Latest news with #OgdenCityCouncil
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ogden leaders unveil new Marshall White Center in the city's older, more diverse core
A multimillion-dollar community center serving one of Ogden's most diverse neighborhoods in the older core of the city has been rebuilt and officially reopens on Friday. After plenty of community debate and public pressure, the original Marshall White Center closed in mid-2023 so the city-owned structure could be demolished and rebuilt. Nearly two years later, the $37 million replacement facility at 222 28th Street is complete, and Mayor Ben Nadolski sees it reclaiming its role as a community hub. 'This has always been an anchor to this neighborhood in particular, and it remains that way,' Nadolski said at a ceremony Thursday to unveil the facility and let the public have a peek inside. The facility serves as a legacy to building namesake Marshall White, an Ogden police officer killed in 1963, while its location is meant as an investment in the lower- to moderate-income area where it sits and 'the people that live in this neighborhood.' The future of the facility, first completed in 1968, became focus of intense debate in 2018 after city officials closed the large indoor swimming pool it housed due to cracks. A public debate over the willingness of the city to invest in the older neighborhood ensued, leading to public pressure to rebuild the aging structure and the formal decision in 2023 to move forward with reconstruction. Indeed, the facility has symbolic importance, underscoring what many believe to be the importance of investing in Ogden's traditionally underserved neighborhoods and outreach to historically marginalized city residents. Marshall White, who was Black, led the Ogden branch of the NAACP before his death and advocated for the city's Black community. Among the speakers at Thursday's ceremony was Ron White, Marshall White's son. Now living in Salt Lake City, he encouraged the public to use the new facility. The complex measures 68,000 square feet, a big jump over the 38,000-square-foot facility it replaces, and contains a pool, elevated track, gym, basketball courts, an indoor soccer field and classrooms. 'Use this place to build strength, build muscle, build endurance because you're going to need it. Life is hard. You'll need the strength to carry you through,' Ron White said. Two of Marshall White's other kids, Marcella White and Sammie Ellis, also attended. Marcia White, the chairwoman of the Ogden City Council but no relation to Marshall White, also addressed Thursday's gathering. She noted the significance of naming the facility in the turbulent 1960s, marked by the civil rights movement, after a Black man. 'Naming this center after a Black public servant in Ogden, in Utah, in our country at that bold and really, really meaningful. And you need to be proud of Ogden for it,' she said. Marshall White, an Ogden Police Department detective, was shot by a burglary suspect in the line of duty on Oct. 15, 1963, and died three days later. Artwork memorializing the man adorns the exterior entryway of the new Marshall White Center.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ogden leaders nix homeless facility proposal, opt for neighborhood revitalization plan
With the decision by Ogden leaders to pursue neighborhood revitalization efforts on a site where a facility for the chronically homeless had once been proposed, Weber Housing Authority's search for a location will continue — now outside the city. It's a setback to long-standing efforts by the nonprofit organization to secure a site for long-term housing for the chronically disabled and homeless. Concern among some city leaders that Ogden bears a disproportionate burden in caring for Weber County's homeless figured in Tuesday's Ogden City Council action, culminating debate dating back to late last year. "A location outside of Ogden is difficult because the resources are in Ogden and the homeless population is in Ogden. I am optimistic that we can move quickly and identify something that will work, however," Andi Beadles, the Weber Housing Authority executive director, said in a statement. Moreover, the turn of events puts on public display concerns frequently voiced over the years by some in Ogden that other Weber County cities don't do enough to assist the homeless or low-income residents. During discussion on the issue, Councilwoman Marcia White noted the lack of housing projects geared to low-income people in Weber County that are outside Ogden. "Not one in North Ogden, not one in Marriott-Slaterville, not one in Plain City, very few in Farr West, very few in Roy, very few in South Ogden," she said. Likewise, Mayor Ben Nadolski alluded to difficulties in working with leaders from other Weber County locales via the Weber Area Council of Governments, a coalition of local leaders, in addressing the need for low-income housing. Ogden is the largest of 15 locales in Weber County. It's been a struggle "because we can't get support and help from other cities in the county to help resolve the housing problems," he said. "And we can't do it by ourselves, yet everyone continues to put the pressure on us as though we hold the cards to everything in this entire county. We don't." The mayor referenced moves in the Salt Lake County area to expand housing options for the homeless outside Salt Lake City, where they have traditionally been concentrated. The "old model" of concentrating housing for the homeless where services are located "is not the model that's working elsewhere," Nadolski said. As for the old Aspen Care Center location in Ogden's older core neighborhood — the preferred site of the proposed facility for the chronically homeless and disabled — it is now earmarked for development into housing. Instead of granting Weber Housing Authority permission to pursue its plans, the City Council voted to acquire the site from the organization for $2.2 million. The one-acre parcel will be developed into housing — single-family homes or townhomes, possibly — under the auspices of Ogden's Quality Neighborhoods Initiative, meant to "stabilize and revitalize" city neighborhoods. The Aspen Care Center building would be razed. Concerns among some that allowing the Weber Housing Authority project to proceed would represent a step back in efforts to bolster the fortunes of the aging neighborhood factored in the debate. White noted city efforts in recent years to build new homes in the area to replace older housing and a relatively new school in the neighborhood. "We're seeing the fruits of that, and this is a neighborhood where it really needs some love and help," she said. Councilwoman Angela Choberka, for her part, wonders how Weber County will address the issue of the chronically homeless going forward "because there's nowhere else in the county to house them, which is a shame." She backed the Weber Housing Authority plans. Beadles, meantime, said she and the Weber Housing Authority will begin anew, probably resuming the search for a site in the next few weeks. They'll maintain the vision of creating a single facility to assist the chronically homeless and disabled population rather than spreading them to scattered housing units, as is currently the case. 'We've needed a resolution to this and we can now begin to move forward. It wasn't the outcome that we had hoped for, but we'll make the best of it,' she said.
