. As is often the case, we will be the first to tout the event.

Here are the details:

2009 Weber High School Cheerleading Clinic (Instruction provided by the WHS Cheer Squad)

For: Girls 3 - 15 Years Old

Location: Weber High School Small Gymnasium

Dates: Monday, August 24 - 27 from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Friday, August 28 - Meet at 7:00 PM in the small Gym

Performance: Friday, August 28, 2009 at the WHS Football stadium during halftime of the Weber vs. Viewmont Football Game

Cost: $30 per girl which includes: Cheer instruction, t-shirt, refreshments at clinics, participant's admission to football game and two adult tickets to the game.

That is a great deal in our book since the football tickets alone are in the neighborhood of $5 each.

Be sure to pass this information along to those with girls between the ages of 3 and 15 who may be interested.

If you would like a sign up form or more information, simply click here.

Citizens' Rights Members Show their Colors!

On Hwy. 158 on Friday!

Gage Froerer Steps up for

The Citizens’ Rights Committee!

After the Citizens’ Rights Committee booth space at the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival was revoked, our own State Representative Gage Froerer has offered space in front of his Century 21 office on Hwy. 158 for an information booth. The office is located on Hwy. 158 a few hundred yards south of the Valley Market intersection.

Please stop by our booth to pick up information on the homeowners fight for their civil rights and the pending proposed town incorporation.

The booth will be open from 4 PM to 8 PM on Friday, August 14th and from 9 AM to 6 PM on Saturday, August 15th.

Booth Permit Rescinded!

Yesterday, the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival Committee withdrew the booth permit for the Citizens’ Rights Group at the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival this weekend.

This was done two weeks after that same committee approved the Citzens’ Rights booth participation.

Our sources tell us that the Festival Committee received a call from an employee of Powder Mountain, Carolyn Daniels questioning if it was a good idea to have the Citizen’s Rights booth at the festival since Powder Mountain was going to also have a booth to sell season ski passes.

It should be noted that the Citizens’ Rights Committee had booths at both Huntsville and Liberty parks on the 4th of July without any issues.

It appears that all it took was a telephone call from a Powder Mountain employee to the Balloon Festival Committee for them to rescind the booth permit.

This permit revocation demonstrates again that Powder Mountain will stop at nothing to deny the citizens their voices

as well as their right to vote!

We almost overlooked this masterpiece by none other than Larry Zini. It appeared in Sundays Standard Examiner, but we will post the letter below in its entirety.

In reading Mr. Stewart's rant on health care, one has to wonder where he has been living for the last 50 years. While some of the misconceptions surrounding the current health care proposal he noted are correct, the salient problem he ignored is the fact that our Federal Government is not good at doing anything except spending taxpayer's money without effective oversight or controls.

If Americans would examine ANY government administered effort, they would be appalled at the millions of dollars lost every year to fraud, waste, and lack of oversight. Even military spending is rife with earmarks and congressional spending waste. That is why your government will spend $50 for a hammer when they could go to Home Depot and get it for about $19.

It was suggested that Republicans are the only ones questioning the cost of this health care program from the Obama administration. Many concerned Americans from every part of the political landscape are questioning the trillion plus dollars this program will cost. It should be apparent to all that with the bullet proof Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, it is not the Republicans that are causing the pause and reflection, it is the president's own party members.

We should ask why we have had noTort reform to lower the cost of medical insurance for those who work in the healthcare industry. That alone would significantly slash the cost of medical care for everyone in this country.

Mr. Stewart also appears to assume that the money grabbers in the health and insurance industries will suddenly disappear with any new government health care system. The lobbyists from these industries are now spending millions of dollars a day to influence our representatives in Congress on the current pending health care legislation.

The members of the US Congress will be exempt from any new health care program, just as they are exempt from the Social Security program. Congress doesn't mind dictating what is good for you in a mandated government program as long as they don't have to participate!

Larry Zini
Huntsville

News from Huntsville - Judge Craig Storey faces accusations and Recycling Program Shot Down

Today we highlight some news from our friends over on the South side in Huntsville.

The Salt Lake Tribune broke the story a couple of days ago regarding sexual harassment accusations against the Honorable Judge Craig Storey, who works as Judge of Weber County and Huntsville.

(Marcia) Eisenhour, who said she has worked with Storey for 24 years, said that in April 2007, while cleaning out the judge's office, she and another clerk found an 11-page poem written about Eisenhour.

Apparently the County did not act on the claims, so Eisenhour has chosen to take the case to the court of public opinion.

Click here to read the entire story from the Tribune

Three days later, the Standard Examiner followed up with this.

You be the Judge!

On another note, we just heard that the recycling program for Huntsville that was highlighted in the last Ogden Valley News was shot down "because 3 out of 5 council members did not support the program as presented."

The program would have cost residents an additional $3.75 per month. For that, they would receive a recycling can and biweekly pickup.

According to the email we just received, the "residents were overwhelmingly in favor of a recycling program."

Here are some results from the input:
• Some 61 households responded (about 28% +/-)

• Of those, 55 (90%) were overwhelmingly in favor of a recycling program

• 100% of those who spoke at the public hearing were in favor of the program

• A large majority were willing to pay much more than the proposed $3.75

Click here to see the email with more details.

Some concerns expressed by other members of the council include:

• I don’t want to be told I have to do something (mandatory, all or nothing program)

• The $3.75 may be financially burdensome on some residents on a fixed income

• Let’s wait and see if the economy improves

• I am not interested

We think $3.75 per month to help mother earth is a bargain, even in these recessionary times. Can you sign us up??

Stop Powder Mountain Town Sign Thefts

Better late than never, but the Standard ran a front page story about the recent thefts of signs opposing Powderville.

We will link to an excellent article drafted by our ole' friend Rudi at the Weber County Forum.

Ogden Valley Citizens Rights Committee

Come Visit our Booth at the Ogden Valley

Balloon Festival

August 14th &15th

The booths are located at the Wolf Creek

Ski Resort at Nordic Valley.

Come to the booth and donate whatever you can to help these beleaguered homeowners

Send your Donation to the

Citizens Rights Defense Fund

CRDF PO Box 231

Eden, UT 84310

Contact Darla Van Zeben 801-745-4740

Web:

www.powdermountaincitizensrights.com

stay connected and informed

with the Ogden Valley Forum