Morgan Whitewater Park/Features

I have had numerous conversations over the last year with the Mayor of Morgan City, City Council Members, County Council Members, Nick Turner and locals in and around Morgan. The conversation has been one of fixing three dangerous drops on the Weber River and in turn, replacing them with kayak features, irrigation dams and hydroelectric producing features.

The response from all whom I have spoken with has been very positive and progress, all be it slow, is moving forward. What we have talked about is turning Como Springs drop into a wave, making the fairgounds waterfall a clean 8-10 footer and the drop by high school a rodeo hole. The play features would maintain irrigation height requirements and also produce power for Morgan City.

Why am I posting this you ask? I need help from the kayaking community. I have spoken how often people from the Wasatch Front already come to the Weber River to run Hen-Tag and that if a play park was in, well I'm sure you would come there too. The section of river the park would be on has an average flow between March and November of 400-500 CFS. This year the section had 375 cfs since mid January. imagine hitting up Snowbasin in the morning and playboating in the afternoon.

If you would like to make your voice heard, please email Mayor Egbert and Councilwoman Betz and let them know you would like to see kayak features in Morgan.

morgancity@qwestoffice.net

Alan I grew up in Morgan and would love to help you on this project anyway I can. 801-458-3520

Put my 2 bits in. I'd drive up from Richfield to boat it often. Ron.

My opinions?
Leave the high school drop alone, that's a shuttle commitment, there(few might float down/waste of resources). The first two diversions are close enough for a 'park and play' experience, though.
There's enough vertical at each diversion to get two good features(remember the main RW is only like 3 feet of vertical). A clean 8-10 footer? I don't see the thrill after the first couple times.
Access to the first diversion is fenced off right now. I assume easements, or something, is in the works?
I say keep the ball rolling on Morgan Playparks, should be awesome!

Ya Brian, right now it's definately in its infancy and Nick really hasn't been hired to do anything definate. I know most of the momentum the city has is being able to produce power and also quit fixing the dams. The kayaking is a by product yet a significant boost to the Morgan economy.

Their is talk of extending the pathway from the high school up to the fairgrounds so one could essentially walk, bike or drive the shuttle. Also, there is parking near the high school, so that could potentially be its own park and play.

Thanks all for sending your thoughts to the city and keep them coming. In time, I'm hoping to make a strong showing of support from the kayaking community by getting as many people to a council meeting in the future. I'll buy pizza, beer and sodas if people can make it up....

Alan,

I grew up in Morgan and know the Mayor and Councilwoman Betz. I currently work in Morgan and attend chamber and city council meetings sometimes. It's funny, because my brother and I have talked about doing this exact idea, in the exact locations but didn't know how to get started. I would like to speak with you about the process and how I can help. I will speak with the mayor and councilwoman personally.

cool Chad, anytime 801-920-3303...

Hey Andrew, emailed Nick, his company is pretty busy but says he is willing to take it on....going to get you a sketch, layout when I can to get to the hydro guy. Once we have a sketch and some estimates from hydro, we can go to the city and county.

Strong work!

Thats awesome Alan let me know when you've got them. I spoke with the hydro guy again and it looks like he will help us get some numbers without having to pay up front

ok first hiccup, the studies are going to cost some coin.....I'm going to try to meet with Nick on Friday and see what we can do about it...

it sounds like you have support from the community, but when it comes time to cash it in people are going to disappear. realistically your gonna need to do a feasibility study most likely in the 10,000 dollar range if not more for such a large project...well projects. Once that's cleared through its getting more money to actually build the stinkin thing. There are literally tens of thousands of grants that can be taken advantage of. the problem is getting to them, so plan on one hell of a grant writer. pretty much as long as you have the $$$ to back up your plans, thats when people will really take you serious.

those are the numbers I have heard of from Nick. We are hoping to get money from Morgan City Power and the irrigation companies....anyone have a rich uncle???

does anyone have experience writing grants and finding money? Need to get some money together to start this Morgan kayak park.

Think about this, the first creeker/waterfall feature in a playpark.....a clean 8 footer would not only allow you to learn how to boof, but how to wavewheel off waterfalls, etc.... plus two more waves/holes all within 1/2 mile of each other....These features would run from march to november historically.

So , this park is based on similar flows to the weeb. As good as Riverdale is, it would be so nice to have a consistent, less seasonal, feature or three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgM1qNYMrRs&feature=player_embedded

That is a perfect vision of what we should do on the Weeb! I have talked more with the hydro power guy and it's not looking like incorporating hydro power is going to work very well with a kayak park. Might be better to seperate the two or just convince Morgan City of just doing the kayak park alone which really shouldn't be hard to do if we can find a way to get the $$$

Has anybody contacted American Whitewater or ACA and talked to their people that deal with access and funding? They might know where and how to come up with funding for at least the studies...ten large is a hefty sum. But then, how much did the SNF Whitewater Film Fest used to take in annually? If 100 of Utah's boaters were able to kick in $100 each, that would be a start...I'd do it.

I want to help move this project along.  In speaking with my uncle Ray Little, who is on the Morgan City Council, he said that the city is pretty much in support of the idea.  In his mind, the first thing is to get needed permits from the Corps of Engineers and possibly from the Fish and Wildlife Dept.  He also suggested looking for grant money.  Then presenting to the city council.  So I don't think it's so much getting our voices heard, but just getting the plans and $$ together.
So first question.  Has anybody approached the Corps of Engineers to see what we need to do to get a permit?  If not, I could start looking into that.  Also, does anybody know what organizations may have grant money available?  If I know where to ask, I would be happy to start drafting some grant requests.
I live in Morgan and paddle my duckie on the Weber often.  I'm not a hard shell kayaker (yet), but I do think that the whole community will benefit from building a wave park.

I've got a message in to Scott Walker at the DNR to get information from him on if we need a permit from them and if they may have funding available for habitat development.  I hope to talk to him next week.  Let me know if anyone else has any insight on this topic.

In general, it looks like this project could fit into the requirements of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation for grant money applications.  But we need to get farther down the planning path before submitting an application.
http://www.gsecclesfoundation.org/grantseekers/procedures.html

We need to create a local steering committee.  Please let me know if you live in Morgan county and are interested in joining me to create a Morgan County Whitewater Park Steering Committee, or if you know anyone who would be interested.  When our local government sees that there is a lot of support from the community, then they will be more likely to get on board.

I've been in contact with Crystal Young at RiverRestoration.org.  They have put together a concept plan of making some changes to the Como Springs and Fairgrounds diversion dams area.  This is in the Morgan County Council's realm.

My own personal vision is to also make changes to the high school falls (how cool would it be if the school had some paddling classes) and at the city park, as well as extending the Mickelson Mile foot path to the Fairgrounds, including a bridge.  RiverRestoration.org is willing and interested to put together a concept plan for the "High School/City Park Stretch".  This is in the Morgan City Council's realm.

John Daniels did some work on a Morgan park design and showed it to some people in Morgan about ten years ago but it didn't get off the ground.  For whomever is working on this now, it might be interesting to see if he still has some of his ideas on paper.  His email address used to be amj_red@xmission.com - not sure if it still is.

Thanks for the info npackham!  I just sent an email to that address.  Hopefully John will get it and reply with interest.

Anyone interested in joining the community steering committee and coming to Morgan City and County Council meetings to show your support for the development of a whitewater park, please join our group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/202802643219744/