Urban Forestry Commission Fails To Function

For the third month in a row we have canceled the Urban Forestry Commission. Why even have this commission?  The reasons, people are out of town and lack of agenda items.

People, it is the same time EACH MONTH!  We would have more agenda items if we could meet and set new goals.  We can meet and set new goals because the dang tree inventory hasn't been done for 5 years!

People of South Ogden, this is a major fail!

Where did Arbor Day come from?

Once again, this Friday is the South Ogden Arbor Day.  This is an exciting day with real unifying affects for a city and those who participate.  To help my readers understand the importance of the day and why we should all participate I thought I would give you all some info about Arbor Day and where it came from.

In 1855, a man named Julius Sterling Morton moved to Nebraska City, Nebraska with his new bride Caroline.  Quickly his new family began to miss the lush forests of the east coast, and along with other settlers, began planting trees.  By 1858 he had planted an apple orchard and many other trees and shrubs on his 150 acre property.  He quickly realized the Nebraska soil was very suitable for tree planting and began pushing for more. As more and more settlers moved to the area, there was more need for trees for homes, shade and fuel.  Mortan began publishing articles in his newspaper calling for all settlers to plant trees on their property.

Mr. Mortan had worked in the Grover Cleveland administration as the 3rd Secretary of Agriculture and was well respected as an agriculturalists.   He spent much of his time teaching farmers the most modern techniques in farming and forestry.  By 1872 he was now a member of the Nebraska Board of Agriculture and began pushing for a special day to plant trees in the state.  Mortan offered $100 ($1800 in 2010) to the county which could plant the most trees and $25 ($450 in 2010) and a complete farm library to the person who could do the same.  With this reward available, the first Arbor Day on April 10th 1972 was a huge success.   Nearly 1 Million trees were planted in the state.  Other states and countries began to follow the example making Arbor Day a world wide event.

Since the first Arbor Day, the event has expanded to 36 countries and has promoted environmental awareness and unity.  Upon Mr. Mortan's death in 1902, President Cleveland dedicated his home as Arbor Lodge.  The national marker has one of Mr. Mortan's quotes, "Other holidays repose upon the past - Arbor Day proposes for the future."

We look forward to seeing you all this year at the South Ogden Arbor Day events. Remember you can help plant trees on Friday at 10 am at the Club Heights Park or 4 pm at the Glasmann Park. Also you can take the Arbor Day Quiz and have a chance to win a $25 Costco Gift Card. See Here: http://goo.gl/C0Adm

Comments welcome.

South Ogden Arbor Day - This Friday - $25 Costco Giveaway

This Friday is South Ogden's Arbor Day.   The Urban Forestry Commission has prepared a few things to celebrate.  All are invited! Here are the events coming up:

Quiz: First, there will be an informal survey/quiz to test the Arbor Day knowledge of the local residents. Two lucky participants will have a chance to win a $25 Costco Gift Card to buy things for their garden.  No need to get all the correct answers, just take the quiz and email when you are done.  Email can be found in the quiz.

You can find the quiz link here: http://goo.gl/C0Adm

Tree Planting:  There are two tree plantings scheduled for that day.  First they will be planting trees at 10 am at the Club Heights Park.  Second trees will be planted at Glasmann Park at 4 pm.  All residents of South Ogden are invited to come and help plant the trees.  There will be some local scout troops there as well.

Through out this week I hope to post some facts and info about Arbor Day.  They may help you get a better score on the quiz.

South Ogden Photos Needed

South Ogden City Council is preparing for the 75th Anniversary of the city.  In commemoration of 75 years the city is publishing a book about South Ogden and it's history.  What they missing is photos!  Do you or someone you know have photos?  They are looking for the 40s, 50s and 60s especially.

Contact Councilmember Russ Porter at rporter@southogdencity.com or 801-479-7216

See the Standard Examiner's blurb on the topic as well:

http://www.standard.net/topics/books/2011/04/11/south-ogden-chooses-publisher-annniversary-book

Urban Forestry Commission - Arbor Day Plans

Tonights meeting was great, it was wonderful to see the commission move forward with some really plans. We were once again missing a few members but had a enough for a quorum (barely).  On our agenda we discussed the tree inventory and are finally moving forward.  We are hopeful to have it completed by this year.

Arbor Day is coming up on April 22nd and our Urban Forestry Commission is gearing up with plans to celebrate.  We are not ready to announce our final plans but I promise it will be great and will include, prizes, contests, and tree planting.  Should be a great event and I am excited to be apart of it.

Mark your calendars on April 22nd to help us plant trees.  We are tentatively planning for 10 am and 5 pm.  More to come.  Also look out for some future posts on what Arbor Day is and why we celebrate it.

Wasatch Constables are coming to South Ogden - City Council Meeting 2-15-2011

Last night's city council meeting was one of the fastest meetings I have attended in a long time.  At the same time it was full of interesting nuggets.  I have decided to break last nights meeting into a few posts.  This first one will be regarding a new contract signed by South Ogden City with Wasatch Constables.

When South Ogden City Police issues a citation in our city and you fail to pay it, no one comes to your door asking for the money.  Often this money goes down as potentially lost revenue to the city.  In 2010 alone the city has missed out on potentially $500,000 in warrants that have gone unpaid.  This is where Wasatch Constables comes in.

Wasatch Constables is a fully empowered peace officer who has been given "Special Functions" as an officer.  They are not tasked with everyday police work but instead provides services such as process serving, bailiff duties, transport prisoners, seize property, enforce writs and effects service of arrest warrants.  South Ogden has entered into a contract with them to help enforce these warrants and help collect the more than $500,000 in uncollected revenue.  They will either collect the money or take the offender to jail.

Tony Alarid, Chief Deputy for Wasatch Constables, spoke with me about the services they provide and what this meant for the city.

"The numbers are there, this will be a success for South Ogden,"  Mr. Alarid said, "We serve Riverdale and Ogden and have seen lots of success.  Most people thought we weren't serious when we started.  They didn't think we would really knock on doors.  But once we started, people started coming in voluntarily to pay their fines.  People's parents even started coming for them to pay.  They didn't want their kids to get arrested. You are going to see these same results in South Ogden."

As you can see this is a WIN-WIN for South Ogden.  Wasatch Constables only gets paid when they collect a fine or make an arrest.  Their goal is to prioritize our list of offenders and go after of them, hitting repeat offenders first.  They can take payment on the spot or take you to jail.  Heck they can even take credit cards.  If you can't be found they can even do Skip Traces for those who have tried to hide.

Since these constables go through all the same training and certifications as the police, and fully insured and bonded, I don't see how we can lose with this.

All I can say is beware to criminals and those who have an unpaid warrants.  Wasatch Constables are coming for you.

New South Ogden City Website

For those of you who have yet to see the new city website.  Take a moment and check it out.  It looks amazing. http://www.southogdencity.com/

I was able to get an advance look last week but was sworn to secrecy.  So I have been eagerly waiting for it this week.  The new website is much more visually appealing and has faster links.  Some of the content is still being worked on, but apparently we have moved the website development in-house to make it easier to customize.  As I have played around with the website I have found a number of broken links, but I am sure they are still working on it.

It is great to see South Ogden move it's website into 2010 and I know the citizens of this city will love the new resources that are available.  The website needs some work and fine tuning.  The opening images load and move too fast.  But it is a great start.

No Show For Urban Forestry Commission

Well,  only three members of the commission showed up tonight.  Therefore we did not have a quorum.  This is pretty disappointing, especially since this is an appointed position by the mayor of South Ogden.  In fact no one even knew those not attending would not be there except for me.  I only knew because I spoke to one of the members randomly this week.

This is pretty disappointing and I am sure the residents of South Ogden do not appreciate spending tax payer money on this commission only to have people not show up.

Those who attended discussed the tree inventory and what we need to do to move forward.  Also Arbor Day was discussed and I think we have some good ideas to get things moving.  I welcome your ideas on how to get people involved with Arbor Day.

More info to come.

Savings Saturday - Coupons

Each Saturday I bring another way you can save money.  Today I want to talk about coupons.  There are a lot of people out there using coupons.  Some use them wisely, others...well...  It is easy to get frustrated with coupons and I want to give you a couple of tips.

1. Don't sit and read and clip every coupon.  Just print them and put them in a pile.  Also just take the ones you get from the newspaper, date them and put them in you closet.
2. You can constantly check websites like Coupons.com and also Sunday Coupon Preview for the best deals.  Follow the Coupons.com link and bookmark the site.  Check back, put in your zip code and print away.  Trust me you will save a ton.
3. Use websites like GrocerySmarts.com.  Instead of just going to the store and trying to figure out what you have coupons for.  Go to GrocerySmarts.com and pick your favorite store.  Once there, it will have a customizable shopping list of the items that are ON SALE!  Plus it will tell you what coupons are available.  Go to your box of dated newspaper coupons and printed coupons and start saving.
4. Only buy what is on your list.  If you go the store and get five awesome coupon deals don't blow your savings by buying five things that are not on sale.  Save the money!  Those things you wanted will go on sale next week and you will get coupons for them.  This is where most people mess up.  Stay focused and only buy what is on sale!
5. Buy in bulk!  If you can print more than one coupon or get more than one from the paper (try getting more than one Sunday paper if possible) DO IT!  You can put that in food storage and stock up.  Imagine having 20 box of cereal in your pantry that you only paid $4 for.  It can happen, but you need to stay focused.
6. Your first few weeks at this will drive you nuts, but after a month or so you will have a ton of food in your pantry.  You can start building recipes just off of what is in the pantry and not what is at the store.  You are going to the store simply to restock.

Finally, share with others.  Work with other people to have success with this.  Make sure your companion knows what you are doing and why.  Maybe you have them print the coupons or go with you.  But be a team on this.

Again, check out coupons.com for great deals and coupon codes.

Would love to hear your coupon success tips!

Economic Development in South Ogden

In today's Standard Examiner's Business section you will find an article by Scott Schwebke regarding CSN Stores coming to Ogden (See Here).  This is a big deal for Weber County.  CSN Stores is the 3rd largest online retailer surpassing $375 million in sales last year alone.  They will be leasing over 80,000 square feet in in the Business Depot and creating over 260 jobs.  The reason I have brought this article to your attention, is because some of the things Ogden City did to bring CSN here and how South Ogden can learn from this.

First we know work was done with the Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED) to issue tax incentives to the company.  South Ogden may not be able to do this for every company they want to recruit, but some big companies maybe able to take advantage of this.  But one thing Scott reported on struck me as interesting:

"The city isn't providing any cash incentives to CSN but will offer infrastructure improvements and allowances for office furniture and fixtures, valued at between $50,000 to $100,000.

CSN will be investing $1.5 million in its Ogden facility and will pay more than $2.7 million in state taxes over the next decade, according to GOED. Tax incentives from GOED will be paid as jobs are created."

In exchange for a $50,000 to $100,000 in allowances for furniture CSN is going to invest over $1.5 Million into their Ogden location.  Just that is a 6.6% return on Ogden's investment.  Not to mention the projected $47 million in payroll that will be generated in the first year alone.

This is one idea South Ogden should begin implementing for it's new economic development plans.  As they bring new businesses into the city offer them some allowances and start making some connections with the GOED to see what more we can do.  I would surprised if they Governor's office doesn't have people to even educate our city on how to do this.

It is time to move South Ogden.

Comments always welcome! Who will be the first to chime in with their economic development suggestions?

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I had a blog post that garnered a lot of attention.  I wrote about a South Ogden man who has been arrested and is being accused of transporting nearly 30+ kilos of cocaine into Rhode Island.  I posted my blog post at 12:28 pm yesterday.  (See Post Here)  My fellow tweeters then tweeted the message to others (Thanks Mike Brice) and before I knew it everyone in the state was covering the story.  Now I do not know if I scooped everyone or if I was just the fastest to get it posted.  But 2 1/2 hours later the story broke on the Standard Website and then it continued to pop up all over the net and into the papers today.

It was a fun experience to be involved with the news and my goal has always been to help gather information and share it with residents of South Ogden and the state of Utah.  Yesterday this little blog did just that. I hope to can continue and I am thankful for the friends and reporters that have encouraged me in this process and especially yesterday.

Here are some more news articles related to yesterdays post:

• Standard Examiner
• KSL.com
• Deseret News
• Salt Lake Tribune

South Ogden Man Arrested in $8 Million Dollar Drug Bust

Rhode Island newspapers are now reporting the state's largest drug bust in history.  $6.6 Million in cocaine and $1.2 Million in cash was seized and a number of drug dealers are now behind bars.  But how did they catch these evil villains?  All thanks to a drug dealer in our own city!

Rhode Island State Police apparently learned a drug dealer was living in South Ogden and was transporting drugs to their state.  The following is from their press release:

“During the month of September 2010, a Rhode Island State Police Detective assigned to the DEA Task Force received information concerning a narcotics organization transporting large shipments of narcotics from the west coast into Rhode Island. Members of the Task Force developed further information that the narcotics organization utilized a tractor-trailer to facilitate the shipments of narcotics. Members of the investigative team developed information on a suspect in the organization identified as Adilson Antonio Reyes, age 29, of 3841 Adams Avenue, South Ogden, Utah. Investigators learned that Reyes had registered as a guest at a hotel in Rhode Island during the months of June, August, and September 2010. Information was developed indicating that Reyes was the registered owner of a 2000 Peterbilt tractor trailer truck from the State of Utah."

From that point they setup surveillance and followed Mr. Reyes until last week were the finally arrested him and two other drug dealers. They found nearly 66 kilos of cocaine in the trailer!

The crazy thing about this story is Mr.Reyes is from South Ogden.  In fact his home is two blocks from the police station.  Did Rhode Island Police figure this out or did our police?  I am shocked to learn there was such a large amount of drugs sitting in our city nearly two blocks from the police.

3841 Adams Ave, South Ogden, Utah
2 blocks from the police station

I called Officer Marcie Edwards from South Ogden Police to get more information but was unable to reach her.  I hope to post more as I get more info from the city.

You can read more about the arrest on these three websites:

http://newsblog.projo.com/2011/02/state-police-reports-biggest-d.html
http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/140958.html
http://www.abc6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13956252

Comments Welcome!

Good News for South Ogden Homes Sales

South Ogden saw an increase in sales last December compared to the previous year.  Looks like people were look for great deals!  This increase amounted to 33.33 percent, making December one of our best months in all of 2010.  Once of the causes for this can be the drop in housing prices.   Last month median home sales price went down 19.27 percent over December 2009.  Median price registered at $160,000 last month lower than of what it was a year ago at $198,200  My home alone has lost nearly $20,000 in value over the past 12 months, this according to www.zillow.com. Also a lot people could have been out shopping for a mortgage over Christmas.  However if you are looking for some great deals, I am sure it can be found in South Ogden.  More info can be found on the Weber County Real Estate Blog: Link

Contact Phill Wright if you want to know more about 40 year low mortgage rates.  He is one of the best in the business.

One thing I do know, January is always very slow for mortgages; so I am interested in seeing January's numbers.

Credit Predictions for 2011, Part 1 from Mint.com (@mint)

Another great blog post about 2011 and the drop of housing values. 2011 could be a big rebound year, but most likely it will not be a rebound year for our housing values. See post here: Credit Predictions for 2011, Part 1 from mint.com. Which is my budgeting website of choice!

In a nut shell, our homes will continue to lose value. This will make it harder and harder to sell our homes or even refinance. Fortunately South Ogden does have something going for it--we don't have room to grow. Building of new homes will be extremely limited; therefore the supply will still be limited simply to the homes that are already here. New homes will not flood the South Ogden market, and as long as people only want to live in here the values should go up some.

Now we just have to get people to only want to live in South Ogden.

2011 has lots of potential...but probably not for our homes.

Housing Prices Can Only Go Down

Recent economic data has shown South Ogden housing sales have been going down each month. In the spirit of this, I recently read this article from CNBC where economist Nouriel Roubini explains how our housing markets will take a double dip in the current recession.  See Here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/40828545/. 

The causes: First, the tax credits that were offered actually hurt the economy.  It took tons of houses off the market that would have been spread out over time.  What we ended up with was a huge boost in home sales and then a 30% drop once the tax credits expired.  Second, the mortgage foreclosure issue.  With the mortgage documentation issues and suspension of foreclosures we are actually slowing the sales of homes.   Once this is fixed and all of this supply hits the market, demand will drop.  Increase Supply, Drop Demand.  Housing prices will continue to drop because of this.              

Now not all of the this will mean our economy will take a double dip, but it surly won’t help at all.  At the end of the article Roubini said the following regarding a double dip recession:

"The eurozone shock, long-term structural deficits, and state and local governments [operating near] bankruptcy."

And, if homeowners begin walking away from their properties en masse, those negative trends might well pick up steam:

"12 million households are already in negative equity and 8 million more have an LTV btw 95 and 100%. Thus even a 5% fall in home price will push an extra 8 million in negative equity with risk of millions walking away from their home—i.e. jingle mail,"

Just some things to think as we think about our homes and the future of South Ogden.  Selling your home is going to get more and more difficult and your homes could continue to lose value.

Comments welcome...do you feel we are on the way up or could we be going down. 

Police watching for gang relocation | Standard-Examiner

Due to the Ogden's new ability to place restraining orders on gang members, gang members are now finding themselves without a place to hang out. What is the solution? Go to a neighboring city and get together to do your gang thing! The Standard Examiner reports (See Here) that due to this new law there is real potential for gangs to relocate to other cities, even South Ogden.

Standard reporter Michael McFall points out North Ogden has already seen an increase in gang violence ( injunction related or not) but South Ogden has yet to see anything. Are we next?

South Ogden police have actually seen a decrease in the number of known gang members living in their city during the past few months. But they are still stepping up their gang surveillance because the possibility of migration is something they are keeping an eye on, said South Ogden Officer Marci Edwards.

 Chief Val Shupe seems to be expecting the worse and preparing for it.  Especially after the gang related shooting down on Washington and 40th.  Know this, there is real potential for a problem because of this new law.  Unless each city adopts this new policy or the injunctions are extended county wide, South Ogden could become a haven for Ogden City gangs.

Comments welcome.

South Ogden Home Sales on the Decline

More bad economic news for South Ogden as reported by the Weber County Homes and Real Estate Blog.  Apparently we have been on a steady decline for some time.  October numbers are now in and we are looking at a 28.57% decrease in sales.  In fact sales of home have been down nearly every month this year and so are our home values.  Home values have dropped from an average $155,250 to $140,000 in just a year and down from $171,250 from September of 2009.

The blog gives a nice quick summary of the dilemma in the following paragraph:

Sales started to plunge in July at 53.85 percent, the second highest sales depreciation on the record this year. Then it was followed by August and September which respectively dropped by 33.33 percent and 56.52 percent, the highest so far this year. October real estate in South Ogden sales tallied a total of 15 homes sold, down 21.05 percent from 19 in October 2010, and 28.57 percent below September sales with 14 sold properties.

Below you can see from these graphs a visual display of how the real estate market is going in South Ogden.  Looks like we have a long ways to go to recover from the recession.

Public Hearing for South Ogden Tomorrow - Cuts are Coming

Tomorrow, starting at 6 pm, South Ogden City will be having a public hearing to discuss proposed amendments to the 2010-2011 budget.  If you haven't seen past blog posts or the Standard Examiner articles, then you should know South Ogden City is in need of some cuts to break even this year.  Rumor has it around $300,000 will be cut from the budget.  It will be interesting to see where those cuts come from.  I have had a number of city council folks contact me since my first posts assuring me the stories in the Standard Examiner (See Here) are blown out of proportion and cuts do not need to be as severe.  I thank them for their communication and I look forward to the meeting on Tuesday.

Due to my schedule I am not able to attend most Tuesday meetings, but this is one I am hoping to attend.

Here is a previous post to refresh your memory of what has been happening: http://bit.ly/eSbkft 

Standard Examiner - South Ogden Needs a Trim

A nice editorial in the Standard Examiner today is eerily similar to what I mentioned in my blog post last week: See Here.  South Ogden is in desperate need of some financial counseling.  It is the classic tale of spending way more money than you have coming in.  Obviously we are in a tough economy but South Ogden at some point has forgotten this.  What is interesting, is this has been problem for some time and we are now just taking notice...or are we?

In 2008 we were headed in the same direction.  The Standard Examiner reported on December 8, 2008 that South Ogden was in the hole.  See Blog Post and Article here. Our former city manager, was even quoted as saying, "if sales taxes drop we will be in a lot of trouble."  However South Ogden just kept spending like sales taxes were still coming in.  I brought this to our attention also in November 2008 showing we were headed for a negative year to the tune of $300,000 (See Here).  Yet we were then all told that we are back on budget, which was due to using the "Rainy Day Fund." (See Here).  In 2009, once again Mr. Darrington cautioned we were going to maybe break even on the budget, but only if sale tax revenue held strong.  (See Line 322 Here).  But at this time were currently negative and hoping we would balance out.  Don't worry even if we were, South Ogden City balanced their budget with their "Rainy Day Fund."

In June of this year this South Ogden City Finance Manager, Steve Liebersbach, predicted we were headed for a $225,000 deficit, but our budget was balanced due to our so called "Rainy Day Fund".  Yet the city kept spending. (See Minutes Here) Council members called out for cuts and concerns to new hires and promotions; yet the spending continued until now we are headed for a number more like $700,000.

Where do we go from here?  First, I feel sorry Matt Dixon, our new city manager, has start his South Ogden career dealing with this problem; but serious cuts do need to take place.  More than just cutting back on the annual Christmas Dinner, but some serious cuts.  I am saddened by the constant lack of fiscal irresponsibility we have seen for nearly three years now.  Every year we have been negative and then balanced it with emergency funds.  When will we wake up?  If I ran my business or my house this way, I would be living on the streets.

I am eager to hear your feelings on this subject.

Finishing my Basement and Permits

Over the past two years I have been slowly remodeling my basement. Our 1940’s home has an unfinished portion that had been used for storage by previous owners and was just screaming to be finished. My wife, whom was stuck practicing her many talents in the comforts of the kitchen, bedroom and living room, needed a place to really expand. Not to mention my son was also sharing his bedroom with the computer room/office; therefore I entered the world of “Do It Yourself” Home Remodel. After years of advice, help, and permits I was able to complete the room and feel satisfied with my accomplishment. My wife is ecstatic and my son is now placing Diego stickers on the wall where my Beatle record collection once was. But today’s long overdue post is not about my time building the room, but my experience with South Ogden City and the permit process.

My first experience with Jeff Barfuss and the South Ogden City Building Inspectors was when I updated my electrical in the house, recognizing quickly that the 60 year old breaker box would need to be updated and doing it myself would save me around $3,000, I filed my first permit with South Ogden City. Jeff came out and quickly failed me on my work for the new meter box and breaker box. My family went without power that evening but the next day the power was turned back on and my code violations were fixed. In the end they inspected my breaker box two more times before I passed.

Next was the building permit. I made up my plans using floorplanner.com, submitted and paid the fee. My total cost came to $112. Over the next few months, I received many letters reminding me I had not had any inspections done. They didn’t know it was taking me that long just to finish the room. Two months ago I was finally ready for my 4-Way inspection. This is where they check the rough framing, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing. I had gone a little too far in my building process, having already put up my insulation and dry walled the ceiling. But Jeff came out and was great to work with. He failed me of course in the fact my wiring was not fastened eight inches above each receptacle, but didn’t make me redo the ceiling and insulation. Since I was on a time crunch, he told me to fix the wires and he came back three hours later and passed me on everything.

Finally we came to my final inspection. This is where they test all your outlets and make sure all is well. Quickly they found one of my outlets ground wires had come loose and with another outlet I had reversed the polarity (put the wrong wires in the wrong places). They found a few smaller items that needed to be fixed and gave me advice in fixing them. In the end, Jeff and his team came by and gave me the all clear.

Why did I go through this process you may ask? Well first of all, it is the law. Regardless if you agree or disagree, this is the law. Second this insures that my house is safe. My kids will be playing in that room, living in this house. By following the building codes of South Ogden and the state of Utah I greatly increase the safety of my family. Third, from the lender side, I have seen a number of mortgages fall through when it is revealed that a remodel was done without a permit. If you are planning on selling your home one day, you better have a permit for what you are doing.

I am thankful for the help of the Jeff and his team. There job is a thankless one and tough at best. But my experience was very pleasant and I am glad the room is finished. My wife and children are happy with the room and we now have more living space in our home.

Part of getting the permit is knowledge. Many may not know they need a permit and I am sure we have all done things to our homes that required a permit and I didn’t even know. But these permits are there for a reason, mainly based on a history of bad homeowner decisions. Just check your attic electrical one day and you will know what I mean: one word—SPICE.)

In conclusion we love South Ogden and our home, even more so now with an extra room.