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Show The Ogden Valley news Your Community Newspaper June 15, 2020 USPS MARKETING MAIL POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 11 EDEN UT POSTAL PATRON EDEN-LIBERTY-84310 HUNTSVILLE-84317 OGDEN CANYON- 84401 HCR 843AO Photo by Dennis Maher. Whisper Ridge Mountain Holdings Seeks Approval for Development off Monte Cristo Hwy Compiled by Shanna Francis In the beginning of June, the Weber County Planning Commission heard a presentation from petitioners Whisper Ridge Mountain Holdings, LLC, who are seeking a Conditional Use Permit from Weber County. The company owners describe themselves as “a group of outdoor sporting enthusiasts that have come together and purchased over 11,000 acres of land near the historic La Plata Ranch. “Our stated goal is to create a special place for our families to enjoy the outdoors in a manner that is immersive and environmentally sustainable. We want our children to learn to appreciate this ‘corner of heaven’ by playing in the forest, learning to fishing the streams, and riding their bikes and ATVS on the trails. We bought his land so that we would create a sense of stewardship of the land in ourselves and our children and we could make decision and investments that would instill that stewardship in generations to come. “Our first step in building our dream is to make the property more accessible to our families and friends. We are seeking a conditional use permit that will allow us to build five [luxury] cabins in the heart of the ranch. We have chosen an area that is more isolated so as to accentuate the feeling of being in the wild DEVELOPMENT cont. on page 12 Photo by Norman Hall. No One Seriously Injured in Ogden Canyon Accident Weber Fire District responded to a vehicle in Ogden River in Ogden Canyon May 21 around 8:45 p.m. The crash occurred just west of Gray Cliff Lodge, according to Weber Fire District. It was reported that one person was trapped inside the vehicle. Photos from the Fire District’s Facebook page shows the SUV that landed in the river after knocking three Jersey barriers out of place along state highway 39. The accident victim was able to safely be extracted from the vehicle, and the river, with the help of Ogden City Fire Engine 2. They were then transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation. Weber County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Highway Patrol, and Weber County Heavy Rescue Task Force meticulously searched the river for any additional victims, but none were found. June Primary Election Day June 30: Stay Safe – Vote from home – Vote by Mail Because of COVID-19, address and party affiliation. All changes state law requires that the must be made by June 19. 2020 June Primary Election • Return your ballot by mail or by secure drop be conducted entirely by box (located at your city/town hall or county mail. Weber County plans library). Don’t forget to wear your “I Voted” to provide emergency-only sticker—it’s included with your ballot! in-person voting services to • Go to trusted sources for your election voters who need accommoinformation at www.weberelections.com and dations due to a disability or problems with <www.vote.utah.gov> their ballot. • Contact us early with any questions (801If you do not belong to the Republican or 399-8034 or elections@weberelections.com) Democratic Party, a ballot will not be mailed out Over 97% of Weber County voters voted by to you unless you contact your county or offices. mail in 2019. Voting by mail is safe, trustworHow can you make sure your vote is counted? thy, and convenient. • Verify/Update your information ASAP. Visit For more details, please visit Election News www.vote.utah.gov to verify and update your - June Primary Election Day June 30th. Our Vanishing Night By Verlyn Klinkenborg If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings any more than we think of ourselves as primates or mammals or Earthlings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of engineering is no different than damming a river. Its benefits come with consequences—called light pollution—whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it’s not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of light and radically alters the light levels—and light rhythms—to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life—migration, reproduction, feeding—is affected. For most of human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have made no sense. Imagine walking toward London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, making do, as they always had, with candles and rushlights and torches and lanterns. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been as likely to smell London as to see its dim collective glow. Now most of humanity lives under intersecting domes of reflected, refracted light, of scattering rays from over-lit cities and suburbs, from light-flooded highways and factories. Nearly all of nighttime Europe is a nebula of light, as is most of the United States and all of Japan. In the south Atlantic the glow from a single fishing fleet—squid fishermen luring their prey with metal halide lamps—can be seen from space, burning brighter, in fact, than Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze that mirrors our fear of the dark and resembles the urban glow of dystopian science fiction. We’ve grown so used to this pervasive orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night—dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadows on Earth—is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost. And yet above the city’s pale ceiling lies waste—a bright shoal of stars and planets and galaxies, shining in seemingly infinite darkness. We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet, a process VANISHING NIGHT cont. on page 11 Wildland/Grass Fire Erupts at Mouth of Ogden Canyon: Causes power surges Fire crews responded to a reported grass fire Saturday, May 30 at 9:50 p.m. in the area of 1350 Maxfield Dr. and S 1700 E. near the mouth of Ogden Canyon. Callers reported fire moving east toward Harrison. The initial fire was reported as a quarter acre in diameter. Crews provided aggressive fire mitigation efforts with a combination of structural fire suppression units, brush trucks and water tenders. Strong winds drove the fire while crews protected structures from fire spread. The fire grew to approximately 40 acres. There were no evacuations or property loss associated with this incident. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Forty-four firefighters from Ogden City, Weber County Fire, Plain City Fire, Northview Fire, Uintah Fire and Hill Air Force Base responded with seven fire engines, eight brush trucks, two wildland units, one ambulance, and one Battalion Chief. No injuries were associated with this incident, and the fire was contained relatively quickly. According to Chief Mark Lund with the Weber Fire District multiple power poles and lines were damaged and will need to be replaced, with some coming down with lines on the ground, causing power surges to thousands of Rocky Mountain Power customers, including those living in Ogden Valley. Huntsville Charity Yard Sale The Tradition Continues! By Josh and Chelsea Slade Huntsville’s annual charity yard sale continues! This event, under a new name and new leadership for 2020, gathers donations of gently-used items from all over Ogden Valley and then hosts a huge community yard sale each summer to raise money for charity! ALL proceeds will be donated to local causes, including families facing the illness or death of a child; and to the Seager Memorial Clinic, a 501(c)(3) free clinic providing free medical, dental, and mental health care to Ogden’s underserved. WHEN July 16 & 17, 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. July 18, 8 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. WHERE The Slade home, 8870 E. 500 S. Huntsville, Utah TO DONATE Drop off your gently used items at the Slade’s home any time starting July 1! (Please, no donations before July 1). Please donate ONLY items that are in great condition and that work as intended. Please DO NOT donate any of the following: televisions, mattresses, furniture weighing over 50 pounds, large or bulky items, stained, torn, leaky, or otherwise damaged items. TO VOLUNTEER We need people to set up, sort donations, and clean up after this massive event! If you’d like to volunteer with the yard sale, please reach out to Chelsea Slade at 385-288-8415 or <cjbros88@gmail.com> Thank you Ogden Valley; we love you! Weber County and Voters, Embrace Vote-by-Mail for June Primary Election to address some concerns that have been raised By Weber County Commissioners Gage Froerer, Jim Harvey, and Scott Jenkins Vote-by-mail has been a popular option among Utah voters since its original introduction in 2012. Counties across the state have consistently seen higher voter turnout year-overyear as a result of vote-by-mail. Weber County is no exception. Our vote-by-mail process is established and has been tested and vetted as a secure alternative to in-person voting. Despite the fact that Utahns have been successfully voting by mail for years, Weber County would like recently. Some voters feel disenfranchised, while others are concerned with processing, counting, security, and voter fraud, among others. We will address each of these concerns and provide assurance that our vote-by-mail system was developed to protect voters’ rights and our democracy. In response to COVID-19, state law requires that all votes in the June Primary PRIMARY ELECTION cont. on page 13 Pictured above are community members who participated in the Community Foundation of Ogden Valley’s Weed Day event on May 23. See page 12 for more community involvement efforts. |
