OCR Text |
Show Volume XXX Issue VII The Ogden Valley News Page 3 November 15, 2023 Editor’s View Letters to the Editor The Cost of a Big Rock Candy Mountain An Open Letter to Ogden Valley Residents & Ogden Valley Parks Board A few weeks ago, I had the honor of moderating a debate between candidates running for Huntsville’s Town Council. The event was politics at its best. It was community at its best. It was humanity at its best. It was a flash from the past—the way things used to be throughout Ogden Valley, a microcosm of civility and neighborly kindness, with each candidate supporting the other instead of trying to demean, sue, nor one-up them. Instead, each candidate sang the praises of the other. Social scientists and psychologists have long understood that humans are social creatures and that the quality of one’s day-to-day life is based on the quality of their social life and environment. Pretty much, it’s the most important influence on a person’s mental and physical health and overall wellbeing. Humans evolved while living in small groups where each individual was dependent on others for their survival. Today, evidence suggests that this is the condition to which, through evolution, humans are still best suited and adapted, ensuring they will have the best opportunity to thrive. Instead of competing with each other, in a type of law-of-the-jungle environment, humans do best when living with others who have each other’s best interests at heart. Little did I understand, while growing up in Ogden Valley, that I lived in this type of ideal environment, perfectly suited for ensuring that one would thrive! Truly, the community of Eden was a cohesive group of extended family members, friends, and neighbors who had each other’s back. I’m sure the same can be said about Huntsville and Liberty. There were no strangers, and everyone cared and watched out for one another. Your neighbors were your teachers, your friends, your schoolmates, the people you went to church with, harvested crops with, visited with at the Eden General Store or Leon’s Market, and borrowed the proverbial cup of sugar from. How can so much change in only a matter of twenty or thirty years? Ogden Valley’s “old timers” are a kindly, welcoming lot. No one here wants to speak ill of their neighbor. None want to cause trouble for another. So, sadly, a few bad apples who started moving here about twenty-five years ago, have found an easy crowd to walk all over while they go handily about tearing apart this valley’s Edenic beauty and serenity—it’s soul—in favor of exploiting and pillaging, all for a false joy, a sham success, a counterfeit bounty, a bogus peace, a fake high quality of life. It’s sad, in that, they must not know what they are missing. Others have moved here, following suit, looking for the big, fast bucks in a mythical “big rock candy mountain” scenario that American writer Wallace Stegner portrayed so poetically, but tragically, in his book by the same name. Even a few locals have been swayed by the lure of the dollar over the draw of the common good. Does every “Garden” have to have a few snakes? Taking a few lines from Stegner’s young character, Bruce, we read, “To belong to a clan, to a tight group of people allied by blood and loyalties…. To know whether you were in Little Rock or Menton, that there was one place to which you belonged and to which you would return. To have that rush of sentimental loyalty at the sound of a name, to love and know a single place, from the newest babysquall on the street to the blunt cuneiform of the burial ground…. “Those were the things that not only his family, but thousands of Americans had missed. The whole nation had been footloose too long, Heaven had been just over the next range for too many generations. Why remain in one dull plot of earth when Heaven was reachable, was touchable, was just over there? The whole race was like the fir tree in the fairy-tale which wanted to be cut down and dressed up with lights and bangles and colored paper, and see the world and be a Christmas tree…. “Well, we’ve been a Christmas tree, and now we’re in the back yard and how do we like it? “How did a tree sink roots when it was being dragged behind a tractor [today, a bulldozer, dump truck, or backhoe]? Or was an American expected to be like a banyan tree or a mangrove, sticking roots down everywhere, dropping off rooting appendages with lavish fecundity?... “I wish, he said, that I were going home to a place where all the associations of twentytwo years [or even generations] were collected together. I wish I could go out in the back yard and see the mounded ruins of caves I dug when I was eight. I wish the basement was full of my worn-out ball gloves and tennis rackets. I wish there was a family album with pictures of us all at every possible age and in every possible activity. I wish I knew the smell of the ground around that summer cottage… and had a picture in my mind of the doorway my mother will come through to meet me when I drive up, and the bedroom I’ll unload my suitcases and books and typewriter in. I wish the wrens were building under the porch eaves, and that I had known those same wrens for ten years. “Was he going home, or just to another place? It wasn’t clear…. He had a notion where home would turn out to be, for himself as for his father—over the next range, on the big Rock Candy Mountain, that place of impossible loveliness that had pulled the whole nation… where the fat land sweated up wealth and the heavens dropped lemonade….” But Stegner teaches us through character Bo Mason that the chasing of material dreams at the expense of a grounded soul is just a fruitless, false dream. And, sometimes, in the midst of the chase, not only the soul of the gambler is lost, but that of an entire community. And for what? On the morning of November 7, another community icon of Eden was lost—the more than a hundred-year-old “Wolf” barn. Another wandering dreamer… billionaire businessman Reed Hastings Jr., co-founder and executive chairman of Netflix, Inc. who bought controlling stock of the financially sinking Powder Mountain and, under whose watch the historic barn was demolished, without even a headsup to the community. After more than a century of standing sentry over this agricultural community, on one gloomy, rainy morning, it was permanently, uncaringly, unappreciatively removed from duty, wiped away without so much as a second thought. Could Summit owners have been so courteous as to offer a short press release to the community, letting everyone know when and why it was going to be taken down? A lot of memories were made in that barn through several generations. Thousands have driven past it, from one season to the next, decade after decade. Now all that remains is a pile of disassociated, detached rubble surrounded by decimated, and supposedly protected, legally designated wetlands; an ugly, intrusive God-of-this-world cell-phone tower; newly introduced invasive weeds; and sterile cinderblock storage units housing all the meaningless, material toys of a materialistic generation, which, most likely, will be the stuff that landfills are made of in another ten or fifteen years—impotent surrogate carriers of happiness and true contentment. Word has it, there’s a desire to build a large parking lot there or, perhaps, another sewer lagoon? The result of this new way of life that’s being ramrodded into, and against the will of this once quiet, serene Valley? The thoughtless, unfeeling raping, looting, and sacking of a defenseless environment, the people she has supported and who have loved her, and a priceless cultural history and legacy that’s also being rapidly bulldozed over and demolished, left in shambles, soulless, in favor of the false gods of the money changers—today’s Bo Masons who, likewise, are searching for that elusive Big Rock Candy Mountain…. We are thrilled and deeply grateful to express our heartfelt appreciation to all those who have wholeheartedly supported the Ogden Valley Skatepark petition. Your unwavering commitment and dedication to this cause have not gone unnoticed. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to each and every one of you who took time out of your busy lives to attend the Ogden Valley Parks open house at the Eden Park community center a few weeks ago. Witnessing the incredible turnout and community coming together to voice their support for this project was truly awe-inspiring. Over the past 30 years, there have been numerous attempts to bring a skatepark to Ogden Valley, and we are astounded by the overwhelming support we have received this time around. With over 600 signatures on our petition and more than 100 residents attending the parks meeting, it was a remarkable experience to connect with so many individuals who share our common vision for our beloved valley. Your enthusiasm and dedication have been truly inspiring. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to the Ogden Valley Parks Board for hosting the open house and for attentively listening to the valuable feedback shared by the community. The unexpected turnout, along with the presence of news agencies, must have been quite overwhelming, yet the Parks Board handled the situation with grace and professionalism. We are also grateful that the Parks Board has agreed to continue the conversation regarding the skatepark during their monthly meetings. This collaboration between our community and the Parks Board is a significant step towards making our dream a reality. As this project moves forward, we are excited about the opportunity for the community to work hand in hand with the Parks Board in fundraising efforts and bringing the Ogden Valley Skatepark to life. If you are interested in joining our cause, whether it be signing the petition, contributing financially to the project, or simply wanting to stay informed about the progress of the Ogden Valley Skatepark, we invite you to join our Facebook group at ogdenvalleyskatepark.com. Once again, we want to express our deepest gratitude to each one of you. The love we share for this valley and our community is truly remarkable, and we are honored to be a part of this journey with all of you. With great enthusiasm and gratitude, Marshall McGonegal, Ogden Valley Skate Park Initiative Why the Proposed Eden Crossing Development Should NOT Be Approved The newly proposed Eden Crossing development slated to be located between already existing New Town Eden, Wolf Creek Resort, and Old Town Eden should not be approved. Here’s why: 1. Eden, which is a very small community, already has five substantial commercial areas. It does not need a sixth. If you include Nordic Valley, Eden has six existing commercial centers. They include Powder Mountain, Wolf Creek Resort area, New Town Eden, Old Town Eden, and the commercially zoned property at the end of String Town road and, arguably, Nordic Valley. 2. Because of the substantial number of already-existing commercial centers in Eden (which are also appropriately called out in the Ogden Valley general plan), Eden has more than enough commercial property available for commercial development. 3. Because Eden already has too much commercially zoned real estate, most businesses in LETTER TO EDITOR cont. on page 12 |