Monday, November 19, 2007

Subliminal Messages

The other day I was walking down the freezer aisle of Smith's Grocery Store here in South Ogden. I noticed the signs above the different sections of food. Alone they seem innocent but together it is almost like the are trying to subliminally telling me to buy junk food along with my healthy food.

This is the order of the signs on the right side:

  • Toppings
  • Pie
  • Ice Cream
  • Diet Foods
  • Ice Cream Bars
On the Left side it says:

  • Nutrition
  • Desserts
  • Pizza


In a world were obesity and eating right is constantly on our minds, why does our local supermarket surround the healthy foods with multiple selections of junk food. This makes no sense to me. I am sure they make more money on the junk foods that is why they have so many selections. I mean they have so many ice cream bars they have to give them their own section instead of mixing them with the Ice Cream. When will businesses take more social responsibility or even just organize the aisles better so all the health food are one side and the junk food on another.


Fortunately I was able to walk away.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

South Ogden City Survey Results

I have made a few posts in the pasts about the South Ogden City Survey. 766 households responded to the survey with a rate of return of 14.5 percent. I am excited to report that the results are now available online. South Ogden has prepared a power point and an excel sheet detailing the results. They are truly worth a read. I am posting a few items of interest from the survey on the blog.

Website:

First I thought it was interesting to see the results of people's opinion with regards to the South Ogden City Website. Personally I have really enjoyed having the a city website, but the results echo my feelings with how it is run and managed.

  • 38% knew we had a website.
  • 62% didn't know we had a website.
  • 40% thought the website was somewhat helpful
  • 32% thought it was moderately helpful.
  • 31% felt that the website needed to be updated or have more information.
Again, I am happy we have a website and sometimes South Ogden is very good at updating the site and other times not. Along with the occasional misspelling, I wish they would post a little more information and keep it more up to date. Maybe even have RSS feeds from the Standard and other South Ogden News.

Open Space:

One of the open space questions received a low score, but the rest received very high responses from the citizens of South Ogden.

On a scale of 1 to 7, asking if South Ogden should develop or improve certain areas, Open Space scored the highest with a 5.6. Also on the section asking citizens, for planning purposes, are there development issues you would like to comment on for consideration, open space scored the highest percentage in the following three categories:

  • Intermediate (this year or next) 23%
  • Coming up (3-5 years) 18%
  • Long Range (5 Years out) 23%
Based on this survey, Open Space is a BIG DEAL! Well hopefully with the new addition of Sallee Orr to the council we will be able to work on this. (She has a Bachelors of Science from the University of Utah in Recreation and parks management.)

Pool/Recreation Center:

One last question I thought was interesting: Are there any facilities, services, or amenities that South Ogden is not currently offering that you would like to see offered? 36 percent of those surveyed said they wanted a swimming pool or recreation center. This question was asked in similar ways about 15 times through out the survey, in fact 3 times it was asked twice in the same question splitting the vote. Only one time did it score the highest. Citizens were also asked how much people are willing to pay in property taxes to pay for a pool and 65 percent of us said it was not important enough for an increase. I would love a place I could take my family and not have to buy a membership, but I am not a fan of increased property taxes.

Overall the survey results are very interesting; however I think some more time could be spent in organizing it a little better. Please take some time to review the results further, they are very interesting.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

My Voter Experience

If you read my "polling location post" , I mentioned I always seem to forget where my polling place is. This year it happened again! You would think I would read my own blog. I was supposed to vote at the City Office's but instead I went to my old polling location--the district building. When I got there, I was surprised at the long line. When I neared the front desk, I noticed people were being sent away because they had gone to the wrong polling location. I thought to myself, "they should read my blog." Then out of nowhere this polling work stood up and started swearing at the people yelling she has the "right to remove people's rights to vote if they get upset with her." What? Remove people's rights?

Maybe poll workers have the right to dismiss unruly people, but people just wanted to know where to go vote. Did she have to swear at people and yell constantly?

Once I realized I was in the wrong location, and wanted to avoid being yelled at, I assumed my polling location would be at the Boy Scout Office. I got to the office and there was nicely hand made sign pointing me downstairs. The stairs at the Boy Scout office are very steep and narrow and for some of our elderly citizens this was a horrible experience. I saw people trying to climb down the stairs with canes and walkers; finally I told people there was an elevator around the corner. Why they didn't have a sign for the elevator I will never know? I asked some poll workers why everything seemed so disorganized they said, "No one called us until 8 pm last night and told us to be here at 6 am, we didn't know what was going on for sure."

How odd we wouldn't be more organized.

Finally I took my own advice and checked my blog on my cell phone and realized I needed to go the City Offices. My wife had a similar experience and eventually came home to read my blog as well, only to find out she need to go to the City Offices too.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Final Election Results

What an exciting election. We have been building up to this moment for many months and now the results are in.

In all honesty I am a little surprised at the results. At the same time I congratulate everyone on their well run campaigns and look forward to supporting the new council people.

According the Utah Elections website all the precincts have reported for South Ogden and here are the results:

John W. Bradley
2,075
Sallee Orr
1,994
Wayne M. Smith
1,744
Shannon P. Sebahar
1,670
Arlo L. Mueller
799


I really am surprised at how close these results are. I am not sure about provisional votes and if they need to be counted yet, but as close as this race was for Wayne M. Smith and Shannon P. Sebahar that could change if we need to count more ballots. I am not sure what the recount rule is in Weber County but I would ask for one with that close of a race.

__________________________________________________________________

Update: With 1300 Weber County Votes yet to be counted who knows how the elections will go. Mayor Godfrey could lose and Shannon P. Sebahar could win. I will do my best to keep you all posted.

Election Results

If you are any kind of political nut, like myself, you already know about this website.

http://www.electionresults.utah.gov/xmlData/Weber.html Weber County Election Results

You can check here for Real Time Election Results as they come in. With new electronic voting it should come pretty fast.

Polls close at 8 pm so make sure you get out and vote.

Get Out The Vote - TODAY!

Today is Election Day! The question is will you vote! This is your chance to participate in what makes this country amazing. We get to help choose are leaders and above all we have every right to complain.

Check out my post on the Voting Poll Locations or the South Ogden City Election Site. See you at the polls.

I will be up all night waiting for results, this is like Christmas at my household.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Who to Vote For?

As many of you know the elections are tomorrow. This is a very exciting time. I have thought a lot about this election and about who I am voting for. Since this blog is my opinion from "where I sit" then I felt it appropriate to tell you some of my feelings about each of our City Council Candidates. I am posting this simply to share my opinion and invite you all to share yours as well.

John W. Bradley - incumbent: I have made attempts to contact Councilman Bradley. But he didn't return my emails from his city council email address. I am disappointed he wouldn't take the time to address his own constituents. In addition I felt like he hardly campaigned. There were a few signs around and poorly made flyer passed out this weekend. Not a top notch campaign.

Arlo L. Mueller: Arlo has a lot of heart and I really enjoyed my time talking to him. Unfortunately I think he is running simply to make a statement. Maybe he put running for council on his list of things to do. But he hasn't run much of a campaign and I don't believe he had much intention to do so.

Sallee Orr: Sallee has had tons of signs around town and I have heard a lot of people mention her name with regards to Open Space and Golf City. I contacted Sallee and invited her to answer our questions for the blog. Why she didn't respond, I do not know. Especially since according Google typing the name Salle Orr brings up my blog and the number one reason people come to my blog has been to look for Salle Orr info. If she is elected, she will have to start responding to people and their questions.

Shannon P. Sebahar - incumbent: Shannon did a fabulous job in communicating with me. In our conversations I was very impressed with her understanding of the community. Her answers to our questions were great and I can tell she brings some unique experience to the council. She will be absolutely getting my vote.

Wayne M. Smith: Wayne has had some of the best flyers and campaign signs of this election. His ideas are very promising and I have hoped to see more from him. I spoke to him when he passed out his door hangers, he was great to talk to. For the most part I have enjoyed what I have seen. I think he could be a great addition to the council.

In a nut shell, there is my opinion on who is running based one their campaign and my interactions. If you can't see who I am voting for then feel free to email me.


Saturday, November 3, 2007

South Ogden City Elections - November 6th

The South Ogden City Website has been updated to list polling locations. Though early voting has already begun, most of us will be voting on the 6th. I am a big fan of going to vote on election day, it is chance to be apart of something great; I love the atmosphere of being around my fellow citizens making decisions for our future. However, I can't tell you how many times I have forgotten my polling location and had to call the city recorder the morning of the election.

Follow this link to see the South Ogden City Voting page. Also note that when you download the polling locations list, the words Municipal is spelled Muncipal, and scout is spelled scott. I hope they don't spell a candidates name wrong on the ballot.

For quick access, here is the corrected spelling version of the polling locations:

POLLING PLACES FOR THE 2007

MUNICIPAL GENERAL ELECTION – NOVEMBER 6, 2007

Polling places will be open on the days of election from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Following is a list of the polling places scheduled for South Ogden City.

District Location Address

South Ogden #1 So. Ogden Municipal Center 3950 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #2 So. Ogden Municipal Center 3950 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #3 So. Ogden Municipal Center 3950 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #4 So. Ogden Municipal Center 3950 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #5 So. Ogden Municipal Center 3950 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #6 Boy Scout Office 1200 East 5400 South

South Ogden #7 Boy Scout Office 1200 East 5400 South

South Ogden #8 Boy Scout Office 1200 East 5400 South

South Ogden #9 Boy Scout Office 1200 East 5400 South

South Ogden #10 Weber School District Office 5320 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #11 Weber School District Office 5320 Adams Avenue

South Ogden #12 Weber School District Office 5320 Adams Avenue

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Candidate Profile Updates

The Standard Examiner today posted a profile of each candidate asking them a few questions. I am glad to get this information and I will be linking the article and posting elements on my blog.

Follow this link: Standard Examiner South Ogden City Candidate Profiles

For your information, I have made attempts to contact every candidate and was able to get gather information on the following:

  • Arlo Mueller
  • Shannon Sebahar - Incumbent
  • Wayne Smith
  • Sallee Orr - spoke to on the phone and invited to the website - no response.
  • John W. Bradley - Incumbent - emailed to his city council email address - no response.

Thanks to all the candidates who responded please read the Standard Article for additional information.