"abdicating your right to influence government and allowing the will of others, who's opinions may be contrary to yours, to prevail."That statement really hit home for me. It pushed me to want to want to be even more involved and to truly become a patriot. As Wayne said in his piece, being a patriot doesn't necessarily mean you fought and died for this country (howver those people are patriots). Instead being a patriot means you loved and defended this country by any means possible.
Two things stood out tonight as very interesting:
1. Through Weber County, the city now has a service called City Watch Notification System. (See Link) This system, if you follow the website you will learn, is an emergency notification system; however they city may use it for other professional needs like last minute meetings, notifications, etc. When an alert is triggered via a recording that a city official calls in; An automated phone call is sent to thousands of people through out the city to warn us or give us instruction. This was purchased through a grant given by Home Land Security and is a very exciting project. I think it can be great for the city. Interesting enough, they had asked all of the city council to go through an emergency training from an online website. Mayor Garwood commented, "No one has emailed me the link." It was quickly pointed out that it had been emailed out, he had just deleted it. He promised if it was re-emailed he would get it done.
2. The South Ogden/Weber County Schools Recreation Center. This one drove me crazy. For sometime now there has been talk about a recreation center for the city of South Ogden. It was in our survey (see link) we filled out last year. South Ogden City has been working with the Weber County Schools to use part of South Ogden Junior High as a facility for recreational services. Part of the complex would be remodeled and developed to accommodate this project. The cost would roughly be $2 Million. The building is primarily designed for basketball, but could be used for other purposes. With the option of having a walking track around it. However, the building will only be open from 5 pm to 10 pm. Scott Darrington, city manager, recommended that we bond out the project (aka - DEBT). He also recommended we "Pork Barrel" (see link) an additional $500,000 for a new building and a conference room at the city works department.
The most interesting part of the project is the talk of bonding and the pork barrel spending. I work in the financial industry. If someone came to me and asked for a loan for a tennis court or a gym, then they told me they were positive that the revenue generated would not be enough to cover the debt; we would not do the loan. This is exactly why we are in a housing crisis. People got loans they could not afford. Scott Darrington specifically said, "This will not be a revenue generator, this will not generate near the revenue to pay the cost of the debt." My jaw dropped to floor at this statement. Is the City Council really going to ask the tax payer to put the city into debt $2.5 Million with no hope of making the payments with out raising taxes. In addition, the rec center can only be used for five hours a day. Does this make any business sense? If I ran my business this way, I would be out of business. Why would we go into debt for something that makes no money! Why don't we find a better solution?
I will need to gather more information on each candidate before I make a decision on anything.
very visible, he had water, popcorn and cotton candy for everyone. Every booth had food from his booth on their table, displaying his logo. He had girls walking through the bleachers passing out more food, some from other campaigns. A group of women stood in the door way getting everyone to put on a Ryan Wilcox sticker. At one point all I could see were Ryan Wilcox stickers and District 7 didn't have 100 delegates, but that is how many stickers it seemed like! The campus of Orion Junior High School was covered with Ryan Wilcox signs. I almost forgot who Glenn Donnelson was. As Uncle Lewie said in Lost in Yonkers, "This kid has moxy." Well it was no surprise for me to learn he beat Glenn by one vote, forcing the race to a primary. This will be one to watch.| John W. Bradley | 2,075 |
| Sallee Orr | 1,994 |
| Wayne M. Smith | 1,744 |
| Shannon P. Sebahar | 1,670 |
| Arlo L. Mueller | 799 |
Name: Wayne M. SmithInfo: Born and raised in South Ogden City
Education: Graduated Bonneville High School 1985
Occupation: Weber County Sheriff's Office - Enforcement Supervisor (18 Years of Service)
Areas of Experience:
As many of you know, we are closing in on the municipal elections of 2007. What an amazing opportunity for the citizens of South Ogden to chose who will "steer the ship." Living in America and having the freedoms we do is incredible; I sincerely hope we all take advantage of these freedoms by voting in November.
