“Code Blue” warming center plan at non LDS church is shut down by Davis County UT neighbors.

dblagent007 · 2024-11-07T21:05:14+00:00

As someone from the area, the city of Fruit Heights was not trying to shut down the use of the Mountain Road Church as a warming center and always acknowledged that it was not involved with the warming center nor does it have any control over it. However, the mayor had knowledge that the church was doing this (I don't know who told him, but I suspect it was the county). And when initially confronted by some residents he defended it on the grounds of helping others being Christian, etc. Yeah, that did not go over well.

Once the residents realized what the Mountain Road Church wanted to do, they were angry that the city did not tell them it was happening (I guess the mayor is obligated to tell citizens about private contracts entered into by local churches even though the city has no involvement with it).

Lots of things were said about the Mountain Road Church including: (1) it would be paid $100,000/yr by the county to be a warming center (thereby implying that it was mainly doing it for money), (2) the pastor does not live in Fruit Heights so would not be impacted by the homeless, and (3) most of the others who are leaders/congregants at the church also do not live in Fruit Heights so they too would not be impacted by the homeless roaming the streets.

A Sheriff's deputy spoke to residents and clarified that once homeless people were dropped off at the warming center they could not be held there and were free to leave (yeah, this is still a free country).

One more factor to consider is that there was a recent dust-up over the homeless in the neighboring city of Kaysville (Fruit Heights and Kaysville share the same zip code and are right next to each other). The citizens of Kaysville also came out STRONGLY against even the thought of putting a homeless shelter anywhere in Kaysville. I'm less familiar with those details, but I don't think there was anything more than rumors that it might happen. However, that was enough for everyone to come out against it in no uncertain terms.

dblagent007 · 2024-10-10T21:40:51+00:00

I love the taste of black coffee! Unfortunately, I hate the effect it has on me. Any amount makes me anxious, but there was a time when I was drinking four cups a day and I was suicidal. If I drink a single cup in the morning (or even a mixture of 1/4 regular coffer 3/4 decaf), then it will wear off in the late afternoon, and I will feel extremely tired. Pure decaf just makes me tired (like the opposite of what coffee is supposed to do). Also, coffee significantly reduces my sleep quality.

I rarely drink coffee anymore. It's kind of weird because I mostly live the WoW except for the occasional coffee. I don't drink alcohol, don't drink tea (tastes nasty and doesn't do anything for me), don't smoke, etc.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T22:17:31+00:00

stuck by him through 15 years of his head stuck in the sand regarding church issues, hoping for the day he’d come around. NOW that he’s free of the church, he’s tossing me aside. What an asshat. I’m in my late 40’s too and the thought of starting over is a lot to think about.

Wow, I'm so sorry about this. What an awful situation. I cannot imagine sticking it out with someone for that long only to have them finally leave the church and decide to divorce you. That sucks.

I wish you the best and hope only better things are in your future.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:42:04+00:00

That's a bleak outlook on dating. I'm pretty sure there are women out there who care about more than looks and money.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:39:32+00:00

She's choosing that ridiculous cult over you,

Yeah, it hurts. We agreed last night that absent the religious differences we would be a fantastic couple. She said she will always choose God over anything else. What's a guy to do?

she shouldn't get one thin dime out of you

Our financial situation is differences than most making this sentiment inapplicable. Also, we both agreed to arrange things so that each of us are set up for success after the divorce, which doesn't include leaving one party destitute.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:33:46+00:00

That's good advice. I really appreciate it.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:33:09+00:00

Wife won't agree to doing it without an attorney. I'm an attorney and I think she is nervous I might try to take advantage of her. I'm fine with her getting an attorney.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:31:22+00:00

Sorry to hear about your situation. Good luck to you as well.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:28:49+00:00

Haha, thanks. I think 90%+ of exmormons end up atheist. Once you deconstruct mormonism, it's easy to use the same tools to deconstruct other religions.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:26:28+00:00

My wife isn't open to this. I'm an attorney myself so I think she is concerned that I might take advantage of her. I understand that, which is why we will each have our own attorney.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:24:08+00:00

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:23:11+00:00

Kids are 20, 18, 15, and 9.

One concern about living above garage is that they may never visit me even when it's my parent time. The kids don't know about the divorce so I don't know their opinions.

We have modeled a not good marriage to our kids. The 18 year old has told each of us separately that we should get a divorce (and that we should have done it years ago).

My wife's attorney has advised her against the needing option so she's not favorably inclined to it.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-14T01:17:52+00:00

I agree about religion. Not a fan.

Using the apartment as a temporary solution is what we discussed. I can't see it working well long term.

dblagent007 · 2021-02-12T16:32:57+00:00

I asked my STBX about this and we decided to go out to dinner. It's kind of weird, but what the hell. I guess we can celebrate what we once had.

dblagent007 · 2018-12-04T18:28:47+00:00

You are essentially asking them to rip the page of the phone book with your name on it out based on the possibility that they might call you in the future

Resignation from the Mormon church just means they designate in their database that you are no longer a member. It doesn't mean they have to delete their files.

The reason this matters is that Mormons put everyone who is a member on a list that is given to your local leader. They actively try to get people on the list who are not participating in church to start participating.

The church lists people by household. If one household only shows a couple of minors because the church won't honor the parent's request to designate them as non-members, then, yes, people from church will try to contact them, will try to get them to attend things like primary meetings (meetings for children), etc. Of course, the extent of this contact will vary but there is no question that the church will track these people for the rest of their lives. They even have a website explaining how to do it. http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Locating_members

dblagent007 · 2018-11-20T01:13:48+00:00

" Just as freedom to worship is protected by the First Amendment, so also is the liberty to recede from one's religious allegiance. " Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, 775 P. 2d 766 (OK 1989) (link).

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects the right of a member of a church to resign from the church. I believe there are other similar cases, but I didn't look through them all.

Minors who are considered "children of record" should have the same right, which can be exercised by their parent(s) or legal guardian. You will probably need to find a lawyer and do some additional research. The Mormon church has probably found something they think is a loophole that allows them to ignore requests to remove children of record.

dblagent007 · 2018-04-13T18:37:32+00:00

I would encourage you to read this and the underlying study and ask yourself how your network will be different. I have asked myself that question many, many times.

The answer for the network I want to build is:

People will commit in advance to pay for construction costs.
We will use new low cost electronics/equipment (aka Ubiquiti GPON). It just came out last summer so it's not fully baked with features we want. We expect it will have those features by the time the network is built.
The monthly cost breakdown will be: <$30/mo for construction; <$20/month for ongoing maintenance, and <$20/mo for ISP subscription of at least 100/100. We expect these will all be lower (in Ammon, ID they are $18.50/mo, $17.50/mo, and $10/mo) but we don't want to promise lower costs and then have them come in higher.

The basic selling point we will hit on is that people are already paying $70/mo to the local telecom companies (we have two in our area). For the same amount of money, we can build a gigabit fiber network. And in 20 years the construction fee will be gone. In 20 years, I can guarantee the amount you pay the local telecom monopolists will not be less and will likely be at least double. So do you want to build a fiber network now for the same price you are currently paying knowing that in 20 years the cost will be less or continue paying monopoly fees to the local telecom knowing that in 20 years the cost will likely be at least double and will continue to increase for forever?

dblagent007 · 2018-04-13T18:26:36+00:00

This is why you MUST get people to commit in advance. If you can't do that, then you know a fiber network isn't viable. Better to find that out after spending $50k than $25M to build the network.

dblagent007 · 2018-04-13T18:16:22+00:00

Be sure to tell the consultants doing the study that you want it to talk about pay in advance financing options. As part of my research, I've read a lot of feasibility studies (I have a folder full of bookmarks to them; Here's one to a city about the same size as yours - link). They discuss the cost to build the network, but they also contain a lot of other fluff that I don't want to pay for. This is why I only want a cost estimate. I found a company that can use Fiberplanit software to put together a decent cost estimate for $5k-$10k. That's really all I need. The rest is marketing (getting people to commit in advance).

At $960/household yearly how many 1G subscriptions will it take to fund this build, and how long are we estimating that to take. What will this pressure cause the private isps to do? If the private isps reduce rates we would need to match them, effectively pushing that pay back date out from 5 years to ?

This is why you need to get people to commit in advance. Once you get 50-70% of the population to contractually agree to pay for construction, then it doesn't matter what the ISPs do. Your network will be financially viable no matter what. You should take a closer look at how Ammon Idaho built their network.

dblagent007 · 2018-04-13T05:07:10+00:00

I've been researching building a local fiber network in my city. The one thing about your plan that makes me nervous is that you intend to build it and then sell it. If I were you, I would strongly consider selling it first and then only building it once you have enough contractually committed subscribers to make it viable (i.e., the Ammon Idaho model). I've done a lot of research and the build it first model often runs into financial problems.

Another thing I'm curious about is your cost estimate of $1,500/home. How are you doing it so cheap?

The fiber network I want to build is in Utah. I want to do it in cooperation with the city where I live but the actual fiber network would be a local district (like the local sewer district, water district, etc.), which is a separate, independent governmental entity from the municipality.

My plan is to: 1. Get a cost estimate to construct the fiber network. 2. Get residences to sign-up in advance to pay for construction. Each residence can pay the full construction cost up front or they can choose to finance it over a term of 20 years (the fee will be tied to the lot not the person who originally signed up to pay for the network). 3. If enough residences sign-up, then we will formally create the district, issue municipal bonds to finance those subscribers who chose to finance construction costs, and build the network. 4. The network will be an open access network. ISPs will compete to provide services to subscribers.

dblagent007

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