[sllug-members]: [sllug-members] UTOPIA Project in the [bad] news

[u235sentinel]

Doran L. Barton wrote:
> Not long ago, Nelson H. F. Beebe proclaimed...
{snip}
> 
> This is disturbing to me on a number of levels. 
> 
> The Tribune ran an editorial today about this as well.
> 
>     http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_7865012
> 
> I have supported UTOPIA from the get-go with some reservations. My
> political views are fairly conservative so I'm leery of government programs
> to do anything private companies, citizens, or organizations can do because
> much more often than not, privately managed ventures are run more
> effectvely than any comparable government program. Part of the reason for
> that is because when you run a company, it's usually your neck that's on
> the line and not something as vague and nebulous as "future tax revenues
> of vested municipalities."
> {snip}
> 
> 
I posted responses to this as discussed in several forums and here was 
my response to each of them:


Uhhh.. it sounds like you copied your homework from somebody else's 
paper, and they didn't provide complete answers from the looks of it.

The facts are very different from what I see.

You failed to mention that:

- The Qwest lawsuit against Utopia taking resources to defend against 
that (it was ruled in Utopia's favor btw)
- Qwest's illegal practices to block access to telephone poles
- Government delays with disbursing money from the RUS loan
- The insinuation that UTOPIA has put tax dollars at risk when not one 
red cent of money has been taken from pledging cities to cover 
operations or the debt service
- Paul Morris left UTOPIA to go into semi-retirement and Roger Black has 
his hands full as the lawyer for the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
- S.B. 66 heavy restrictions against Utopia which give an unfair 
advantage to companies such as Qwest or Comcast.

The article from the Trib doesn't measure up to their usual high level 
of reporting.

Considering what's happened these last few years, when you set out to 
make a project fail, it's likely you will succeed especially with the 
Governments help (note S.B. 66 and recent legislation by Senator 
Stephenson and Rep. Craig Frank).

So how about it?  Does it sound like Utopia is fighting an up hill 
battle or they simply failed because they are stupid?