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Show Page 2 The Ogden Valley News Volume XXIX Issue V June 15, 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. Letters to the Editor Gang Activity and Car Thefts About a week ago, I was driving down the canyon and there was a car in front of me that was traveling pretty fast and out of each window was a juvenile male sitting on the edge of the door where the window retracts. They were facing each other over the roof of the car. This put their entire upper body outside the car. The driver was swerving back-and-forth intentionally. This continued all the way to the bottom of the canyon and on to the light at 12th and Harrison. At that point, another car that was traveling down the canyon pulled up alongside of them and got into a verbal altercation. The juveniles in the first car started throwing gang signs with their hands. Having recently attended the Ogden Community Crime Conference, I recognized the behavior immediately. I don’t know if this car was stolen. Frankly I didn’t think about it at the time. However, I do know that a number of Hyundai and Kia vehicles have been stolen over the past few years. Recently, I came across a video in which the same reckless behavior I witnessed was being exhibited. Little did I realize that this is a phenomenon growing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I can’t say if this is influencing juveniles in Let’s Bring Back Government for the People… Not Special Interest Groups I want to build a home on my own rural piece of ground. I’m a longtime resident of Weber County, State of Utah. My husband was killed a few years back but I’m forging ahead. I have a surveyed plat. I have an official blueprint with engineering. I’ve piped an irrigation ditch. I have “Will Serve” letters in hand, paid numerous fees, and passed Hooper City’s Planning Commission approval process. My plan is a small home, no basement, nothing fancy. It should be all systems go. Nope! I’ve spoken to eight separate builders and have bids from four of them. Two years ago, I could have built this house in the $200,000 range. Bids are now $400,000 to $566,000! I’m told there are shortages on materials, there can be waiting lists for months, prices are unstable, and there is a high demand on sub-contractors. All factors have driven the price of single housing out of reach. However, as I drive the roads of Ogden or Weber County, I observe new apartment buildings going up and completed on every available spot left; thousands of them! They don’t seem to experience material shortages, labor force problems, or anything else. My investigative spirit has led me to this: government subsidized housing. Government is subsidizing developers with mine and your tax dollars; thus, developers are knocking up apartments left, right, and side-ways with seemingly no delays or shortages. A percentage of these (30%, I’m told) will be affordable housing offered to low-income families. I’m not complaining about that. After the last two years and current prices, it has taken a toll on all. But here’s the rub, 60% will be rented at full tilt even though developers have been How many more children will need to die before we learn a lesson about the importance of limiting the accessibility of military grade weapons only to those who are professionally trained for their use? Yes, I wrote about guns recently in an effort to plead to basic common sense, but this latest school shooting has unnerved and frightened me. I’m tired of getting the news of mass shootings on an almost daily basis. Our present policy of “Don’t touch the second amendment in any way or it will impede our rights to any weapon we want” is clearly not working; and, this trained, concealed carry citizen is sick of the excuse that any regulation affects those rights. What about the rights of the teachers and school children who died in the Uvalde shooting? What about the New York grocery store victims? What about Columbine and Sandy Hook? Weren’t their lives and rights important too? I recently attended a public event and overheard two men discussing a friend who had purchased an AR15 style rifle from a veteran and who was ‘teaching himself’ to use it. Seriously? Aside from this sounding sick and twisted, how insecure must a man’s masculinity be that he needs an assault weapon to entertain himself and impress others? What kind of loyalty/patriotism to this country does a veteran really have to willingly supply such a weapon to someone who is not trained in its use? We aren’t talking about hunting rifles here, or weapons for self or home defense, these types of weapons are made for one purpose only. 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. 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The deadline for the OVN June 1 issue is June 15. subsidized. Many of those apartments have no place for children to play; no place for people to gather. And the second rub is this. After a length of time, those apartments can be sold or rented at fair market value. In the meantime, affordable single-family housing, or the ability to build your own home, on your own land, with your own money is becoming out of reach for most middle-income folks! I see it this way. Mine and your tax dollars are padding the pockets of the well-off at our expense. American government was founded on the principle: “Of the People, For the People.” It is not supposed to self-serve those in power or special interest groups. Marcia Parker, Liberty It’s Time to Do Something More Invitation for Articles 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. our area, but it seems likely or at least plausible. These juveniles post their exploits on social media, which seems to encourage others to give it a try. The video—called “Kia Boys Documentary (A Story of Teenage Car Theft)”—can be accessed at patreon.com/tommygmcgee IG: @tommygmcgee. Before watching, be advised that there is foul language. Pay attention when the interviewer asks if they steal cars while “strapped” (armed with a firearm). Tina Allred, Ogden Civil Defense, Eden shannafrancis.com Meanwhile, over in Texas, the governor expressed his sincere regrets about the school shooting and recently stepped down from speaking at the NRA’s national convention in Houston, the event did go on as planned. Gov. Abbot, however, did approve and sign the bill which allowed weapons of any kind be sold to 18-year-olds (who aren’t even of full legal age). And, oh yeah, the assailant in the Uvalde shooting was an 18-year-old. One of the speakers at the NRA conference boldly claimed studies proved that regulating guns did little to curb gun violence. That statement is, quite plainly, not true. In the European countries where guns are a restricted LETTER cont. on page 13 |
