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Show Review Wednesday, November IS, 1995 Page 2 Guest editorial Jobs create By ROLAND D. ROBISON As a housing market analyst, I'm often asked what's behind all these pesky new homes being built all around us. Interestingly enough, people seem somewhat perplexed when I explain that it boils down to one simple word., jobs. Dissatisfied with the answer, invariably invari-ably the petitioner responds with something some-thing like, "But, doesnt it have something some-thing to do with greedy developers overbuilding over-building the market?" "Not really," I explain, The market is actually far from overbuilt. In fact, if it weren't for today's high level of housing production we would have a very serious shortage of housing and severe social problems." Ifs an interesting study in human nature that we tend to blame our growth problems on people (greedy developers) rather than on jobs. After all, jobs are what provide us all with the necessities of life, so how can jobs be the problem? The fact is that for every 1.6 new jobs in our economy, a new household is created and each new household needs a home in which to live. So the question becomes, do we really want jobs in our economy? Lest we forget, just six short years ago we were witnessing the sad exodus of thousands of our friends and loved-ones, searching for a place where they could provide for their families. And with each farewell our economic pulse weakened, increasing the chance that our job would be the next to go. But recent years have brought new opportunity. Jobs! More jobs than we ever imagined. Jobs with good futures. Jobs that will allow us to stay in the state that we love, pave the way for our friends to return home and provide opportunities opportuni-ties for our children to raise their children chil-dren here. And not just job opportunities, but opportunities to expand our horizons, hori-zons, learn about others and teach them about us. Opportunities to welcome new Curse of the Some people are blessed with a green thumb. Some are not I fall into the "are not" category. One year a good friend showed up on my doorstep with a darling Christmas basket which contained a small pot of English Ivy. "Merry Christmas," Kathy said, "Better that you kill it than me." I dont know why I have such rotten luck. I like plants. You dont have to housebreak them, send them to their room, or coax them to eat leftover tuna casserole. They don't track mud on the carpet or wrestle around on the furniture. They just quietly ait there manufacturing oxygen. I grew up with plants. Mom had a house full of African violets, creeping charlies, philodendrons and Christmas cactus. She could grow anything! Often when I was home for a visit, Mom' would give me a start of something to take home and coax to live. It usually died one hour into the car ride home. I had little success. The first plant I ever tried nurturing was a wedding gift. It was a spindly, green plant with long finger-like leaves which were dappled dap-pled with yellow round splotches. It reminded remind-ed me of some kind of jungle plant Craig thought it looked like a wanna-be fern with a tropical disease. I defensively insisted that it looked "cute in its plastic yellow flower pot We moved the plant into our first apartment apart-ment along with box after box of miscellaneous miscella-neous belongings. I sat it in the middle of the kitchen table and suddenly it looked like someone really lived in the apartment Ifs residency on the kitchen table lasted only a few days. Craig said he couldnt swallow his oatmeal if he had to look at it while eating breakfast 1 moved the plant into a brown macrame hanger and hung it in the living room. It must have caught the right amount of sunlight sun-light because the little thing took off and grew several inches the first month I'd occasionally occa-sionally swing it back and forth Hke a baby in a cradle. It did well in its new location until Craig got up in the middle of the night for a drink and smackftd into it Leaves and potting pot-ting soil flew everywhere. I relocated the plant by placing it in the living room window sUL It seemed like the We are in red Americans have been making more money every month for the past four months. In the last month of record, September, the total income from all sources increased two-fifths of a percent ' while spending increased only one-fifth. That sounds good! That sounds as though Americans art much wiser money-managers than their Uncle Sam. 'Certainly that is true if we are salting away "rainy-day savings." The problem .is that these rosy Commerce Department statistics make no mention of the hole we are digging for ourselves - with increased consumer debt. - Over the past 10 years, Americana have been spending plastic money three : times (aster today, our credit-card debt totals $387 billion. ; .That debt that American cardholders hart accumulated averages $3,900 for each of us. So, the whole truth is that after pay-ins; pay-ins; . for shelter, food and taxes, Americans spend nearly 90 percent of their remaining income paying off debts! That number has never been higher. la the last 12 months, then were 07,000 personal bankruptcies ' 10 percent mors than last year. AO those bankruptcies should be remindful of growth comers, many of them anxious to participate partici-pate in our great lifestyle...othera needing need-ing a helping hand. Problems? Sure, they will come too. But arent they a part of life? With good leadership we will cope with them and grow from them. "But, ifs just all the people," comes the reply, "I know we need jobs, but I think our city needs to impose growth limitations so all of these people will go somewhere else to live." This comment smacks of an elitist phrase uttered hundreds hun-dreds of years ago, "Let them eat cake." Turning our backs on housing needs generated by economic growth will only create more severe problems, eventually leading to intervention from state and federal housing authorities who will impose brutal financial penalties on our municipalities for non-compliance with affordable housing standards. Ifs happened hap-pened on numerous occasions in a myriad myri-ad of cities throughout the country. If our local leaders ignore this eventuality, their short-sightedness will eventually cost us dearly, both financially and in controlling our own destiny. The answer lies in careful municipal planning, unbiased decisions and responsible respon-sible management, not in stiff-arming new households needing good quality and affordable housing. So, considering the alternatives, is taking a positive attitude towards growth so bad? After all, what is it that makes Utah special. ..accepting people and challenges with energy and resolve, or barricading ourselves in from the world to "protect our lifestyle?" Growth is the lifeblood of our lifestyle, for without it Utah's beautiful surroundings surround-ings and great people will be nothing but a memory as we and our children search for a place where economic opportunities produce the means to provide for our families. Growth...if we take it for granted we will be forced to live without it. brown thumb Grass Roots By BECKY GRASS JOHNSON Copyright O 1995 perfect solution. It would be well out of the way and still get plenty of winter sunlight. Not long after that we left for Idaho to visit family for a few days. Before leaving, I put a new fertilizer spike in the pot and gave the plant a big drink of water. That's the nice thing about leaving behind a plant. You don't have to have a neighbor feed it or worry that ifs going to run away while you're gone. When we returned home the next week, the first thing we noticed was how cold our apartment was. We had left just enough heat turned up so that the pipes wouldn't freeze. That didn't help our plant much. Ifs spiky leaves were frozen to the glass like little hands pressed against the window pane, crying cry-ing to be rescued. It was pathetic. Most people would have had the good sense to chisel it off the window and thrown it away, but I couldn't bring myself to do it It was our FIRST plant for heaven's sake! I ran to the bathroom for a warm washrag and a blow dryer. I warmed and thawed each blotchy leaf and peeled them from the window. win-dow. I sang to the little plant as I administered adminis-tered small sips of lukewarm water, then gently placed it back on the kitchen table so it could catch the first rays of morning sun. 1 think ifs going to pull through," I announced to my husband as we turned in for bed. I was wrong. The next morning, the sun shone on the withered little plant that looked like it had been through a forest fire. Ifs blacked leaves lay next to it on the table. Our first plant had gone to the big rain forest in the sky. Unfortunately, it set a precedence for how well plants seem to do under my care. Okay, so I don't have a green thumb. I didn't did-n't even make it as a plant paramedic! I still like to think that in some small way, I did inherit Mom's touch I've grown some pretty spectacular science experiments in the back of the refrigerator! ink up to our Paul 7 Harvey f News 1995 Paul Harvey Products Inc. 1989, when we spent ourselves into a two-year recession. Again, we are in red ink up to our ears! But, canny Americans protest, our debt is not as critical as that of our federal fed-eral government, which owes $28.3 trillion tril-lion more than it owns. True. And this is why responsible lawmakers are trying desperately to reverse our government's dangerous imbalance. With Americans heading into another holiday pending spree, a reminder seems in order that men and nations spending beyond their incomes go New light is nice, but we need more How do you like the new traffic light at 700 S. Main (Geneva Road)? I am thrilled about it. It was getting so that it was impossible to cross Main Street to go west on 700 South. I found myself always going to the light on Main Street at State Street so that I could make a right turn onto 700 South to go west. Usually, that is the way I go to get to the freeway. Someday we will have a new freeway free-way interchange out that way which will be a godsend. Pleasant Grove has long been in need of a closer freeway interchange. When the freeway was first built, Pleasant Grove was promised a freeway exit at 700 South. When the construction began, all of a sudden the city council learned that the plans had been changed without notice. Mayor Paul Fordham raised a ruckus but no one at the state level would listen to him. Instead, American Fork got two exits and Pleasant Grove got none. Of course, they said it was a Pleasant Grove exit, too. They even put Pleasant Grove's name on the exit sign. However, no one knows how to get to Pleasant Grove once they get on the off ramp at 500 East in American Fork. There are no more Pleasant Grove direction signs. One time a state person from UDOT was supposed to come down from Salt Lake City to meet with the Pleasant Grove City Council. He was late to the meeting. Finally he called and asked the council how to get to Pleasant Grove from American Fork or Lehi or wherever it was he was lost in. You would have thought right then that he would have got the message about Pleasant Grove's complaint but while Orem, Lehi and other cities got more than enough freeway exits, Pleasant Grove has remained impossible for travelers to find because of lack of signs. Another thing I wonder about is why there is no Timpanogos Cave or American We are doing Last week the chilly winds caused autumn leaves to dance everywhere. The bare trees are evidence that winter storms will soon bring much needed snow to the mountains and mother earth will rest for yet another season as we give thanks for yet another year. There is so much to be thankful thank-ful for. It was about this time of year, Nov. 19, that Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg. He spoke of the day our fathers brought forth and established a new nation, conceived in liberty liber-ty and dedicated to the proposition all people are equal. No one knew if a nation so conceived con-ceived and so dedicated could long endure. Regardless of what some say about the racial division in this country we have made great progress. A generation ago a black man could never have dreamed of seriously running run-ning for the presidency. This year polls shewed that a black man could actually win. Today a child of color can go to bed and dream of being president. A generation ago blacks were still being hung in trees as hooded hood-ed cowards celebrated. Today a woman can run for the mayorship mayor-ship of our capitol city without gender being the major issue. Today a young lady can think not only of being a teacher but a superintendent super-intendent Today a young girl cannot only think of being a nurse but a doctor. Today a woman can think not only of being the heart of a home but the president of the United States. We hold in our hands the power to transform trans-form the earth and make a for better world than we have ever known. We have the power to feed the hungry. We have the power to heal the sick. We have the power to comfort com-fort the lonely. There was a time when school buildings were tiny cold rooms and the entire state had little more than 5,000 library books. Today there is a nice warm school in every Letters to One vote really can make a Editor Who said that your vote doesn't make a difference! Tuesday night was a nail-biting experience experi-ence for the candidates running for the Cedar Hills Town Council. In our small com- ears broke. Consumers are suckers when they spend big chunks of income every month enriching the credit-card credit-card companies. And credit-card junkies are raising the prices on everything they buy. Reporting third-quarter earnings, hundreds of American corporations listed list-ed hundreds of millions of dollars in losses loss-es from bad loans. Those corporations have to make up those losses with higher high-er prices, which we all pay. Even the Federal Reserve Board is trying to sound a warning: "If we were to see a worsening in the economy, loan defaults could soar, eventuating in vastly vast-ly increased unemployment." Americans are on a drunken spending spend-ing binge, and credit-card companies keep offering them "one more for the road." This past year, they sent out 2.1 billion solicitations for consumers to use new cards! , Catherine Williams of Chicago offers a professional counseling service sort of a "Betty Ford Clinic" for credit-card junkies. She sees Americans refinancing - their homes and even borrowing from their retirement programs to finance . lifestyles they cannot afford. PG Blab By MARCELLA WALKER Fork Canyon ?ign at State Street and 100 East in Pleasant Grove. Probably as many travelers use this route to go to the cave and to the canyon as they do from the freeway free-way via the Alpine Highway. Pleasant Grove's 100 East is heavily traveled and is badly in need of some left turn lanes. Geneva Road is one of the most used roads in the county and it has more accidents than most other streets. Many of these accidents are due to the fact that there are no left turn lanes anywhere any-where along it in Pleasant Grove and Lindon, until you get to 600 South in Lindon. Motorists are always driving into the rear of another car which has had to stop in the travel lane to make a left turn. Requests to have the state widen this road have not been successful to date. Thank goodness for the new light at 700 South. Now, we need a few other lights as well. One at 2000 West State will be crucial with the ne-v IDS Temple going in. When the open house for the temple is held next summer sum-mer the traffic will be humongous. They are expecting about one million people. A temple itself does not generate a lot of traffic for regular use but for the open house it is something else. A light at the intersection is on the master mas-ter plan but it will likely not be installed by the time of the temple open house. things many never dreamed of People, Politics and Policy By E. MARK BEZZANT neighborhood and we can access millions of books around the globe. There was a time when we didn't even talk about teen pregnancy or child abuse. We hid it in the closet There was a time when we had no drunk driving problem because we had no cars to drive when people were drunk. There was a time when we didn't keep cancer statistics because we didn't even know what cancer was. There was a time we never faced the problems of old age because few people lived long enough to face those problems. There was a time the smell of death was more frequent fre-quent in the delivery room than the joy of life. There was a time obituaries were filled with the faces of young mothers who left behind young families. Nov. 7, was a great day in America as people peo-ple went to vote. It was so American to see good decent people at the polls. The rich and the poor each had one vote. It was so American to see the election judges sitting at the tables passing out ballots one by one. All of you who voted, not only cast a vote for certain cer-tain candidates but more importantly you cast a vote for the future of this great land. Those who were not elected deserve a special thanks. Each one could have made a contribution. Each one provided us with a the editor munity it shouldn't have taken almost two hours to count our few votes. The reason for the delay was the need for a recount, because only one vote had separated candidates candi-dates "A" (189) and "B" (188), and only six votes separated candidate "C. (183), all vying for the second of two seats being voted on. The recount found one vote being mistakenly mis-takenly counted in candidate "B's" favor, resulting in a final separation of two votes between "A" (189) and "B" (187) and the results being declared final and put into the history books. Interestingly, candidate "A" had only made it through the primary election elec-tion by only one vote, and a low number by comparison to the others at that Any way you look at it, even a one point win in the Super Bowl stOl gets you the ring and the championship. Two votes! Incredible! In our election a single vote has made the difference. No doubt that the candidates wished that ALL of their supporters had made it to the polls, including those who showed up to vote only to find out that the?- weren't registered, regis-tered, those who intended to but didnt register reg-ister in time, also those who though registered regis-tered were out of town and didnt get their necessary absentee ballots, and those who showed up to the polls late. It would be interesting to find out the results with those variables resolved, but of course we wiQ never know, because the only thing that counts is what took place on Tuesday, Nov. 7, from 7 am. to 8 pjn. s All of the candidates (nvfating those from the other cities and states) should be commended for their efforts m even running. run-ning. It is not an easy thing for an individual individ-ual to put himself and subsequently his family under the intensely hot spotEght of public apd media pressure and scrutiny and If vou have tried lately to make a left hand turn from 2000 West (the hospital road) at State Street to come back to Pleasant Grove, you have found that it is nearly an impossible task. The same problem exists at 1300 West and State Street. What about crossing 100 East at 1100 North going either direction? What about 200 S. 100 East? Or if you really want a challenge try to make a left turn from 100 East by the Purple Turtle onto State St. Trying to get across State Street at 400 North in Lindon to travel south is a laugh and if you want to make a left hand turn from Lakeview Rd. in Lindon to head north toward Pleasant Grove, you might as well forget it. I just automatically drive west to Geneva Road and make a right turn and come back to Pleasant Grove that way. Lindon has a multitude of problems trying try-ing to make left turns onto State Street to travel southbound from Main Street, Center Street, 100 North, and 200 South is a killer. You can sit at 200 South in London for a day and a half before you can get a break in the traffic to make a left hand turn to travel south. Four-way stops are a big help. The one at 300 E. 200 South in Pleasant Grove has prevented a lot of accidents. The one at Main Street and Center Street in Pleasant Grove has helped although it has increased traffic on Main Street at the afternoon rush hour so that people can use the traffic light at 100 E. Center Street Four-way stops at 200 S. and 400 East in Lindon and at 400 North and 200 East in Lindon have helped traffic move much smoother. I have probably missed some others but these are a bunch of the bad spots. The traffic traf-fic light at 700 S. Main is wonderful. If you can pull any strings or know anyone in high places, try and get us a few more, okay? I different perspective and made us think. Each one had the courage to face defeat Because of the courage and leadership of Mike Hatch, Little League kids will one day play on even better ball diamonds than those where the new swimming pool is being built Because of Mary West Pleasant Grove is a much, better place to live. Ed Sanderson helped turn the tide in this community. The new members of the city council have a wonderful opportunity to make a great difference dif-ference for good in Pleasant Grove. The top four vote getters have a great opportunity to move this city forward in a magnificent way by really listening to the people, all of the people. They must seize the moment The Citizens Farty now holds every eecr.,. tive office in Pleasant Grove, With their s . .opportunity they have a clear responsibility . to the peopleThey have a responsibility to be absolutely honest and up front with the good people of this city. They have the responsibility to be courteous and respectful of those they might disagree with. Any public servant who refuses to respond to honest inquiry from any citizen is .' not fit for office. Any public servant who distorts dis-torts the truth and spreads lies behind closed doors about citizens should resign or be driven out of office. Fortunately the strength and goodness of ' the American people have preserved us a nation. God has blessed this people through many dark days. Even as we celebrated Veterans day last week we remembered the sacrifice of so many. It is still for us, the living, to be highly resolved that these veterans shall not have served and died in vain. This government of the people, by the people, and for the people must never perish from the earth. This Thanksgiving remember millions around the globe only dream of what most all of us have come to take for granted. difference unfortunately sometimes ridicule and slander slan-der just for the opportunity to be of service ser-vice to the community. I know this from experience. I am the fortunate for-tunate candidate "A" The reality is that all of the candidates did such a good job in helping help-ing bring relevant issues to the attention of the people of Cedar Hills and created such an interest in the community and its direction direc-tion that an unheard of 67 percent (400 of the 598) of the registered voters made their way to the polls last Tuesday to make their voices heard. From what I've been able to determine, this is by far the best in the state, and undoubtedly bodes quite high nationally. What a great country we live in. Our founding fathers created a legacy by establishing estab-lishing the Constitution. We can, every one of us, be a significant part of the political process. The same cannot be said for many parts of the world. Setting aside the outcome out-come of the election, the people became part of the process and our representative democracy system has worked. For that the people of Cedar Hilla should be proud and considered the real winners. :- : Ttt those who kindly supported me in the election, I must thank you, I look forward to working hard to fulfill my campaign promia-es promia-es and for the benefit and interests of the entire Cedar Huls community in conjunc-tion conjunc-tion with the other elected officials. For those who may now find themselves wishing that they had become part of that process, it is never too late to register. Those wishing to find out if they are registered or those who want to register can caQ Donna or Peggy at the Utah County Elections office, . 370-8128. When w are registered and exer-: rise our vote ear voices can be heard all cdaremuteBeheeraCcsigrutulaiiaM' 'v-'. '. .. ' " KeaCromar 0 4 4 |