Why does the City do a Newsletter?

What's the South Ogden City Sound and what is its purpose? The South Ogden City Sound is the monthly newsletter that you receive in your utility bill every month. The newsletter was named by local elementary student Spencer Holdaway in a contest held two years ago.

The newsletter is one way for a city to communicate information to its residents. The front page is written by either an elected official (Mayor or Council member) or one the Executive Staff of the City (City Manager, Public Safety Director, Public Works Director, etc.).

The second page usually consists of a business spotlight for a South Ogden business and a listing of new businesses that have recently opened in our city. We also have regular messages from the South Ogden Senior Center.

Some of the more important information comes from individual departments in the city. The building inspection department could have a message about building sheds or fences on your property. The Recreation Department could have the latest sign-up dates for the sports that are in season. Public Works could have warnings that will help keep you out of trouble for issues such as storm drain regulations or on-street parking during the winter.

Public Safety could have a note or two about fire safety or ways to prevent crime in your neighborhood. These pointers are generated from observations made by public safety officials to give you a "heads up" on how to prevent them. Overall these boxes of information are to help you as a citizen stay in compliance with city regulations for the safety and well-being of all of our citizens.

The back page usually promotes the next upcoming event sponsored by the City. Your latest newsletter will have the full page dedicated to South Ogden Days. Past issues have promoted the Easter Egg Hunt or the City Old-Fashioned Family Holiday.

Remember that the South Ogden City Sound is just one form of communicating with our citizens. We have worked hard on getting all this information and more on our South Ogden City Website located at http://www.southogdencity.com/. We see that in the future a lot of our communication to our citizens will be through electronic media. Until that time please enjoy your monthly copy of the South Ogden City Sound.

South Ogden Off-Leash Dog Area

Last night the South Ogden City Council unanimously approved of an off-leash dog area at the south end of Club Heights Park. The off-leash area will be fenced and will have rules governing the use of the area.

The off-leash area won't officially open until approximately June 9 so we ask dog owners not to allow dogs off-leash until we officially open the park. When the City gets closer to completing the park area we will announce an official open date and have a ribbon cutting ceremony.

We are attempting to keep this off-leash area for local use. We will allow anyone who has a licensed dog (by South Ogden or another jurisdiction) to use the park. However the off-leash area is about two acres and too many dogs could cause problems. As other cities open off-leash parks we anticipate the use of our park to decrease. Until that time we want to avoid the problems of overcrowding.

We hope that citizens look at this area as a privilege and work to abide by all the park rules. We want to provide a safe and fun venue for our citizens and their dogs.

New Trees at the Nature Park

South Ogden City would like to thank Corey Combe of Combe's Tree Farm for donating about $20,000 worth of trees to the city for the Nature Park. The trees were part of Phase 2 to be completed this summer, but because of his generous donation we are able to put them in this spring.

This in turn will save the city some money as we prepare to start Phase 2. Bidding will start soon and construction should start in the early part of summer. Phase 2 consists mainly of a trail that will extend through the south end of the park. It will also include some more trees, sidewalk and minor upgrades to Phase 1 of the park.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the park, go do it! The address is 5874 S. 1175 E. which is just south of the Ogden Athletic Club.

Don't forget South Ogden Pride Day coming up on May 17th from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. It will be a two hour service project which will include clean-up of the south end of the park. We hope lots of people join us as we prepare the park for Phase 2.

Also, stay tuned for an announcement of the Grand Opening of the Splash Pad at the Nature Park. We'll be making one shortly.

New Public Works Director

South Ogden City has promoted Jon Andersen as its new Public Works Director as of April 16, 2008. Jon has been with the city for 16 years with his latest capacity being the Parks and Recreation Director for South Ogden City.

At this point in time Jon will oversee both departments. If you need to talk with Jon his phone number is (801) 622-2903 and his email address is jandersen@southogdencity.com.

Congratulations Jon on your new assignment.

Tree City USA- Arbor Day, April 25, 2008

South Ogden City has been designated as a 2007 Tree City USA. This is the seventh time that we have qualified for this distinction. In order to qualify as an official Tree City USA you have to meet certain criteria.

1) Designate a Urban Forestry Commission directed by a professional arborist.

We have created an Urban Forestry Commission made up of volunteers that serve four-year term in relation to trees in our city. Our Parks and Recreation Director Jon Andersen is the administrator for the Commission and he is a certified arborist.

2) The city must pass an ordinance that establishes the Urban Forestry Commission and allow them to create and Urban Forest Management Plan.

Our city just updated and approved our Urban Forest Management Plan at our last City Council meeting on April 15, 2008.

3) Establish an annual budget of $2 per capita dedicated to urban forestry.

Every year we designate money to be spent at our parks or otherwise that falls under this criteria. For example Phase 2 of the Nature Park will have about $50,000 worth of trees when it is completed.

4) It must organize an Arbor Day event complete with an official proclamation.

At our last City Council meeting on April 15, 2008 the City Council officially proclaimed Friday, April 25, 2008 as Arbor Day in our city. We will be holding a tree planting ceremony at Club Heights Elementary at 10:00 a.m. on April 25th.

South Ogden Pride Day

Have you ever thought to yourself, "How could I better serve my community" or "I would like to serve, but don't really know how to go about it."

The purpose of South Ogden Pride Day is to give our citizens a chance to give back to the community by creating a project that could help beautify our city and possibly save the city some money.

This year we have chosen the new South Ogden Nature Park. Phase 1 of the park is completed and Phase 2 is scheduled to be done this summer. However we would like to clean up a part of this park in preparation for Phase 2 (which is a walking trail around the wetlands).

This community project will take place on Saturday, May 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the South Ogden Nature Park. The park is located at 5874 S. Park Vista Drive (1175 East). The park is directly to the south of the Ogden Athletic Club.

We ask you to come and bring your families along with a shove, rake, and gloves if you have them. If you don't, we have things that need to done without garden tools. Water and treats will be available.

Please invite your family, friends, neighbors, even non-residents if they're looking for something to do on a Saturday. The more people we get the more we'll get done.

Now is your chance to help make a difference in your community.

South Ogden Easter Egg Hunt

Who Needs a Vacuum Cleaner?

Another year and another successful Easter Egg Hunt. Once again we had hundreds of kids (approximately 600-700) show up to gather their year's supply of Easter candy. Just a reminder for next year: Don't be late!!!!! It's over in less than a minute.

We'd like to thank all those that helped stuff Easter eggs in preparation for this event. Over a three day period we had over 200 hundred volunteers help get every little piece of candy into every egg we had.

After their three days worth of effort we had 25,000 Easter eggs ready for consumption. A big thanks goes out to the volunteers that helped set out all of those eggs which included our very own South Ogden Youth Council.

Just from my personal observation everyone got to take home plenty of eggs. It was fun to see smiles everywhere as everyone was taking to the eggs like a bandit to its loot.

Thanks to Christy Love and other South Ogden City staff who put this together. It really is a well-run event. We hope to continue that again next year.

Please check out the remaining photos taken at the park.

Signing up for the Free Prize

What's Everybody in Line For?

Ah Yes, the Easter Bunny, Of Course

I Thought Easter Was Supposed to be Warm

2007 Year in Review

As a city we spend a lot of time trying to plan for the future. We develop 5-Year plans, capital facilities plans, personnel plans, etc. all helping us prepare for the future.

So at times we need to step back and reflect on our accomplishments as a city to show that we are getting things done on a yearly basis. Each year the city staff puts together a Power Point presentation to show the council the accomplishments for the past year.

We want to share with you some of the more major accomplishments that have been achieved over the past year:

• Completed Phase I of the South Ogden Nature Park

Phase I consisted of a restroom, bowery, two tot lots, a splash pad and some grass area. This project was completed in September of 2007. Phase II is scheduled to begin construction this summer.

• Purchased a New Ladder Truck for the Fire Department

South Ogden City has a few structures that are over two stories in height. Because of this a ladder truck is necessary to give proper fire service in our city. Our old ladder truck was getting old and outdated. This has been a nice upgrade for our fire department.

• Completed 40th Street Park Reconstruction

Due to the construction of the new South Ogden City Hall we needed to rebuild our tennis courts at 40th Street Park. We also took out our old basketball courts and put in some new ones. We removed the sand volleyball court and put sod in to replace it to enlarge our grass area play space.

• Adopted the South Ogden Housing Program

In order to address the need of housing rehabilitation in our city we have set up a housing program. We have the general idea in place, but now we need to fund it. The funding will come from RDA monies on our RDA projects. It will be a couple of years before we have any money, but once we do it will give home owners on a lower income a chance to upgrade their homes.

• Updated South Ogden City Website

We changed the whole look and feel of the website. Even though it is not perfect we have more information available online than we've ever had before. We are committed to continually make our website more user friendly with more information. You can visit the website at www.southogdencity.com.

• Update the South Ogden General Plan

We spent over six months updating our General Plan for the city. This consisted of 4 citizen committee meetings, 2 open houses, 2 public hearings and a citizen survey. Once we were done we had a comprehensive plan that will help shape our city for the next 10 years. You can view it online on our website which is linked in the above paragraph.

• Lowered Certified Tax Rate from .002825 to .002527

Because of growth to our assessed valuation we were able to lower our tax rate. You might ask yourself why you possibly payed higher property tax than the year before. A future blog post will address the complexities of property tax in Utah and the role of city government. In a nutshell, as a city as assessed valuations go up our tax rate decreases. Therefore we are NOT receiving any additional revenue because of the increase in the value of your home.

• Replaced water and sewer lines, curb, gutter, sidewalks, and road on Raymond Avenue

This was a large summer project that was accomplished last year. It sure makes for a tough time for those residents that live on that particular street and we appreciate their patience. However it is nice when we have an opportunity to put in brand new infrastructure on an older part of town.

I hope this gives you a glimpse of some of the major projects that we do in the course of a year. Most of these projects depend on appropriate funding and it is nice when those funds are available. It is part of the continual process of renewing and updating our city.

The Budget Process

South Ogden City, like most cities, has a fiscal year that runs from July 1-June 30. This means we are currently just over 8 months into our current budget, but because of all the planning involved we have already started putting our next year's budget together.

Next year's budget will run from July 1, 2008- June 30, 2009. We call it our FY/09 (Fiscal Year) budget. Through the budgeting process we will take roughly 6 months to put this budget together for adoption. It must be noted that the budget is always a work in progress and is constantly scrutinized, but we have a process that allows us to go from planning stages to adopting a budget.

January 2008

This is a critical time in the budget process. The Mayor and Council will get together either in a work session or possibly a retreat to re-evaluate the state of the city. During this time the city will talk about their goals for the upcoming year, their five-year plan, capital projects, and the general fund budget amongst other things.

This year we looked at the five-year plan and decided what could be accomplished this year or at least which projects we will start since some of them might take a few years to complete. Capital projects are generally done using one-time monies. These projects could include parks, water and sewer lines, or one time purchases. Capital funds generally come from the surplus from the previous budget year. Most capital projects are part of the five-year plan or the capital facilities improvement plan.

Once the goals are stated and the projects are discussed it is time to start putting projects into the budget with their corresponding price tag. Usually we have a long list of projects and a small amount of money. The Mayor and Council prioritize these projects as funding allows.

February 2008

The City Manager and Finance Director meet with the individual department heads to discuss their budgets. The department heads are responsible for the spending of their budgets once they are approved. We have been fortunate in South Ogden to have department heads that keep within their budgets on a yearly basis. Most of what is discussed is the operating budgets and what they need in order to continue their level of service. It can be a difficult time as needs always outweigh the resources.

Meanwhile the City Manager and Finance Director work together to come up with the revenue projections. Since most of our monies are through taxes or fees we have to do our best research to forecast what these revenues are going to be. This is not an exact science but we have always done pretty well in forecasting our revenues.

Once department budgets are submitted and approved they are put into the overall budget of the city. We match the forecasted revenues with the expected expenditures to see if we can fund everything that is needed.

Some of the major issues that we look at every year:

Increased wages
Increased benefits (Mainly health insurance which has exponential increases every year)
New programs the city wants to implement
Utility rates
Funding for capital needs
Possible new employees to meet needs of city
Smaller projects that might need completed

Generally by the end of February we have a rough budget that will continue to need work to balance it.

March 2008

March is a time where you want your budget to be close to ready to go by the end of the month. The City Manager and Finance Director continue to massage the numbers as we look for trends coming from our current year budget. Department heads are continually looking at their budgets to create priorities in order to make sure their needs are met.

By mid-March we hold a budget work session with the Mayor, Council, City Manager and Department Heads. The first copy of the budget is submitted to the Mayor and Council and we start prioritizing our city needs. We will discuss in detail all of the issues that are noted above.

We discuss the need to keep our employees salaries and benefits at market value. We discuss exactly what projects we can fund this year and which projects we need to move another time. We discuss the need to possibly add personnel. We discuss at length the need to increase utility rates in order to keep up with the ever rising costs. We discuss programs that can make our city better.

Once this meeting is over the city staff has a good idea as to what the Mayor and Council want to get done this year. It is usually right in line with the goals that were set earlier in the year. Some tough decisions are made at this time. It's never easy to let something go, because of funding, that you know would be great for the city.

April 2008

April is a time to monitor the current budget once again to make sure that financial trends are going to be met in our upcoming budget. We also do some minor tweaking as certain issues tend to arise. This also allows us again to review the budget, goals, and projects to make sure we can meet the needs of the citizens. At times we might have another budget work session if the need arises.

May 2008

The city is required to adopt our preliminary budget by the first council meeting in May. We hold a public hearing to take public comment on the proposed budget. The preliminary budget is usually pretty close to our final budget.

Once again we constantly evaluate things and even make some minor changes, but fundamentally we are ready to go.

June 2008

The city is required to adopt its final budget by the last council meeting in June. We do have a public hearing again and if we don't have any changes then we adopt our new budget that night. By this time we have a document that has a lot of hours put into it. It has been reviewed, re-reviewed, scrutinized, and reviewed again. This budget shapes everything we do in the coming year.

July 2008

Our budget starts and we as staff start looking at the budget needs for the next year. Although the process gets pretty intensive for six months it really is a year-round process.

I hope this gives you an idea on how we budget. This blog entry is a simplification of the process, but I hope you can appreciate all the planning and work that goes into adopting the budget. If you would like to see a copy of our budget when it is adopted we are planning on making it available on the website or you can come into City Hall if you want a copy.

Where is the South Ogden Nature Park?

South Ogden has completed Phase 1 of its Nature Park, but the question is: Where is it located? I received an email from Jenica asking that very question. So I'll respond in a couple different ways.

The physical address is:

5875 S. 1175 E.
Directly south of the Ogden Athletic Club

Here is the link to MapQuest. It doesn't take you directly there because the road it is on is new, but it gets you close enough.

MapQuest of South Ogden Nature Park

P.S. My goal is to post at least once a week to keep the blog somewhat fresh. Sorry I missed last week, I caught the crud that was going around and it kept me from getting an entry posted.

Two New Planning Commission Members Added

At last City Council meeting two new Planning Commission Members were added. The two people are Jennifer Bunker and Jonathan Wright. They are finishing two terms vacated by Nancy Litchford and Donald Fulton. Jennifer Bunker will finish the four years left on Donald Fulton's term and Jonathan Wright will finish the one year left on Nancy Litchford's term.

South Ogden City ran a brief article in the newspaper soliciting applicants for the two positions. We were pleased to see that numerous people were interested in filling the positions. The Mayor interviewed interested candidates and appointed two of them to the Planning Commission. The City Council gave their advice and consent to the appointments in council meeting making the action official.

We welcome our new Planning Commission members and look forward getting them trained and geared up for future land-use issues in South Ogden.

Riverdale Road Project

It has been in the plans for quite a few years, but Riverdale Road will start getting it's upgrade this year. The funding this year is to widen the road to three lanes on each side from I-84 to the Weber River (viaduct). Funding for future widening from the viaduct to Washington Blvd. is still not committed to the project. Until it is committed this part of the project is essentially on hold.

Riverdale Road is a state highway and therefore is funded through the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). Riverdale Road from the Mattress Furniture Outlet Store and Cafe Rio to 36th Street is in South Ogden City limits. Because it is funded by UDOT we are at their mercy as to when they will complete this project. The best we can do at this point is to keep our citizens updated and wait and see if funding becomes available.

UDOT has set up website, email, and phone number for information.

Website: http://udot.utah.gov/vineyard
Email: vineyard@ppbh.com
Phone Number: 801-753-7343

Easter Egg Stuffing- Volunteers Needed

It's that time of year to prepare for the South Ogden City Easter Egg Hunt. In order to successfully pull this off we need your help. Various businesses have donated plastic eggs, candy, and coupons for the Easter Egg Hunt. Actually 20,000 eggs in all. We need help stuffing them.

We have three days set up at City Hall (3950 Adams Avenue) for volunteers to help us stuff eggs. We will provide pizza and a family movie to those that want to come and join us.

Thursday, March 13th 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

Friday, March 14th 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 15th 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

You can stay for one hour or all three if you can. If you are interested contact Special Events Coordinator Christy Love at 622-2705 or email her at clove@southogdencity.com.

In case you were wondering our Easter Egg Hunt will be held on Saturday, March 22nd at 9:00 a.m. Sharp! Don't be late. The Hunt is over in less than 5 minutes.

The Easter Egg Hunt will be held at Friendship Park (655 E. 5500 S.) in South Ogden. Children 12 and younger are invited to participate. The Easter Bunny will be available at 8:00 a.m. as well as after the event for pictures.

We hope to see you there!

RAMP

You may have heard of RAMP, but have always wondered what it is. RAMP is an acronym for Recreation Arts Museums and Parks. RAMP is a tax that was passed a couple years ago by Weber County voters to add an additional 1/10 of 1 cent on the sales tax. This money is specifically earmarked for RAMP activities.

RAMP generates roughly $3 million dollars a year. Since it is a county-wide tax it is distributed to various entities throughout the county. Cities are one of the main recipients of these funds. For more information on RAMP you can click here.

Every city in Weber County receives a minimum of $5,000 for parks and recreation projects. If your city is over 5,000 people then you receive $1 per resident. The last couple of years South Ogden City has received roughly $15,000 each year. We have used this money to upgrade two baseball fields at Friendship Park. The money we will receive this year is earmarked to upgrade our baseball field at Club Heights Park.

In 2006 South Ogden received over $150,000 that went towards Phase 1 of the South Ogden Nature Park. Below are some pictures as to what that money was used for:

South Ogden Nature Park Small Tot-Lot and Bowery

South Ogden Nature Park Large Tot-Lot

The city also used some of this money for a restroom as well. Because of RAMP funds the city was able to move the project up a whole year which saved us money because of the ever rising costs of construction.

South Ogden City has applied for $275,000 of 2008 RAMP monies for Phase 2 of the Nature Park. The total cost of this phase is $550,000. The city already has the $275,000 match ready to go.

Phase 2 of the Nature Park is mainly a 12' asphalt trail that extends just south of the "traditional" aspects of the park. It will also allow for some trees and other things to be added to Phase 1. This trail will give residents a paved surface in which they can walk, jog, or bike. The trail will wind up through the gully just north of Brier Pointe subdivision.

The city should know by mid-March whether we have received the funding or not. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to complete Phase 2 this summer.

The Planning Commission

Thanks to BenJoe Markland for posting a comment and asking "What does the Planning Commission discuss?" So with that introduction I'll do my best to explain the Planning Commission and what they do.

Who serves on the Planning Commission?

The South Ogden Planning Commission consists of seven members who are all appointed by the Mayor with advice and consent of the City Council. It is important to understand this distinction because they are not elected officials. Therefore their role is substantially different than the City Council.

What issues do the Planning Commission discuss?

The Planning Commission mainly deals with land use issues. This ranges from subdivision approvals, amendments to the General Plan or Zoning Ordinance, annexations, non-conforming uses, etc.

How are they different from the City Council?

Their main function is to be an advisory body to the City Council. Most decisions that the Planning Commission make are sent to the City Council as a "recommendation". The City Council then has final say as the legislative body of the city. If the issue is minor in nature i.e. a conditional use permit then the issue does not go before the City Council.

When do they meet?

Our Planning Commission meets on the second Thursday of every month at 6:00 p.m. in the South Ogden Council Chambers at City Hall.

Is the public invited to attend?

YES. This is an open government meeting. Their agendas are posted at City Hall and in the Standard-Examiner.

Can the public participate?

Often times agenda items require a public hearing. The public is allowed to speak at that time.

Does the Planning Commission have an advisor?

The Planning Commission is advised by a professional city planner. The planner for South Ogden is Ken Jones. Ken will put all the information together including his recommendation to the Planning Commission on each agenda item.

Can you walk us through a typical Planning Commission issue?

Let's say a developer wants to put in a commercial building. They make application with the city and then the plans are sent to the City Planner. The Planner reviews the plans and makes his recommendations of changes that might be needed. The plans are also reviewed by other city departments as needed.

The City Planner makes a recommendation to the Planning Commission on the site plan. The Planning Commission will review the site plan and possibly make additional changes as they think necessary. This could include the look of building, the parking requirements, ingress and egress, landscaping etc. They can grant preliminary approval to the developer pending the requested changes.

Once the developer makes the changes necessary then final approval is granted and the site plan is approved for development.

I hope all this information helps as the Planning Commission is an important function of any city. If you have any further questions then post a comment or send me a email and I'll do my best to answer them.