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Show Page 2 The Ogden Valley News Volume XXIX Issue X April 1, 2022 The Ogden Valley News Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 801-745-2688 Fax: 801-745-2688 Cell: 801-791-4387 E-Mail: slfrancis@digis.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 801-745-2879 Fax: 801-745-2879 E-Mail: crwendell@digis.net crwendell@msn.com Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The Ogden 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 & homecoming and Eagle Scout announcements free of charge. We invite residents to send their announcements to: The Ogden Valley News PO BOX 522 EDEN UT 84310 If you would like your submitted items returned, please send a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The Ogden Valley News, while respecting all property received, 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. 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. The OgdenValley 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. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertiser. The Ogden Valley News hereby disclaims all liability for any damage suffered as the result of any advertisement in this newspaper. The Ogden Valley News is not responsible for any claims or representations made in advertisements in this newspaper. The Ogden Valley News has the sole authority to edit and locate any classified advertisement as deemed appropriate. It also reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Note: The contents of The Ogden Valley News are copyrighted. To protect this publication and its contributors from unlawful copying, written permission is required before any individual or company engages in the reproduction or distribution of its contents, by any means, without first obtaining written permission from the owners of this publication. The deadline for the OVN April 15 issue is April 1. Letters to the Editor Help Our Valley Stay Wild! If you follow Highway 39, just before you reach Ruby Campgrounds, there is a mountain. Not just any mountain, a mountain with gentle, sloping hills leading up to it. During the warmer months, deer graze on the plants and birds roost in the trees. If you pass it, you will see a giant yellow construction vehicle, there for the sole purpose of developing our beloved mountain. More than twenty houses are being built, bringing traffic, increasing the risk of animals being ran over, creating smog, making the air unhealthy to breathe, and in the process, scaring all the wildlife away. Around seventy to eighty deer are being forced to migrate due to lack of food and shelter. In the future, if we keep developing mountains like this one, there will be nowhere for deer and other wildlife to go. All I’m saying is Think about the animals! Help our valley stay wild, people! Adelyn, Age 11, Huntsville I Stand with Those Saying “No!” Guess what? I am a person. I am not an expert; I am not a paid influencer. I don’t let people buy my opinions or influence what I think is right. I operate with integrity in all things…. It’s one huge reason we moved. I didn’t want the pressure of trying to save a place I love so much and go against different ideas or mentality for what is good for our Valley… or the growth to the degree in which it was already planned. You know that saying, “If you don’t like it, you can leave?” Well, I did… we did. My husband left a 17-year career being a train locomotive engineer, and my kids, all teenagers, said let’s go [to Ogden Valley]. I support growth but not to the degree that is going up for talks at Nordic Valley, that is going to go by the junior high, that is going on below Powder Mountain. Zoning just gets changed after being sold. What’s the point? The only point is to make someone else more money. We are not talking about selling a farm for money. But buying it knowing there is a three-acre rule and then going around to rezone to condos and high density. That’s what I am talking about. I have gotten so many texts, messages, and emails about the plans for out-of-control growth. I love your passion. Please know I stand with you as we all say “NO!” Shauna Miller, Formerly of Ogden Valley What Is Independence Worth to You? Independence is an American value. Today, we think that all Americans wanted independence from Britain, but that’s not true. Many Americans did not want to rule themselves. They were content to submit to a faraway king who gave them orders, made decisions for them, and treated them the way a parent treats a helpless child. One such American was Samuel Seabury, a devoted Loyalist and opponent of the American revolution. He warned farmers that independence from Britain would result in financial catastrophe. He told them, in his “Letters of a Westchester Farmer,” that they would be ruined by the loss of trade with their parent nation. “Can you live without money?” he asked. Ogden Valley residents are facing a crucial moment in our valley’s history. Will we take control of our own destiny? Or will we, like the loyalists of the 1770s, shy away from the promise of independence for fear that we might have to pay a little extra for our freedom. There are many myths surrounding possible incorporation of the valley as a town, city, or independent county. Some people think that their property tax bills will skyrocket. But the people of Roy, Pleasant View, or North Ogden, to name a few Weber County cities, do not pay extreme California-style property taxes. A comparison of property taxes between a North Ogden house and a house in Liberty shows that the difference in total tax amounts is not thousands of dollars for houses of similar value, but only a few hundred dollars. A home with a taxable value of around $270,000 in Liberty is subject to $2,717 in taxes, whereas a home with a similar taxable value in North Ogden is subject to $3,357 dollars in tax. For clarity: those taxable values correspond to market values over $700,000 (per Zillow’s Zestimate algorithm). The difference of $640 per year (or $53 dollars per month) pays for many more services than Ogden Valley residents receive. For example, our valley has only one or two law enforcement officers present at any given time. North Ogden seems to be well-stocked in law enforcement officers. And if we don’t incorporate and rule ourselves, like the people of North Ogden do, then North Ogden might come to our valley instead. When Nordic Valley Ski Resort announced its plan to bring a gondola over Lewis Peak there was chatter about annexing the resort into the city of North Ogden. That can still happen. Would you like to see our landscape transformed into something that more closely resembles a Wasatch Front city like that? Our landscape and our way of life are not guaranteed to us. We have to sacrifice a little if we want to keep our high quality of life and our different way of living. Samuel Seabury was not the only Loyalist in America in the 1770s. There were many of them. Some of them wanted to wait until they felt that the colonies were ready for a little more freedom. Some loyalists ran away to Canada and remained loyal to their king long after the United States became fully independent. And how long did they have to wait to have the privileges that we have here in our country? Canadians gained full independence and the right to change their constitution in 1982. Daniel Ianniello, Liberty |