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Show I I n f r 1 L 3k VOLUME 92 NO. 58 Thursday, June 7, 2001 Kennecott begins closure of Magna concentrator By DEBBI OLSON Editor were issued on May 25 announcing the curtailment. "In March we began preparing employees that Kennecott would be cutting back somewhere," said Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation began to shut down operations at its North Concentrator Louie Cononelos, spokesman for Kennecott. "Closures are difficult circumstances to go through for everyone." notice of the cloEmployees were given a y sure. Some positions may be moved over to the Copperton operations. Employees will be able to remain with Kennecott until the end of July. The north concentrator, which mills the rock and separates the ore from the waste material, is the company's oldest facility which cost more to operate Plant on June 1 as the last rail haulage of rock was dropped off. The closure of the north concentrator will impact approximately 235 employees, about 10 percent of Kennecott's total workforce. The closure will also reduce annual ore production by about 18 percent. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices 60-da- than the newer facility in Copperton. According to Bruce Farmer, Kennecott's president and CEO, The closure of the north concentrator is in response to difficult market conditions and the need to improve the Company's business performance. "Our costs are too high and the closure of the higher cost, older North Concentrator Plant, will help reduce our costs over all," Farmer said. "This action will be only a part of an ongoing drive to reduce costs and improve efficiencies." In the last three years, continuing low copper prices and increased costs of production have result Main Street takes a step back into time please turn to COPPER page 8 Elementary grades to focus on reading By DEBBI OLSON Editor Taking a drive down Magna .Main Street this week looks like taking a step back forty Beginning with the 2001-0- 2 school year, every Granite School years to the 1960's. The new look is not a prod- District elementary school will have a reading specialist as the of the Downtown Revitalization Project, but of Annagh Inc., and Showtime, which is filming a new uct of equipping every student with district strives to meet the goal essential knowledge and skills. This year, first grade students who were most at risk of reading failure in 48 schools were served by reading specialists and their classmates benefited because first Showtime original movie based on the visit of a film crew to Dayton, Nev., for the filming of "The Misfits" The movie, entitled "Just a Dream" is a fictitious account of a true story that sees the grade class size was reduced through the use of Title VIb funds. filming of the popular Clark GableMarilyn Monroe movie from the point of view of a The Utah State Legislature provided funding to expand the use of reading specialists with the goal of having every Utah student reading at grade level by the end of third grade. In 11 Granite schools, the young boy. "Just a Dream" crews began changing the facades of Main .Street businesses last week, to make it look similar to the western Nevada town. The major filming took place Tuesday and Wednesday with additional scenes expected to be filmed today and Friday around Colosimo's Standard -- ed in United States copper production being reduced by more than 33 percent. 'Kennecott regrets the impact that this necessary action will have on employees," Cononelos said . 'To minimize this impact, the Company has offered an enhanced early retirement package for eligible hourly and salaried employees." Cononelos said that the company is hopeful that the loss of jobs can be minimized through attrition. The proposed enhanced retirement plans and the reassignment of personnel should reduce the num- - reading specialist position will be half-timbased on the available funding. Title VIb restricts funding based on demographics, CRT data and size of at risk population. "It remains our goal to expand the positions in all schools to fulltime as soon as more funding is e, Market and again on June 14. The filming required the closure of 2700 South from 8900 West to 9100 West and semi- . -- photos by Debbl Olson crews set up the lighting on Main Street for the filming of Just a Dream below, Magna Times Publisher Howard Stable meets cast member portraying Marilyn Monroe in the film. Film trucks of equipment were set up along many of the side streets throughout the filming Rudelich, director. Elementary Curriculum. During the two years Granite schools have had reading specialists, assessment results show dra- desert town. Billboards along Magna Main Street were also change to reflect the old 1960's atmosphere. area. 'The advantage of Magna is that it already has so many buildings from that period," matic gains and teachers have received valuable training. They in turn share strategies with their When locations scouts from said Andy Langton, location manager for the production. 'We're mostly making a lot of signage changes and creating some of the old facades to give it more of a western look." The most notable changes of Ahhagh, Inc. came to town about a month ago looking for a location for the film, director Danny Glover chose the of peers at all elementary grade levels to help improve literacy education. According to Julie Becker, the Title VIb reading specialist who mid-secti- 2700 South because it more closely resembled the town of oversees the assessment and Dayton, Langton said. "Our production designers did go to Dayton and did some historical studies to be as accurate as possible," Langton said. Just A Dream was written after a producer happened to walk into a bar in Dayton and noticed all the pictures of famous stars on downtown buildings were done to the outside of the Magna Times, The Filling Station, Pizza Express, Falvo's and Olsen's Bakery turning them into a saloon, drug store and bakery. The green grass and bushes in front of many shops were replaced with dry dirt and please turn to hay to represent the dry Nevada available," said Mary Alice training, reading specialists make a difference. When Liz Gould, reading spe- cialist at Carl Sandburg Elementary School, 3900 South 5325 West, tested the 1999-200- 0 first grade class to help determine which students were most at risk of reading failure and thus would receive intervention, Kylee was the first to be selected. ld DREAM page 8 Kylee could not read the phrase "No, No, No." Gould went to work with a group of students, incorporating the Granite District ReadingWriting Program strategies - a research-baseliteracy program. d balanced Kylee also received Reading intervention. By she made significant had midyear, Recovery progress and was transitioned back to the regular classroom to make way for another at-ri- reader. ' At the end of first grade, Kylee was reading on the fifth grade level and her progress has continued through second grade. Kylee's progress is not atypical in Granite District schools with reading specialists and is very much in keeping with both state and district goals related to literacy. "Unlocking the door to literacy is perhaps the mot important task we face as educators," said Granite Superintendent Stephen F. Ronnenkamp. VReading and writing are the cornerstones of all academic and most professional success in our society." Sandburg was one of 30 Granite District schools that had a reading specialist in the 1999-200- 0 school year. school During the 2000-200- 1 year the number of schools in the program increased to 48. Next year, all 63 Granite elementary schools will have a reading specialist. In 11 schools the reading specialist position will be halftime because funding is not quite sufficient to fully fund the program. The money to fund the reading specialists come from state and federal sources. Granite is able to use some of its Title VIb federal class size reduction money. The reading specialist teaches a first grade class each morning and works with small groups in the afternoon, thus reducing class please turn to READING page 8 Local residents prepare to deploy to Kuwait By DEBBI OLSON with'family support groups so Editor In August more than 150 Army National Guard soldiers from the Battalion of the 21 1 Aviation Group stationed at the Jake Gam ., available to help." ' of the First Nearly one-thir- d Battalion National Guard unit of 306 soldiers will be joining GJark Armory will be deployed to ' "'' Kuwait. To help families that are staying behind, and inform the community of what the division is all about, the National Guard help and open house Saturday . We have arranged every kind of information . family needs fpr this deployment said it. tt Claik, the commander in charge of the deployment unit. "The military has come on line CoL-Ma- POOR that, when something happens there is someone immediately in the deployment to Kuwait, . 1 which will begin in August and continue through mid February. More than 60 percent of that unit will be inade up of soldiers that live In Magna and West Valley V J City. . ."Out deployment didn't come as a shock to us," Clark said., We saw it coming as the first three apache attack battalions had gone ( . J T I "1 to Kuwait before us." Clark said the Utah unit will be the last National Guard unit scheduled to go to Kuwait. In a unique move, Clark received permission from the 5th U.S. Army General to deploy half of the unit for three-mont- h rotations of duty instead of the full unit serving for the six month deployment tour of duty. The unit will also leave from Utah to go directly to Kuwait instead of having to assembly at Ft. Lewis in Washington and leaving from there. This is a unique situation," Clark said. 'The challenge was 'what can I do for the soldiers and families to make this deployment better and how can I keep them after the deployment is over?' " Clark said that losing just one soldier would cost the military more than $500,000 in training time and money for each Apache pilot. By comparison, by offering three-mont- h six-mon- th rotations instead of rotations will cost the military about $300,000. "Retention of a soldier is critical," Clark said. "This has been a real win-wi- n situation for the so- ldiers, their families, their employers and the army." please turn to ARMY photos by Dsbbl Olson page 8 Visitors to the Jake Gam armory tour an Apache helicopter. |