Weber County Prosperity Plan
Introduction
Over the last 50 years, Weber County progressively lost much
of its economic competitive edge when compared to the other
counties along the Wasatch Front. At one time, Weber County
was at least second in most categories of economic growth and
wellbeing. It is simply a reality that such is not the case today.
It is not the objective of the Weber County Prosperity Plan to
dwell on past and present shortcomings. There is already enough
ongoing dialogue and debate about failures and misfortunes from
without and within the county. Much of it has been
counterproductive and too often self-fulfilling. It is now time for
Weber County to look to the future with hope, confidence and
bold expectations for prosperity.
It is time to identify audacious ways of what can and should be
done to help Weber County reclaim its competitive edge. It is time
for a 10 year prosperity plan—a plan to focus on the best in
Weber County, identifying how it can be secured and improved
upon, while discovering new economic opportunities for
residences and business. It is time for Weber County to help build
an economy that will provide increased prosperity and a better
quality of life for all of its residences.
1

 The Weber County Prosperity Plan seeks ways to accomplish
all of that, while respecting the interests and way of life of the
residences wherever they may live throughout the county. It seeks
to account for political necessities and business interests so the
county can create an environment that will satisfy those needs
and interests at the same time marshall resources and
opportunities to help improve the lives of every resident, including
those living in poverty.
With those imperatives in mind, one-on-one interviews were
conducted with mayors throughout the county to understand their
perspectives on where the county is today and where it should
head in the future. The mayors identified and discussed some of
the challenges their communities are facing and what the county
might do better to assist them to be successful.
A series of meetings were held with business leaders from
inside and outside of Weber County. These meetings were helpful
in identifying economic opportunities and barriers preventing
those opportunities from being exploited. Business leaders
identified two important areas of focus for the Weber County
Prosperity Plan. They advised that a new, dynamic and
competitive county economy must be both “innovative and
interactive.”
In addition, a series of meetings were held with residences
throughout the county. Residences discussed their geographical
2

 interests and what they want secured going forward. They
emphasized that the county is very diverse with urban, suburban,
country, and mountain living. They made it clear that one size
approach cannot fit all of Weber County and they wanted county
officials to better recognize that reality in their planning.
Lastly, individual interviews were conducted with random
members of the public in each of the four counties along the
Wasatch Front—Utah, Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties—in
an effort to better understand how Weber County is perceived—
both positively and negatively, and what would make it attractive
for people to live and work in the county, or visit it.
Altogether, these interviews and meetings were insightful and
helped to better understand where Weber County is today and
where it needs to progress into the future. They helped shape
goals and action items designed to create greater prosperity over
the next 10 years for all of Weber County.
For example, an overriding goal of the Weber County
Prosperity Plan is to acknowledge and respect the taxpayers’
ongoing contributions to the wellbeing of the entire county. This
10 year prosperity plan is designed to fortify and expand the
Weber County economy in such a way as to prevent mandated
tax increases that are seemingly necessary to compensate for a
lack of economic growth and prosperity. Weber County can no
longer afford to fail the taxpayer because it failed to grow its
economy and create prosperity.
3

 With that overriding goal in mind, the Weber County Prosperity
Plan is designed into four separate parts, but when executed
properly, each part will support the others to create
comprehensive, prosperous outcomes for the benefit of all. The
four parts of the Weber County Prosperity Plan are: Part 1:
Prosperity, Part 2: Political, Part 3: Poverty and Part 4: Publicity.

Part 1: Prosperity
Within the American capitalistic economic system, the creation
of prosperity depends on two dominant factors: capital and labor,
or in other words, investment and population growth. If steady
growth in investment and population does not occur, the economy
will first stagnate and then begin to fail. Population and
investment growth is required for prosperity. Weber County has
lost its competitive edge because it has failed to grow at similar
rates as the other counties along the Wasatch Front.
Slower growth in investment and population eventually forces
the government to raise taxes just to maintain services required
and expected by its citizens. Of course, when taxes are raised to
compensate for a lack of private investment, it simultaneously
depresses the economy and raises the cost of doing business
and living, which further discourages private investment and
population growth. Eventually, the cost of living and doing
business becomes too burdensome for residents and private
investors, resulting in even slower growth.
4

 Fleeing private investment and slowing population growth
forces not only Weber County itself to raise taxes but many of the
cities, towns, school districts and other government entities in the
county feel compelled to do so as well, exacerbating the
economic wellbeing of the county. This is where Weber County
finds itself today.
To regain its competitive edge, Weber County needs to
become more hands-on and proactive in growing the economy
and creating prosperity for all its residents. First, it must
aggressively recruit innovative and interactive capital investment.
Second, the county must make itself more attractive to smart
population and labor growth.
Over the next ten years, to create prosperity and improve the
quality of life for all residents, Weber County must grow its
population and it must increase its capital investment. These two
goals are both measurable and obtainable.
The population growth cannot be just any kind of growth. It
must be a population growth that attracts smart labor that can
sustain an innovative and interactive business environment and a
more dynamic economy.
The right percentage of capital investment growth must
represent what is required to expand the economy and create
enough revenue to sufficiently support the county from having to
5

 raise taxes. That in turn will lower the cost of living and doing
business in the county. A low tax environment will encourage
further growth in the capital and labor markets necessary to
further expand the economy and make Weber County competitive
again.
To achieve the right percentage of investment and population
growth over the next ten years, Part 1 of the plan recommends
that economic development efforts focus on four areas of
concentration within the county: A) Prosper by capitalizing on
country living, B) Prosper by capitalizing on Hill Air Force Base
and associated industries, C) Prosper by strengthening the
existing urban core, including Weber State University, and D)
Prosper by capitalizing on mountain living. Each of these areas
not only represent a geographical diversity but they also can
represent and capitalize on a diverse economy that will sustain
the overall wellbeing of Weber County.
Concentrating on these four areas will be better supported by
the creation of an economic development advisory board (EDAB)
made up of the three county commissioners and 14 business
leaders, who represent various industries, especially those
industries that are innovative and interactive, including
technology, recreation, manufacturing, agriculture, finance, real
estate and development.
The objectives of the EDAB will be to: 1) advise the county on
economic development trends and opportunities in support of the
6

 four areas of economic development concentration; 2) help exploit
existing business relationships and establish new ones; 3) help
interface with other economic development resources and
organizations on the state and national levels to be first to identify
and leverage every economic opportunity available; 4) help
identify private investors and capital resources; and 5) help forge
public/private partnerships to increase public investment in the
county.
In addition, the county should employ four economic
development staff members to adequately manage the four areas
of concentration and provide staff support for the EDAB. With the
advice of the EDAB, these same staff members should also
create a strategy to place business representatives from Weber
County on every state level economic development board
recruiting businesses to Utah. Today there is no Weber County
representation on any of the state level economic development
boards—boards with the mandate to recruit businesses to Utah
and find sites for them. Absent participation, the county is at a
competitive disadvantage.
The following are recommended action items for the four areas
of economic development concentration.

A. Action Items Creating Prosperity in Country Living
Study and plan for a new urban center. The residences
living west of I-15 expressed a keen interest in preserving the
🔲

7

 rural environment that exists today, while also acknowledging
there will be growth that will threaten that very environment. To
adequately address what seem to be conflicting interests—
securing the rural environment for farming and ranching interests
and accommodating the anticipated and needed growth—it
requires a new urban center located west of I-15 that has a
footprint much smaller than Ogden City, but that can nevertheless
accommodate a higher concentrated population.
The Community and Economic Development Department
should begin, in coordination with state and regional planners, to
study and identify requisite acreage and location to plan for a new
cutting-edge urban center and at the same time make it an
important planning priority to address the best ways to preserve
as much of the rural environment for agricultural interests as
possible on the west side of I-15, including creating new
ordinances and legislation that will encourage voluntary
innovative ways to preserve land use for farming.
In addition, the planners should identify transportation
corridors, including pathways that efficiently and effectively
connect the new urban center to the rest of the county, including
making it accessible to agricultural experiences and resources
and making it walkable and bike accessible to waterways and the
mountains.
As the planning proceeds, the county economic development
team should begin to identify and recruit developers and business
8

 interests to help with the planning and eventually begin financing
and locating housing and business development projects.
Together, over the next ten years, they should begin to plan
and develop a midsize, model urban center that is second-tonone in North America. A new city that will take advantage of all
the technological developments combined with all of the natural
environmental resources available to provide a dynamic, quality
lifestyle that is innovative and interactive as any community that
will be built in 21st Century.
Study and Plan the Rocky Mountain Farming Innovation
and Bio-technology Research Campus. The location of this
campus should be studied and planned. The campus should be
designed and developed through public/private partnerships, to
provide innovation and technology research laboratories that will
support the agricultural and biological sciences and practical
applications for farmers, ranchers and health providers alike
throughout the Rocky Mountain area.
🔲

The innovative campus should be interactive. In part this
can be achieved by considering relocating the Weber County Fair
facilities as part of the campus, and, in addition, work with Ogden
City to relocate its rodeo facilities to join together with it. All of
these facilities co-located into one campus will make it more
accessible to tourists and local residents, including young children
and students to be part of interactive learning, and experience
farm life through regularly scheduled fair and rodeo events, and
🔲

9

 hands-on experiences such as equestrian training, rodeo training,
and crop and animal husbandry research and development, for
just a few examples.
Adjacent to the campus, study, plan and develop a
private/public technology development and manufacturing
center. Private farming innovation and bio-technology industries
should be recruited to locate their research, development and
manufacturing facilities as an extension of the campus. Entering
into private/public partnership development and lease
arrangements will help expedite the build out the center and
provide a shared revenue stream to help finance it and the Rocky
Mountain Farming Innovation and Bio-technology Research
Campus. It will also provide opportunities for innovative start up
businesses evolving out of the research campus to expand into
the development and manufacturing center.
🔲

B. Action Items Creating Prosperity from Hill Air Force
Base
Identify and survey existing Base related business
located inside and outside of Weber County. Hill Air Force
Base is a significant asset that undergirds the Utah economy. The
Base, in many ways, is an untapped opportunity for Weber
County to create prosperity. The economic development staff
should identify all the existing businesses supporting Hill Air Force
Base located in the county to build a relationship with them and to
survey them on what would be necessary to further expand their
🔲

10

 businesses within the county. They should do the same to
determine what it would take to relocate businesses from outside
the county.
Once those surveys are completed an aggressive strategy
should be designed to attract and develop further expansion and
relocation. Upon completion of the surveys, with the review and
guidance of EDAB, performance measurements should be
established to expand the effort to recruit more Base business to
the county.
Develop Base relationships. EDAB with the help of the staff
should proactively establish a more dynamic relationship with
both military and civilian leadership at the Base to identify their
resource needs that can be promoted by the county and recruited
into the county. Progress reports of those ongoing relationships
should be regularly reviewed with EDAB to determine their
effectiveness.
🔲

Build working relationships with the Utah congressional
delegation and their staffs. EDAB should build close ties to
Utah’s congressional delegation and their staffs to identify
opportunity and plans that would provide early notice of base
resource needs that could be recruited to the county. In addition,
through the leadership of the congressional delegation, have
county representatives seated on national defense boards that
include civilian members for base planning, identifying resource
🔲

11

 needs that must be supported by industry, and which could be
located in the county.
Build working relationships with federal lobbyist
representing the aeronautics industry. Few people know as
much as lobbyist about the federal government, its needs, and the
businesses that are part of the military industrial complex. Too
often lobbyists are overlooked as an important resource for intel
on economic opportunities. EDAB should make relationships with
key lobbyist a high priority.
🔲

C. Action Items Creating Prosperity in Urban Living
The EDAB should coordinate with Ogden City to support
efforts to strengthen the urban core.The vitality of the urban
core is critical to the overall economic wellbeing of Weber County.
Very few successes will be able to compensate for the economic
failure of the urban core. With that in mind, the county should
promote and sustain every effort that will significantly increase the
number of visitors, the workforce and residential population in the
core of Ogden City. This should be a primary objective of the
EDAB.
🔲

Study the feasibility of a gondola project from downtown
Ogden connecting at the top of the mountain to the
Snowbasin ski resort. This is an audacious project that will help
meet the objective to strengthen the urban core, by dramatically
increasing the visitor population as well as the work force and
🔲

12

 residential populations, creating greater prosperity. There will be
nothing like it in all of North America.
Not only will the gondola project be a game-changer for urban
prosperity, it will transform the tourism economy in Weber County
and the state of Utah. No other state in America has an urban
core, with an adjacent airport and university, that can be
accessibly linked to a premier ski resort. It will create more
prosperity than any other single project available to Weber
County.
The gondola project will spawn the construction of more
hotels, restaurants, and entertainment outlets in the urban core
than could have ever been expected. It will motivate an increase
development of new multi-unit housing stock, both rental and
ownership. It will make it economically viable to increase the
financial investments into the renewal of the old, existing housing
stock around the urban core. It will make it very appealing for
business relocation and expansion. In short, it will put Weber
County on the national and international map.
Of course such a project will require the very best work and
coordinated effort of the county economic development team and
Ogden City, as well as mountain property owners. It is a project
that will require the unity of political and business interests
throughout the county. The challenges will be significant but the
returns will be incomparable, positively impacting every other
economic enterprise in Weber County.
13

 One other positive consequence from the gondola project, that
should not be overlooked, will be the preservation of the pastoral
environment of the Upper Valley. It will help reduce traffic and
relieve development pressure that concern the residents in the
Valley community. Instead of forcing commercial development in
the Valley against the wishes of the community, the urban core
will welcome the commercial development that economically
sustains it and the surrounding communities.
Support and assist with the expansion of Business
Depot Ogden. One of the earlier action items called for the
Weber County Fair facilities to be relocated in support of the
Rocky Mountain Farming Innovation and Bio-technology Campus.
A move that would allow for the expansion of Business Depot
Ogden. Business Depot Ogden is a proven success for both the
local community and Weber County. Making more land available
for development will provide needed revenues to Weber County. It
makes practical economic sense to make further development
possible while development plans for a new innovation and
manufacturing center are being prepared for a site somewhere
west of I-15.
🔲

Study and Coordinate with Ogden City to relocate the
rodeo facilities. Lifestyle living along the Ogden River will
become evermore attractive, particularly coupled with the gondola
development. The recreation minded that want to live, work and
play in the urban core, while enjoying the natural amenities, will
🔲

14

 appreciate a river environment that offers walking, running, biking,
fishing and other activities. Undoubtedly, the rodeo arena location
will become a prize location for more prosperous uses, including
housing, office, dining and recreation facilities.

D. Action Items Creating Prosperity in Mountain Living
🔲

Create a home base technology hub throughout the

Upper Valley. As a way to create a meaningful economic
enterprise, while preserving the pastoral environment, the EDAB
should work to remove any barriers prohibiting home base
technology development throughout the Upper Valley. More than
that, the Upper Valley should be identified and promoted as an
unique technology hub seamlessly incorporated into a pristine
pastoral community. In support of its development, all the
necessary communications systems for technology development
should be made accessible to homes.
Site four low-profiled technology facilities in support of
home base technology hub. To support the home base
technology hub, up to four technology facilities need to be
developed through public/private partnerships. These facilities
should be designed to be unobtrusively folded into the community
environment. As needed, they will provide both conference
facilities, technical assistance, product development and
marketing assistance in support of the home based technology
operations. They can be an important resource particularly for
🔲

15

 start-up technology business developed from home base
operations.
These four facilities can also be technology learning centers
for Weber State University students under the direction and
guidance of technology professors and professionals. They can
both learn from and support home base technology operations.
Support the development of sustainable recreation
resources. Recreation is a key component to Weber County’s
economic wellbeing. A tension exist between the existing Upper
Valley community and the recreation development interests.
Weber County needs to help navigate a way forward that respects
the interest of the community to not lose the pastoral environment
of their mountain living and the development of sustainable
recreation resources. The Upper Valley is an incomparable prize
of pastoral living that should not be compromised with over
commercialization. Yet, on the other hand, a way should be found
to allow for the ski resorts to be developed while protecting that
which itself is an attraction.
🔲

Part 2: Politics
Weber County is in the political wilderness and suffers
because of it. To its economic detriment political action for too
long has been neglected by the county, while at the same time
other counties are wielding their political power invested in
political leaders to enrich their counties.
16

 For generations Weber County has had no representation in
Congress and no representation in the governor’s office. Today,
there is no one from the county that serves in the governor’s
cabinet made up of over 22 agencies, and there is no one from
the county that holds a leadership position in either the house or
the senate of the Utah State Legislature.
There is ample evidence demonstrating that Weber County
has been seriously disadvantage by its lack of political
involvement. Ignoring politics as a priority has impacted not only
policy considerations, but even more important, it has negatively
impacted public dollars invested into Weber County, particularly
when compared to some of the other counties along the Wasatch
Front.
For example, some counties have received billions of dollars in
federal and state public investment in infrastructure and
transportation needs, while Weber County has enjoyed far less. It
is easy for those in leadership to redirect funding to their home
counties and ignore like needs of Weber County, especially when
there is little to no political consequence. If Weber County is going
to become as prosperous as it can, it must make political
involvement a high priority.

A. Action Items for Political Development

17

 Political office holders in Weber County must become
organized and unified for political action. If the county is going
to recover from a position of political weakness and disadvantage,
it must organize all political office holders throughout the county
and become unified around political and economic goals and
objectives to make Weber County more prosperous. That unity
must start with the Weber County Commission. The commission
in turn must help unify the other county office holders, mayors,
and legislative office holders.
🔲

Key business leaders must be organized. Business
interest can and should play a critical role in disciplining the
political system to better serve the economic wellbeing of Weber
County—to discipline the political system around those political
and economic goals and objectives that will best create
prosperity. When organized around those goals and objectives
the business community can help intervene with the Governor
and other political leaders to better support the needs of the
county.
🔲

A political action committee (PAC) should be organized.
A PAC should be organized with selected business leaders,
elected and appointed office holders and other political operatives
that can help Weber County steer through the political world in a
way that will be productive and to help identify and prioritize public
investment needs and establish specific goals and objectives that
will marshall political power to help Weber County to become
more prosperous.
🔲

18

 The PAC should raise funds to identify, recruit and develop
candidates capable and qualified to become a governor,
lieutenant governor and members of Congress. The PAC should
only support legislative candidates that have the potential to be
elected to leadership positions in the state house and senate.
Meanwhile, the PAC should raise funds to acquire the services
of well connected lobbyists on the state and federal levels to
compensate for not having representation in Congress and state
leadership offices. These lobbyists should help identify and obtain
funding sources for increased public investment into the county.
This maybe timely with renewed interest in building new
infrastructure projects across the nation.

B. Action Items for Political Placement
Petition for greater representation on government boards
and committees. With the county elected and appointed officials
and business leaders organized and unified, the Governor should
be petitioned for representatives from the county to be placed on
key boards and committees, especially those boards and
committees that manage economic development, transportation,
and education interests.
🔲

In addition, similar efforts should be applied to federal level
boards and committees, which would also should include military
interests.
19

 Participate on private and public policy boards, including
“think tanks.” Policy boards and committees, including think
tanks, have influence over government policies that can help
benefit a prosperity driven agenda for the county. Participating on
such boards and committees will help Weber County have a voice
in shaping government policy and appropriations to its benefit.
🔲

Part 3: Poverty
Weber County is challenged by the consequences of poverty.
It is a fact, proven by the data, that poverty in the county is
accompanied by higher rates of abuse and neglect, education
failure, depression and despair, drug and alcohol use, crime and
incarceration, teen pregnancy, suicide and welfare dependency.
Addressing all of these consequences combined costs Weber
County government a majority of its budget and adds significant
costs to the economy. Not only is the county government budgets
significantly impacted by poverty, so are the school districts’
budgets impacted.
Ignoring poverty or even addressing it in a reactive,
maintenance approach is shortsighted and undercuts efforts to
create prosperity for the county. It does little good to create
greater prosperity and have that prosperity then diverted in a
unproductive approach to solving the poverty problem and the
attending consequences of that problem.

20

 The county should first identify and understand that there are
two different kinds of poverty: situational and intergenerational.
Situational poverty is that poverty which is the result of situations
that arise that are usually unplanned. For example, a downturn in
the economy occurs, a job loss, a divorce or death of a spouse,
an injury or other health crises occurs impacting the ability for
individuals and families to maintain their previous standard of
living. When those events happen, it may be necessary for Weber
County with the state to intervene on a temporary basis until
recovery occurs. Creating greater economic prosperity will help
alleviate and shorten the time frame of some of the causes of
situational poverty and its consequences.
On the other hand, intergenerational poverty is another
problem altogether. It is a poverty that may have started from
situational event(s) but has metastasized into intergenerational
poverty usually associated with welfare dependency. It becomes
an intergenerational poverty and welfare dependency cycle that
entraps and victimizes succeeding generations of innocent
children with devastating affects and costs to the Weber County
taxpayers.
If Weber County wants to become more prosperous, it must
proactively intervene to break the intergenerational poverty and
welfare dependency cycle, rescuing victimized children from its
immediate and longterm consequences and thereby reducing
costs to the taxpayer. Costs savings that can be productively

21

 reinvested into the Weber County economy, creating greater
prosperity.

A. Action Items Reorganizing the County

Government
Organize a Welfare Reform Commission. To rescue the
rising generation of children out of the intergenerational poverty
and welfare dependency cycle, there must be a 360 degree
coordinated focus on children. Such a focus can only occur if the
government is organized in a substantially different way. Every
agency of the government touching the lives of children must be
organized to coordinate their efforts, starting at the executive level
down to the caseworker/teacher levels.
🔲

With that in mind, a Welfare Reform Commission should be
organized headed by the county commission and made up of
Health and Human Services, Public Education, Juvenile Justice,
and Work Force Services. These agencies should meet on a
regular basis to coordinate their efforts from the top to the bottom
of their organizations, providing productive interventions and
efforts that will help lift victimized children, aimed at achieving the
goal to end the cycle of intergenerational poverty. The
commission should set specific and measurable objectives to end
intergenerational poverty and welfare dependency in Weber
County over the next ten years.

22

 Organize an Intergenerational Poverty Advisory
Committee. An intergenerational poverty advisory committee
would be made up of poverty experts, helping agency
representatives, religious representatives, academics, and
government officials. Their role would be to provide expert
guidance to the Welfare Reform Commission on data-proven,
effective interventions with children to arrest intergenerational
poverty. The chair of the committee would hold a non-voting seat
on the Welfare Reform Commission to represent the views and
recommendations of the committee.
🔲

B. Action Items to Create Vertical Coordination with
Federal and State Governments
Interface with state government agencies. The county
commissioners should begin to build relationships with the state
government agencies to create a support network for the children
entrapped into the intergenerational poverty welfare dependency
cycle. In particular, the commissioners should develop an ongoing
working relationship with Work Force Services and Public
Education. Those two state agencies are critical to solving the
intergenerational poverty problem.
🔲

Organize county governments throughout the states.
The county commissioners should organize their colleagues
representing each of the counties that are significantly impacted
by poverty to multiply their influence addressing state
intergenerational poverty intervention policies.
🔲

23

 In addition, they should in a similar fashion help organize the
national association of county governments to influence federal
policies and support for intergenerational poverty interventions.

C. Action Items to Organize Federal and State Poverty
Interventions and Funding.
Promote a county advisory association as part of the
state Welfare Reform Commission. The counties are on the
front lines of managing the policies and costs of intergenerational
poverty. It stands to reason that they should provide a unified
voice advising the state Welfare Reform Commission on policy
and poverty intervention appropriations. The counties should
insist that the state poverty funding should be managed by them
under state oversight and guidelines. This will encourage all
parties to coordinate their efforts under the direction of the county
Welfare Reform Commissions.
🔲

The national county government association should draft
federal intergenerational poverty legislation. The Weber
County Commission should lead and encourage the national
association of county governments to draft legislation that will
more effectively distinguish between situational and
intergenerational poverty; to remove federal barriers prohibiting
the 360 degree coordination, necessary to effectively rescue the
rising generation of children entrapped in the intergenerational
poverty and welfare dependency cycle; and better empower the
🔲

24

 states and the counties to manage poverty intervention funding to
breakup the intergenerational poverty and welfare dependency
cycle. Thereby, rescuing the rising generation from the
devastating consequences of that cycle, and rescuing taxpayers
from its intergenerational societal impacts and costs.

Part 4: Publicity
Publicity is a critical element in creating greater prosperity for
Weber County. While there are some ongoing efforts to publicize
and market parts of the county and its activities, and some of
these are very effective, such as the marketing of conventions,
recreation, culture, arts and entertainment, individual business
interests, and Weber State, there is no effective comprehensive
publicity effort to shape the image of the county for the purpose of
creating greater prosperity.
In fact, survey interviews demonstrate that Weber County’s
image is basically void of any identifiable characteristics, at least
no identifiable characteristics that will advance a more prosperous
county. If those interviewed could articulate an image for the
county at all, it was either related to just a rural image or negative
perceptions of Ogden City, both images and perceptions are
representative of the bygone days. Ogden City has effectively
improved its community and continues to, and while the county
has important rural assets, it is much more than that just a rural
community with a single urban center.

25

 Clearly, Weber County has to do a much better job shaping
and publicizing an image that will inspire and motivate more
capital investment and population growth, albeit the right kind of
population growth. The image proposed by the business leaders
suggest that the Weber County should be known
comprehensively as a community that is innovative and
interactive.
In other words, a publicity plan should have a target audience
of those people who have the ability to increase capital and labor
in support of the county’s efforts to grow prosperity. The theme to
attract investment and population for the publicity plan should be
focused on an image of the county that is innovative and
interactive, as recommended by business leaders. That audience
and theme properly communicated to can make a vital difference
in attracting wealth and a productive population to Weber County,
making it more prosperous.

A. Organize publicity efforts that are underway.
Create a publicity committee to shape the marketing
effort. Representatives of the various groups that already have
marketing efforts underway should be invited by the county to the
identify most effective ways to coordinate their messaging with
the counties efforts to advance its image as an innovative and
interactive community. Where individual publicity efforts will
overlap with the county’s effort, they should be highlighted for
maximum impact shaping the county’s overall image. Combined,
🔲

26

 organized efforts can, in a more efficient way, better penetrate the
audiences’ perceptions of Weber County, while at the same time
still recognize individual activities and interests needed to be
publicized.
Combine publicity funding for maxim impact. Not only will
organizing through a combined publicity effort be more efficient to
shape the image of the county and individual interest, it can
maximize the dollars expended by the various interests, including
Weber County. Combining funding and messaging though a team
approach will significantly magnify the effectiveness, creating a
new perception for every part of the county, promoting a
comprehensive image of a innovative and interactive county.
🔲

Focus on the four geographical targeted areas for
prosperity development. “Part 1: Prosperity,” focuses on
geographical areas to promote economic development: country
living, Hill Air Force Base, the urban core, including Weber State
University, and mountain living. Publicity efforts should also
highlight and market those four areas in a way that will attract
capital investment for each and every economic development
project listed in the prosperity plan.
🔲

B. Publicize locally, statewide, nationally and
internationally.
Publicity shaping the new image should start locally. The
people of Weber County for good or bad are the ambassadors for
🔲

27

 the county and its innovative and interactive image and efforts to
attract capital and labor for greater prosperity. If they don't know
about the effort or if they do not understand it, they will not be
effective messengers in the effort to advance prosperity.
To create a countywide awareness of the prosperity plan, the
county commissioners need to organize an ongoing county
outreach to local business leaders, political leaders, education
leaders, religious leaders, the media and community members in
general. As part of that outreach they must develop the prosperity
plan into a presentation in the form of a story. They will have to
tell the story over and over again until it becomes widely known
and supported throughout every corner of the county.
This can be accomplished through media editorials, website
and other social media postings, social club presentations,
organizing meetings with community leaders of every kind.
Presentations at educational settings. Messages through mailings
of local community’s highlighting website and other social media
outlets promoting the plan.
Weber County community members must be well informed
before starting the statewide phase of publicity.
Publicize the prosperity plan and new county image
statewide. After the local community is well informed of the effort
to promote prosperity in Weber County, publicizing the prosperity
plan and new image of the county on a statewide basis is critical
🔲

28

 to not only promoting it throughout the state, it will also be
invaluable to the effort of publicizing it nationally and
internationally.
The state effort should begin with purchasing billboards
messages from Provo to Brigham City, and also at Cedar City, St.
George and Logan profiling the various initiatives identified in the
prosperity plan. The messages should be quotes from well known
individuals, whose pictures will be depicted on the billboard.
These bill boards will create a buzz along the Wasatch Front and
beyond.
That buzz will create free media interest by news and program
outlets seeking stories about what is happening in Weber County.
Media outlets will begin to ask questions of community leaders
and others about what is happening in Weber County. Weber
County should be well prepared to entertain media inquiries and
interviews.
After the bill board publicity, followed by free media interests
and inquiry, political leaders and business leaders should begin to
meet with media editorial boards and sharing with them the plan
and effort to create prosperity in Weber County. They also should
prepare opinion editorials for the various media outlets that have
a statewide reach.
In addition, they should prepare articles and encourage the
writing of articles for magazines, newsletters and other outlets to
29

 highlight projects relative to their interests. For example, the
Rocky Mountain Farming Innovation and Bio-technology Campus
is a project that might create interest with the Farm Bureau and
other agriculture based newsletters distributed in Utah. Each
project will have interested organizations that might want to
highlight the prosperity projects.
While different media opportunities are made available,
political and business leaders should begin meeting with other
political and business leaders throughout the state. Sharing with
them what Weber County’s prosperity efforts are about and
seeking investment opportunities in support of individual
economic development projects.
The congressional delegation, the Governor and legislative
leadership should all be made aware of the prosperity plan and
invited to help in ways that will support the initiatives through
public investment.
Capital investors, business leaders, developers and others
throughout the state should also be given the opportunity to learn
of the prosperity plan and individual projects that they can
participate in creating and sustaining.
Publicize individual prosperity plan projects nationally
and internationally. As the prosperity plan is promoted
throughout the state, the awareness will spread and begin to
attract inquiries by different media outlets nationally and
🔲

30

 internationally. Weber County should be prepared for the many
inquiries that will seek out information about the transformative
nature of efforts associated with the prosperity plan and individual
projects. Where there are not inquiries, national and international
media outlets, including magazines should be sought out to
inform them of story opportunities. For example, many
recreational magazines will be interested in the gondola project,
recognizing its impact on both the winter and summer outdoor
industry.
Inevitably, as different magazines and media outlets focus on
individual economic development projects that are part of the
prosperity plan, they will want to do articles about Weber County
and the transformation that is taking place to create prosperity by
profiling its unique approach, including its efforts to grow
prosperity while at the same time rescuing children out of poverty.

Conclusion
The Weber County Prosperity Plan requires a will to succeed
and a can-do attitude no matter the obstacles to overcome. It
requires dedicated leadership that is second to none.
It requires a unity of purpose among both the political and
business leaders that is incomparable in the state.
It requires a driving desire to make life in Weber County more
prosperous for all, including for those in poverty, and especially
31

 for those in the rising generation of children facing a life of
debilitating consequences of poverty because of no fault of their
own.
While the prosperity plan is challenging, it is nevertheless
doable. With a clear vision and purpose, every goal and action
item can be accomplished over the next ten years.

32