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Show C M C M Y K Y K A2 Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Gunnison youth court in now in session By Karen Prisbrey Staff writer GUNNISON—Parents and community leaders of Gunnison Valley were recently shown a demonstration of the newly organized Youth Court being adopted by Gunnison Valley High School. The demonstration was given at an open house held in the school library on Thursday, Feb. 12, with students who are members of the Youth Court, School Resource Officer Brian Nielson, Gunnison Police Chief Blane Jensen, Principal Kent Larsen, Karen prisbrey / messenger photo and school counselors Trevor Members of the Gunnison Valley High School “Youth Court” provided a demonstration to Powell and Linda Miller. show how the court works to those in attendance at a recent open house. From left front are Youth Court (in partnership Janze Jensen, Chuck Hammond, Brogan Neal, Xavier Jensen, Colton Lund and Kayla Barwith the Sanpete County Attor- tholomew. Back left are Officer Brian Nielson Malcom Powell, Casey Yardley, Jaden James, ney’s Office, Juvenile Court, Hayden Jensen, Carson Lund, Cutler Frandsen, Malichi McAfee, Matt Harris, Connor Dyreng, South Sanpete School District, Sara Jo Childs and Jaclyn Simons. Gunnison Valley High School, and the Gunnison Police De- have authority over a youth offense will be made in full prior will be assigned to the offender, partment) will offer a diversion- who is referred to them for to the time the case is completed along with reports, apologies, ary program that will provide a minor offense or offenses by the Youth Court, with restitu- interviews, damage repairs, and alternative disposition for cases and who is accompanied by tion being agreed upon between possible charting, journals and a parent, guardian or legal the youth and the victim. posters that apply to the offense, involving juvenile offenders. Dispositional options in- as well as other fines that may Goals for this program are: custodian. The individual clude: (1) Community be determined by the judges. (1) To provide youth ofservice. (2) Participation The Gunnison Valley Youth fenders an alternative to in law-related educa- Court requires a fee of $20 to Juvenile Court in order Offenses might range from tion classes, appropriate participate in the program. This to prevent continuation counseling, treatment, fee may be reduced or waived truancy, disorderly conduct in the justice system. or other educational pro- by the Court in exceptional (2) To afford individual and theft, to tobacco use, grams. (3) Provide peri- circumstances. accountability. (3) To odic reports to the Youth School credit may be protraffic violations, criminal increase competency Court. (4) Participation vided for participation as a development. (4) To mischief and assault. in mentoring programs. member of the Gunnison Valley educate youth offenders (5) Participation by the Youth Court. However, students and staff in the criminal youth as a member of should have some experience justice system. (5) To provide a productive service must voluntarily and in writ- the Youth Court. (6) Letters of before they are given the asopportunity for volunteers and ing request Youth Court in- apology. (7) Essays. (8) Any signment to be clerks, bailiffs, volvement and admit to hav- other disposition considered prosecutors, judges or jurors. offenders. All members of the Youth Students 18 years old and ing committed the referred appropriate by the Youth Court Court are required to keep conyounger may be referred to the offense. The juvenile must and adult coordinator. Youth Court dispositions fidential all information from Youth Court for minor offenses also waive any privilege by law-enforcement agencies, against self-incrimination must be completed within 180 court proceedings outside of those involved with the Youth school officials, the County and right to a speedy trial and days from the date of referral. Offenses might range from Court. Attorney or the Juvenile Court. must be willing to follow the Funding for the Youth However, they may not exercise Youth Court disposition of truancy, disorderly conduct and theft, to tobacco use, traffic Court system comes from the authority over youth who are the case. Any victims of these of- violations, criminal mischief court fees, which cover training under the continuing jurisdicand costs related to operating the tion of the juvenile court for law fenses have the right to attend and assault. Fines such as service hours, Youth Court. the hearings and be heard, and violations. The Youth Court will any restitution due a victim of an fees and voluntary restitution GUNNISON—The failing economy is taking its toll in many ways. Last week I mentioned the scams being perpetrated against the elderly, only to learn that similar scams are also being targeted against the younger generation. The passing of $100 counterfeit bills throughout the valley is hurting local businesses, and you have to wonder where it will all end. Congratulations to the 11 outstanding students at Gunnison Valley High School who have been preparing for this year’s Sterling Scholar awards on Tuesday, April 15, at the Sevier Valley Center at Richfield. Best wishes are extended to Hannah Christenson, Taylor Christenson, Kolton Crane, Shawn Gubeli, Chris Jensen, Gentry Jensen, Carson Lund, Malachi McAfee, Jessica Nelson, BJ Starks and Cheyenne Thatcher. Congratulations to Logan Christenson, son of Bruce and Alice Christenson, who recently received the “A” Pin award from Utah State University recognizing his academic achievement with the College of Engineering—two semesters of straight A’s. Members of the Gunnison 5th Ward basketball team recently won the Sanpete County championship after defeating two teams from Mt. Pleasant and one each from Manti and Fairview. Members of the team are Rylan Anderson, Taylor Christensen, Gus Davis, Tyler Jensen, Brogan and Heston Neal and Dylan Sorenson. Their coach is Jeremy Pickett. Congratulations to the 5th Ward boys. Mike and Mary Jensen’s son Jesse—with his wife Jennifer and their little son Kayson— visited with his parents this weekend from Colorado where Jesse is doing his residency. The Gunnison Valley High School Drill Team will present their annual Spring Show on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the high school gym beginning at 7:00 p.m. Be sure to see these talented young women perform the routines they have been performing this last year. The Utah Science Center, which emphasizes creative and active exploration of the worlds of science and technology, will bring their Traveling Science Center to Gunnison Valley Middle School next week. The Leonardo on Wheels—SCIENCE will be at the school Tuesday, Feb. 17, through Friday, Feb. 20. Students in our schools will all be given an opportunity to view the exhibit sometime during the week. The Prisbrey family was kept busy over the weekend attending several birthday parties. First there was the thirteenth birthday of grandson Wyatt Prisbrey on Thursday, who is the son of Devin Prisbrey of Gunnison, and another celebration for daughter-inlaw Staci of Aurora on Friday. Granddaughter Lindi Jo (also of Aurora) celebrated her special day on Sunday, and is glad to say she is no longer a teenager. Best wishes are extended to all our dear loved ones on their special days. Please give me a call at 528-7710 and let me know what’s going on with you and your families. I know there’s a lot of good news out there to share. Calendar Sisters (Continued from A1) award, and overall winners in various events will receive trophies, refund of their registration fees or their choices of other awards, according to Shannon Jensen. Covered Wagon Trek A covered wagon trek reenacting the arrival of the first pioneers is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. Meanwhile, at a Sesquicentennial Committee meeting Monday, Feb. 9, Matt Reber of Axtell, who has participated in covered wagon treks in the past, described how he wanted to organize the 10.3-mile wagon reenactment. He said he hoped to attract about 20 horse-drawn wagons carrying about 100 people, plus about 75 outriders on horses. The group will gather in Miller Canyon northwest of Fayette on Friday, May 22. They will travel down the canyon, cross S.R. 28 at Indian Road and follow Indian Road to U.S. 89. They would follow the highway into town and to the northeast corner of the Gun- nison City Park. Participants would pay a $15 entry fee, which would help cover the cost of a tshirt and commemorative belt buckle. Reber said he expected wagons and teams from elsewhere in Utah and possibly neighboring states. “People you talk to who do it are always looking for one to do,” he said. A celebration would follow at the park, and while specific activities haven’t been finalized, the Sesquicentennial Committee discussed a Dutch-oven dinner, pioneer games and awarding prizes in a beard-growing contest. The celebration could continue the next day, Saturday, May 23, with chili lunch, greased pole climb and other yet-to-be-determined activities, committee members suggested. July Fourth & Pioneer Day The Sesquicentennial Committee is encouraging organizers of July 4 and July 24 celebrations to brand them as Sesquicentennial events. The next major event following the covered wagon reenactment will be the Gunnison Valley July Fourth celebration, which will run July 3–4. Among ideas being discussed are staging a play written by elementary children containing anecdotes from Gunnison Valley history and putting on an extraordinary fireworks display in which rockets would be shot into the air from the four corners of Gunnison. Meanwhile, Sesquicentennial Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Jensen is compiling scores of written narratives and photos submitted by residents documenting the past 150 years. Most of the materials are histories of individuals who have lived in the Valley. The committee decided publishing a book, as was done following the Valley’s centennial in 1959, was too ambitious and costly, so the materials will be saved on a DVD, Jensen said. How the disk will be disseminated and what a copy will cost are still to be determined. More to come At the Sesquicentennial Committee meeting, Gunnison City Councilwoman Lori Nay talked about issuing a Sesquicentennial pin, which people could buy at events for under $10. The committee could either sponsor a design contest or simply select a local artist to design it, she said. Nay also asked people at the meeting what they wanted to create as part of the Sesquicentennial “as our legacy.” Suggestions have included a time capsule, permanent lighting of the “G” on a mountain west of the Valley, a wall inscribed with art and text recounting the Valley’s progress through the decades or an amphitheater at the Gunnison City Park, Nay said. Whatever is done, Steve Dressler, a committee member, said, “I think we need to be careful to make it feel Valleywide.” Cuts foregone conclusion, but how bad will it be? By Suzanne Dean Publisher EPHRAIM—The fact that the Snow College budget will be slashed for both this year and next goes without saying. The question is still how much. Last week, the Legislature passed what President Scott Wyatt hopes will be the final cut in current-year funding, the money the college is due to receive between now and June 30. Meanwhile, legislative leaders told all colleges to prepare for a 19-percent cut in their fiscal 2010 budgets, the appropriation they will receive from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. Besides its higher-education appropriation, Snow gets a substantial sum in Utah economic-development funds for a nursing program. That line item has been cut, too, bringing Snow’s total cut to 20 percent, or about $4.3 million out of a $22.2 million budget. In an interview Monday, Wyatt held out little hope that things won’t turn out as bad as they look right now. The cut to higher education could end up at less than 19 percent, he said. “There are legislators who are trying to make it smaller.” To date, the Legislature has refused to discuss potential use of the state “rainy day” fund or reallocation of road-construction funds to the general state budget. “I was amazed at how grateful some students were to be able to send a personal message to the Legislature,” said Taylor Jensen, a Snow student who helped Fox operate the video voting booth on the Snow campus last Thursday, Feb. 12. “A bunch of students shook our hands and thanked us for helping them do something to contribute.” Last September the Legislature passed a measure requiring all colleges to cut their base budgets 4 percent. At Snow, that translated to an $889,000 cut. After the Legislature convened in January, it batted around a lot of ideas, finally settling on a 3.5 percent cut to the reduced base budget. That was the cut approved last week. The second cut brought the total cut out of Snow’s 2008–2009 budget to about $1.7 million. While the Legislature’s intent has been to wrap up current-year cuts and move on to the 2010 budget, Wyatt said if revenue numbers are bad enough, legislators might reopen the current-year budget. That would be tough, he said. “It’s really hard to cut money when you’ve already spent it,” he said. Regarding 2010, Wyatt said if a 20-percent cut goes through, Snow will have to cut four to six programs and lay off more employees. Which programs and which employees haven’t been determined, he said. “We’ll try to do the cuts in such a way that most students, when they come next fall, won’t notice anything,” he said. Gunnison Good News By Karen Prisbrey 528-7710 (Continued from A1) tomorrow at the West Bountiful Stake Center. And on Wednesday and Thursday, the Snow College student government plans to set up booths and do some “dorm storming” to ask students to donate to a scholarship fund in memory of the Edwards girls. The goal, according to Dan Anderson, student body president, is to raise enough money to cover a year’s tuition. That will qualify the girls’ names to be permanently inscribed on a Heritage Wall, which will be part of the new library plaza. Any funds in excess of a year’s money will go to the family, Anderson said. Even before the college was officially notified of the accident, some students had heard about it and were texting each other with the sad news, Wyatt said. Anderson said the sisters, who lived at Park Place Apartments last semester, were in his ward and had visited him and his roommates at their apartment. “They were the nicest girls you would ever meet, very pretty,” he said. “Everyone liked them that I knew of. They were loved and they are missed.” “I was shocked and quite saddened, but I guess we’ve got to move on,” said Maben Larsen of Holden, an LDS home teacher to the Edwards girls. Micah, who was 20 and studying nursing, “loved to dance, loved to go to Western swing and have a good time,” Larsen said. And Shilo, who was 19, “was a sweetheart” who was “kind and nice and decent to everyone.” The sisters were traveling north on U.S. 89 near Indianola about 9 a.m. when the accident occurred. The occupants of the pickup were Steven and Suzanne Roylance of Fairview. The Roylances were taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where initially they were listed in critical condition. Based on reports in Salt Lake City newspapers, the deaths were a terrible shock for the girls’ family, especially their mother Lee Anne Edwards. A Salt Lake Tribune reporter reached her as the family was traveling to Rasmussen Mortuary in Mt. Pleasant, where the bodies were taken. “Why those two?” the Tribune quoted her as saying. “They were just sweet, good little girls.…I just have to see my girls and love them and hug them. I can’t believe this is happening. I just want them home.” Lee Anne Edwards told reporters that the two girls were so bonded with each other that it would have been difficult for one to go on without the other. She said when an accident like the one that took her daughters happens, “It was meant to be.” Sanpete News Company, Inc., publishing the Gunnison Valley Edition Deadlines, Post Office & Contact Information UPS# 232-020 Copyright, Sanpete News Company, Inc.©2009. All rights reserved. Reproduction, re-use, or transmittal of all matter herein is prohibited without prior written permission of the publisher. Published each Wednesday for 75¢ each, $26.00 inside Sanpete County, $33.00 outside Sanpete County, by Sanpete News Company, Inc., 35 S. 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