OGDEN, Utah -- Alex Montanez, owner of Rovali’s Restaurant, has been giving his staff daily pep talks in preparation for the reopening of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Ogden Temple, which is scheduled for August 1.
The city predicts 700,000 people will visit the city during the five-week open house.
“This is probably one of the most important events in Ogden’s history, maybe since the railroad,” Montanez said.
Montanez has been talking with restaurants in Brigham City, who had their own temple opening two years ago.
“Basically what they said to me was, 'You are going to be busy from the time you open to the time you close,'” Montanez said. “Some made 5 million dollars in the five weeks they had the temple opening and the open house. I would like to see between 35 and 40 percent.”
At Scruds restaurant, owner Brett Lyman said when you potentially have hundreds of thousands of people walking past your door, you have to be prepared.
“We’re going to be getting shipments of food daily, probably working extra hours every night, we’ve got our food vendors bringing food in on emergency calls for us,” Lyman said.
The city said public works has completed more than 400 projects in preparation for the open house. Local residents have tallied up more than 20,000 in volunteer hours.
“We’re really impressed and inspired by how many people have come out and lent a hand to really spruce up our city and make it shine,” said Sara Toliver, President of Visit Ogden.
Businesses, like the Hilton Garden Inn, are literally neighbors with the temple. They feel a sense of responsibility to also look their best.
“Doing a lot of polishing, spending some money on landscaping, spending some money on just cleaning the building, cleaning our carpets, we want to look as shiny and new as possible,” said Matt Seamons, who is the manager of the Hilton Garden Inn.
The Ogden Temple Open House will run from August 1 to September 6, click here for details from the LDS Church's website.
