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Show ESI Cast informed vote Next Tuesday, patrons of the North Sanpete School District will be deciding whether to bond for $5.8 million to rebuild the Moroni Elementary School, build a new school in Fountain Green, provide additional classroom space at the the high and middle schools and meet other needs. There are strong reasons to vote for the bonds and strong opinions voiced against it by opponents. The school board has made every effort to inform citizens as to the need for the building project by holding public meetings in all North Sanpete communities. Unfortunately, some of these meetings were not well attended. If you missed the meeting in your town, you can attend a meeting in Fairview tonight and tomorrow night in Moroni and Fountain Green. During the next few days, we urge voters to study the issue, get the facts from district officials, rather than at the post office rumor mill or the coffee shop and make an informed vote next Tuesday. If you are concerned about the taxes and how much you will be paying, then check with district business administrator or the county assessor. Its your children and grandchildrens future and your money, so make an intelligent decision when you vote Tuesday. Letters County Chamber urges for vote in NS bond election Dear Editor: The Sanpete County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and those attending the March 10 meeting voted unanimously to support the North Sanpete School District bond election. There are few issues more important to the ability of an area to experience economic health, development and stability than a strong educational system. Our areas future depends on our ability to train a capable and dependable work force. Proper facilities are the foundation in this process. We encourage North Sanpete citizens to attend the public hearings scheduled over the next few days. Learn all you can regarding the proposed use of the funds to be raised by the bond. We feel this is an important issue for our communities future and we urge your participation in the process. Mae Thompson president Something is wrong with districts bonding plan Dear Editor: The flyer printed at taxpayer expense and sent home with each school child describing the upcoming bonding plan of the North Sanpete School District is attempting to misinform and defraud district taxpayers. Its true that the amount to be bonded is $5.8 million. The amount to be repaid with interest and fees, however, is $17.9 million. The flyer says that the owner of the average ($60,000) house will only have to pay an additional $11.04 per year in property taxes. Using the districts figures would produce the following revenue: $ .04 per year for the average household over 25 years makes $276 from each household. Considering there are 3,300 residential houses in North Sanpete that makes $911,352. If the total to be repaid including interest and fees is $17,882,784, and $911,352 is paid by residences, who is going to pay the $16,971,432. 1 1 Sanpete's Leading Newspaper THE P9RHII1ID (USPS 365-58- 0) Published Weekly at Mt. Pleasant Utah, 84647 49 West Main Street Telephone: FAX: 462-21- 462-24- Martin Conover Koleen Peterson Penny Hamilton Publisher Managing Editor Editor Office Lynda Grover SUBSCRIPTION Manager RATES (In Advance) per copy per year outside Sanpete County $18peryear-50- ( $21 Correspondents 427-33Fairview, Ginnie Richins 462-21Gordon Barbara ... Moroni, Ftn. Green, Jessie Oldroyd . 2 8 Wales, Colleen Lamb Dean O'Driscoll Snow College 445-342- 436-880- Send change of address to The Pyramid, 49 West Main Street, Mt. Pleasant, Ut 84647. Second class postage paid at Mt. Pleasant, UT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Dont let the uninformed Voters need to ask questions Page Two - The Pyramid - March 17, 1993 School District Superintendent Dennis Mower, when asked about this discrepancy, said that the balance would be paid by "local business, the feed company and turkey plant." The businesses and farmers of Sanpete County are not exactly rolling in money. I simply cant imagine them paying this $17 Dont waste time with half truths Dear Editor: In reference to the last couple of "letters to the editor" that have appeared in The Pyramid, I would like to make the following comments regarding their comments and concerns about the Fairview Museum of History and Art. The efforts of the museum corporations board of trustees to keep the community informed and up to date as to whats happening, what is not happening and what the trustees would like to happen has been: 1 . Published articles which have appeared in this publication; 2. The museums administrative consultant being in direct weekly contact with the mayor of Fairview City; 3. And again, by the city councils representative being in attendance at monthly trustee meetings; 4. As well as concerned citizens in attendance at appropriate meetings. But in spite of all these direct channels of communication, there are individuals who still seem to not be fully aware or fully understand what is and what is not going on with the museum. As one of the vice presidents of the museum corporation, I would like to invite any of the citizenry to contact me by way of the museum office, Monday-Frida9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I would like to invite you to attend our monthly trustee meetings held the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the museum board room. We welcome your attendance and input. Please dont waste your time listening to and trying to deal with rumor and half truths. Please, if you want to know for sure whats happening, then talk with one who knows instead of getting it from the wrong end of the horse. Waiting to hear from you. Richard Green 427-921- 6, y, Vice President Fairview Museum of History & Art Fairview wreck the museum project Dear Editor: This letter is in response to comments in The Pyramid March 3 regarding the Fairview Museum project. Following the resignation of Jerry Nelson in 1990, the museum boards immediate concern was to find a new director. We needed someone who could devote many hours to this job Dear Editor: On March 23 North Sanpete School District residents will be able to vote on a bond to raise their taxes. The bond they will be voting on is a general obligation bond that if it goes into effect, will raise property taxes on everything that is taxable, including businesses, farms, houses, bams, outbuildings, cars, boats, motorcycles, campers, water shares, and everything else that is registered with the county. The North Sanpete School District already has a $6.9 million (excluding interest) bond against the residents which will be paid off in 1999. According to Jay Alder, Sanpete County Auditor, because of a state law change, the North Sanpete School District held a public meeting to retain about $100,000 in taxes last year. Public meetings are held to inform the public of matters and to gain insight into ways of solving problems. There is usually no vote at these meetings. If no one attends these meetings, the democratic process breaks down and there is no influencing the representatives. There are several questions voters need to ask themselves about the upcoming bond election. First, is this bond really necessary or are we basically patting the kids on the head, giving them a dollar and not really looking at the real prob- which has many assignments-a- exhibit. Swensen visited homeowners, mass meetings were held and Fairview citizens approved the project in a bond election. The process of meeting Community Impact Board criteria began. This process took many hours and hard work before the CIB would approve the $400,000 loan which was concitizens tingent on Fairview to complete approving $400,000 the $800,000 project. The museum board planned to use the south building for the mammoth exhibit until it found that it is not up to earthquake codes and the city would be liable. The museum board paid $3,000 to Ken Karren and Associates who estimated the cost for bringing the building up to seiswould be mic code alone lem? Are the monies being spent wisely? Are taxpayers going to have their taxes raised even further if any of the big businesses who are paying the largest amount goes out of business? Are taxpayers being led into this bond through the phrase, "Its for the good of the children?" The vote is important. Voters have a direct say in the running of their community. If they dont vote according to how they feel on the issue, they are giving away one of their basic freedoms. $170,000. That is when the board abandoned the south building in favor of constructing a new building. Museum personnel are proud to be in the relic business and the Columbian mammoth found in our dooryard is a honey! National Geographic calls dinosaurs "sacred relics". Last week former councilwoman, Karen Vance, said, !the mammoth 1 display will never be anything more than a sideshow." What better sideshow could Fairview hope for? Requests for replicas of the skeleton, found 12 miles east of Fairview, are coming in from Japan, Australia, Canada, the Philippines and the United States. It is the most complete single Karen Burton Mt. Pleasant Crib corner1 ll demanding time, patience and perseverance. Curly Swensen accepted this challenge, has the background and has been committed to this work. After the discovery of the Columbian Mammoth in 1988, fund- - raising projects began including the acceptance by former director, Reed Mower, of $15,000 from the Eccles Foundation. When Swensen became director, he inherited a building project as the north building does not have space for the mammoth mammoth skeleton ever found. Frank DeCourten, Director of the Utah Museum of Natural History, reports it is the specimen ever located and so well preserved that scientists have isolated about a dozen original amino acids in the bones. State leaders including officials from the US Forest Service are watching Fairview and waiting anxiously for this major attraction. Moving ahead with a beautiful new building will serve two vital functions- -a home for our prized mammoth and other exhibits plus basement storage area adequate to house artifacts from the north building during that renovation. To attempt improvements on the north building at this time means closing the museum for years. A major tourist attraction ' and Green Thumb jobs will be lost during that time. Bonded contractors will not make commitments to work on the north building until engineers provide costly feasibility studies on the structural, mechanical, electrical and architectural condition of the building. This is a public building and all work must be done so the project doesnt come out "butchered." The museums priceless col- - ii:: FOUNTAIN GREE- N- Angela Goode announces the birth of a son, Coltin Lee Goode, Feb. 11, 1993, in Nephi. Grandmother is Mary Goode. are May and Harold Robison, all Fountain Green. Great-grandpare- million. Something is definitely wrong with the school boards proposal. The people who stand to benefit from this gigantic tax increase are trying to con us again. Its time to wake up and quit believing everything we are told by bureaucrats. The bond is a fraud and should not be supported by the people of Sanpete County. Scott Glauser Mt. Pleasant Heavens even more blessed Dear Editor: On Dec. 12, in central Utah, a great human being was laid to rest in the Mt. Pleasant City Cemetery. Outside of Sanpete County, much of the world will scurry on. In Sanpete County, a great void will be felt. Evelyn Johansen was a pilar of strength and driving force for good in that community. She was a moral force for progress and excellence. She loved and nurtured a great family. That family in turn has contributed in countless ways to make a better community, a better Utah and a better nation. Not far from the Johansen home is the geographic heart of Utah. I dare say that few who have traversed this world have had a greater or more generous heart than this good woman. She was an inspiration to all who knew of her. Indeed, if all the people in Utah followed her leadership, we would have great schools, beautiful communities, wonderful families and beautiful rose gardens everywhere. While heavens streets might be paved with gold, they now will be lined with roses, and bouquets of them will adorn heavens gates to welcome those, like Evelyn, who helped make this world a beautiful place. E. Mark Bezzant Pleasant Grove Senator gives update on legislative action Dear Editor: It can be said that this was a very good year in the legislature for Rural Utah. The needs and concerns of our area was adequately addressed and considered. A number of bills were passed including one of the most significant, HB 171, the Private Property Protection Act. This bill guarantees that property will not be taken by state agencies without proper compensation. The bill further requires all state agencies to review their programs to consider any actions they have related to the taking of private property and to set guidelines that would reduce the impact and consider alternatives. Another very important action was the classroom reduction bill that appropriated $11 million to reduce the class sizes in kindergarten through second grade. The actual amount a district will receive will depend on their classroom sizes in relation to state averages. Since class size is especially important in these basic learning ages, we should see an improvement in the quality of education from this action. SB 89 sets up a fund to give grants to small cities to help with drinking and wastewater projects. Low interest loans Jiave been available but often a grant is needed for a portion of the project cost. This bill is limited to small communities and will help many of our cities in the future. As a result of the Quail Creek Dam a few years ago, the legislature passed a bill in 1990 requiring all dams to meet todays engineering standards. As this bill was implemented, it became clear that the estimated cost of $150 to $200 million was not reasonable. SB 47 was passed to reduce the required dams to only those whose failure would cause personal death or damage major utilities. It also set up grant money to help dam owners rural-relat- ed do evaluation studies and funded a rainfall study to evaluate the possible maximum flood potential by area in the state. It is estimated that this study should reduce the spillway requirements for many of these dams and thus reduce upgrade costs by 35 to 50 percent. Two very important bills related to county government, SB 194 and HB 162, were passed. SB 194 cleared up a problem related to the assessing and collecting levy on property taxes. The new bill sets the formula for disbursement of the money and should eliminate the controversy that has existed in the past between counties. As a result, counties will be able to depend on the amount they will get each year and share the assessing and collecting levy in a fair and equitable manner. HB 162 was passed to correct a state mandate to counties that was not funded. Mandates without funding are major problems for local governments. This bill will phase in funding to county governments to reimburse them for state prisoners counties are required by state judges to house. All counties will benefit. We also passed two bills which are important to our agriculture community and wildlife sportsmen. HB 79 and 99 are related to the problems of predators. These bills recognize that populations of raccoons, red foxes, coyotes, and skunks are out of control. The damage these predators do to crops, livestock, turkeys, pheasants, and other game animals needed some control. These bills allow the taking of these animals without a license and gives a county the option to allow night hunting in problem areas. HB 120 related to Enterprize Zones restricted the program to i rural counties and increased tax incentives for business to expand or come to Sanpete and other depressed areas. Two proposed cuts in the budget process, the meals on wheels program and the Extension, were both funded again. I appreciated the many calls and letters related to both of these matters. It was helpful in stopping the elimination of these programs. Probably one of the most important matters before the legislature this year was the Resolution on Religious Liberty. Often called the "pray amendment", this resolution would have placed the issue on the ballot in 1994 to amend the Utah Constitution to allow prayer in government meetings and to permit the public acknowledgement of religious or cultural tradition, practices or beliefs. This resolution passed the Senate but failed to pass in the House. I am sure it will come up next year and hopefully pass. It is so essential that we retain those religious and cultural strengths which have made this one of the best places in this nation to live. Only by holding fast to these proven moral beliefs will we maintain the quality of life we so much enjoy. Some citizens are not concerned that the recall of the Constitutional Convention was This resolution not passed. passed in the House but got hung up in the rules committee of the Senate. Some of the legal problems related to the matter were not resolved in time for this session. Senator Leonard Blackham Moroni Scholars believe the first wallpaper was made in Europe during the 1500s. best-preserv- lection of artifacts will have to be moved but where? Not to the south building which leaks like a sieve. That building would no doubt have collapsed under the snow load this year if Swensen and Green Thumb worker, Joe Simpson had not shoveled the snow off after each storm. With the exception of the senior citizens side, did you see anyone else there? During his tenure Swensen has been a motivator, a great recruiter and worked with Community Impact Board, UDOT, Utah Historical Society, US Forest Service and many other groups for the benefit of the museum. The present 14 members of the board have contributed a combined total of over 65 years of volunteer service. The board has also solicited volunteer help from others as needed. How many hours have the letter, writ; ers donated to your museum? Now that the money is on its way (if CIB doesnt take back part of its $400,000 loan, not the other $400,000 approved by the voters, because of the councils action) everyone has an opinion. The museum director, board members and volunteers are working for our community. The best way to get the facts and working knowledge of what has gone into this project is to become involved by attending museum meetings and volunteering your service. Then it becomes clear why museum workers are so dedicated. Think twice before you let uninformed people destroy this project. Get the facts, folks and lets pull together. Norma Vance, member Fairview Museum of History & Art t I city-own- ed I I i 4 H i i I A i 4 : r tf 4 Russell Buttars, son of Clinton and Marsha Buttars of Mt. Pleasant, has been called to serve in the Hong Kong LDS Mission. He will speak at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 21, in the Moroni LDS Stake Center. He enters the MTC April 7. Roadshows set Tuesday LEK3 MT. PLEASAN- TStake Road shows will be held Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. in four locations in the stake. Shows will be held in the Fairview Second-Thir- d Ward, Mt. Pleasant Ward, Stake Center and Spring City. The theme for this year is "Hysterical History." See all shows. Nine wards will be participating and each show will be performed at all locations according to Shirley Lauritzen, Stake Cultural Arts Director. First-Four- th 3 IK |