Ogden Valley News | 2000-01-01 | Page 2

Page 2 The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Volume II, Issue IV January 2000 THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-Mail: [e-mail] Jeannie Wendell Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Barbie Sunderland Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of T HE O GDEN VALLEY NEWS. Guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or less. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The Ogden Valley News reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions. Announcements Sought As a community service, THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell and homecoming announcements free of charge. We invite residents to send their announcements to: THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS PO BOX 130 EDEN UT 84310 If you would like your submitted items returned, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope. T HE O GDEN V ALLEY N EWS , while respecting all property recieved, will take no responsibility for lost or misplaced items. Please remember to keep a copy for yourself. Invitation for Articles The staff of THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS welcomes the submission of articles by our readership. We invite you to submit local historical accounts or biographies, articles pertaining to contemporary issues, and/or other material that may be of interest to our readers. We also invite you to submit to the paper, or notify the staff, of local events, births, weddings, anniversaries, mission homecomings and farewells, and death announcements. Eagle Scout and other awards that have been earned by the reader, family members, neighbors or friends are also sought. While the staff of THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS invites the submittal of information and articles, we reserve the right to select which material will be considered for publication. All material, to be considered, must be submitted with the full name, address and telephone number of the person submitting the material. O GDEN VALLEY NEWS ’ liability on account of errors in, or omissions of, advertising shall in no event exceed the amount of charges for the advertising omitted or the space occupied by the error. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS does not endorse, promote or encourage the purchase or sale of any product or service advertised in this newspaper. Letters to the Editor County citizens still fighting for recreation property Public support to reclaim your 160-acre mountain park and trail beneath Wolf Creek Peak has been fantastic. Quoting our attorney Robert Sykes as he rode horseback to view what was your wilderness park in Wolf Creek, “How could any government possibly sell this pristine land with wildlife, scenery and a gentle 2.5 mile trail at any price?” He asked, “If commissioners claim they did not sell the trail to Rulon Jones, why isn’t your county attorney representing the people to make sure commissioners honor their claim?” Tax dollars are being spent by commissioners to hire the law firm of Williams and Hunt to fight the people in court. Why must citizens fight Weber County to prevent Rulon Jones from keeping public recreation land for his private hunting domain? The Weber County attorney refused to represent the people and ignored 1,000 signatures protesting this public land sale. He and the commissioners should not have to be sued to do their job, just void Rulon’s quitclaim deed, issued in violation of state codes. Defendant Jones claims he paid fairly because “the land is steep, rocky and almost worthless.” I think he has convinced only those who arranged the sale! Rulon states he cannot return the land because of his deal to let Powder Mountain use it for recreation. He also needs land for his commercial hunting, now famous for the ‘moose kill.” Both reasons violate restrictive covenants placed on the land 28 years ago by commissioners who had foresight to acquire the land for public recreation for $200,000. The court fight is for the people to reclaim their land that commissioners have tried to give away for $32,000. Recreation property today should be priceless as the need and demand only becomes greater! Kent D. Fuller Eden Syndrome cont. from page 1 will need to be made as more and more users are added to strained systems? · Increased traffic brings increased air pollution that often damages trees and crops. The pollution is largely created by automobiles and even wood burning stoves. · Producers are also faced with the destruction of crops or equipment or harassment of livestock by urban households living in rural areas. Theft of crops is common. Off road vehicles (ORV) often damage watersheds and grain crops alike. Watering troughs may be used for target practice and fences cut by those who find them a hindrance. · Eminent domain may be used to acquire, at relatively low cost, resource land for public uses serving primarily new residential development. Eminent domain for roads and reservoirs is common. Often, a community fails to comprehend the benefits of resource lands, and does not institute provisions for providing financial or legal resources to provide for their protection, or for their value. Thus, their true value is often not reflected in the local economy. Common societal benefits of open and resource lands include areas for groundwater recharge and water purification, flood and erosion control, habitat for wildlife, air cleansing, and aesthetics. The value of such lands to future generations may be greater than it is to the current generation. Farmland has important features making it inherently worthy of preservation. The combination of overvaluation of resource land for urban development— as when developers are not forced to carry their fair share of the costs of their development on the community through such channels as impact fees, and the under valuation of resource land, triggers what is called the “impermanence syndrome.” This syndrome is characterized by resource landowners who begin to believe that resource activities in their area have a limited future, or even no future, and that urbanization will absorb their holdings sooner than later. It is manifested through disinvestments in inputs; sale of tracts of land for hobby farms, ranchettes, or even recreational development. The farmer begins by shifting crop selection away from high to low investment options. The impermanence syndrome causes many resource landowners to become speculators in their own land. The result is vast areas of underutilized and idle land near and between urban areas. Studies have shown that for every acre of resource land that is urbanized, another half-acre to one acre becomes idle due to the impermanence syndrome. Ultimately, the critical mass of farming production needed to sustain key components of the local farming economy collapses. Thus, a fundamental purpose of a resource land preservation plan is to remove the impermanence syndrome. Resource land preservation policies are used to protect resource operations from incompatible urban sprawl development and to slow or prevent the premature conversion of productive resource areas to urban land uses. A variety of resource land preservation techniques are available if a community is interested, and puts pressure on elected officials to explore and implement these techniques. Note: Information taken from Growth Management Principles & Practices, by Arthur C. Nelson and James B. Duncan. THINK OF THE FUTURE The Og de n Valley Land Trus t a non-p rofit organization For m ore inform ation Call [phone] Expert Help / Owner Control Expert Help/Owner Control ADVENTURE TRAVEL Full Service Travel Agency Specialist in Hawaii, Mexico, Disney, Cruises, Golf Package. 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