The general election for Ogden city council is fast approaching, with the election being held Nov. 4. There are two at-large seats up, for seat B.
In the running for at-large seat B is Bart Blair and Kevin Lundell.
Bart Blair:
Running for re-election is Bart Blair, small business owner, and father to three daughters. Blair’s priorities are public safety, preserving open spaces and maintaining infrastructure.
Blair expressed that an important part of public safety is having fully staffed emergency services. “When you’re not fully staffed, you have to ask fewer people to do more work. It’s already a very taxing line of work,” Blair said. Blair worked to ensure that our public safety officers received competitive wages to maintain a full staff.
People can often overlook that public safety is more than just police. “Our fire department is constantly being recognized as one of the leading fire departments, not only in the state, but in the entire nation,” Blair stated.
Infrastructure was another concern of Blair’s. “We’re an older city and our infrastructure is aging,” Blair said. He went on to detail how Ogden city’s aging water infrastructure lost millions of gallons of water per day.
One of the struggles of infrastructure is the cost of maintenance. “It’s almost overwhelming how much money it would cost to repair all of the sidewalks. But we can’t continue to push it out. At some point, we had to just say, Okay, We might not be able to do it all, but we can at least start here and continue to make improvements every year,” said Blair.
Blair placed an emphasis on preserving open spaces such as parks and trails. “We have such a wide variety of open space and green space, both with our trails and our river and our parks,” Blair said.
Blair holds value in his political experience over competitor Kevin Lundell, saying, “First of all, I have the experience and the knowledge to not only push things through, but I also understand how things work.”
He also drew attention to his vision for the city. “I believe the things that I’m working towards with public safety, with infrastructure, looking at enhancing our amenities like the airport, like the Union Station, those things are resonating with residents,” Blair said.
Kevin Lundell:
The frontrunner in the primaries is Kevin Lundell, a baseball coach and father of two. His primary focuses are on affordability, preserving greenspace and changing how the city invests its money.
What affordability means to Lundell is providing services to the community. “If you’re making the roads better, it means that when you hit that pothole, it doesn’t cost you money to get your car realigned or to fix what it broke. If you’re investing in your parks, you can take your kids and go do something fun for free,” Lundell said.
He was also critical of the cost of utilities. He argued that an increase in Ogden’s water bill was in effect a regressive tax that targets those without secondary water, who disproportionately live downtown.
Green space was also important to Lundell, but he doesn’t think the city has done enough to protect it. “In 2022, there was an opportunity to buy green space from the Ogden School district at a park called Grandview Park, and passed on that, and now it’s under development,” Lundell said.
He contrasted Ogden’s failure to acquire more greenspace with South Ogden’s acquisition of Burch Creek park, describing it as “the gold standard park.”
The final priority of Lundells was changing how the city invests its money. Lundell was critical of a recent project undertaken by the city known as the wonder block. “To service the debt on the bonds we’ve taken for that project, it’s $5.6 million every year,” Lundell said.
Lundell contrasted this with the Marshall N. White Community Center which he viewed as a much better investment. “The debt that we service on the bonds we put for Marshall Life Center, which is something many of our community members can go experience and feel. It’s a beautiful center. That’s only a million and a half dollars,” he said.
Lundell acknowledged Blair’s experience, but went on to say, “Well, Bart Blair has been in council for 16 years. He’s asking for 20. And I think it’s just time for some fresh perspectives.”
