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Show A8 Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Vernal Express o-p-i-h-ghsf- . . ,. .... ..-......A ., I PROPER GROWTH NEEDS PLANNING By Les Bowa Express Editor Growth. It's the foremost topic for community leaders in the Uintah Basin. But managing that growth is not an easy task. Just last week, county commissioners said no to a re-zone that would have put industrial into the back yards of 50-year-old homes instead of the agricultural zone that is there now. Earlier this year, Vernal city officials nixed a proposal that would have put dense residential housing into an otherwise quiet family neighborhood. neighbor-hood. But denials aren't always the mode. The two examples above only came after intense comments from neighbors. And both exhibited the trend of developers to get their projects through no matter the cost. Last week's involved the rezone of property in the Davis area where an industrial user has expanded beyond the industrial zone - coming within a quarter mile of a quiet neighborhood and a school. When a land owner extends outside the proper zone and are out of compliance, officials should stop those actions and tell the owner they have to go elsewhere. Rezoning an area to allow a landowner to keep operating after having violated the zoning ordinance is like raising the speed limit because people are going too fast on Main Street. It doesn't make sense. You stop it from happening and you cite violators. To stop a housing complex from going in their back yards, Vernal residents had to go not once, or even twice, but three times to the city council. coun-cil. Each time, the city council told the developer that high density housing is needed in the Uintah Basin, but it belongs only in certain areas - not in a quiet residential area. But it took a room full of opposition before that happened. In both cases, officials would have been acting proper and legal to allow the heavier use. In many cases, officials can only find the ground to stop improper uses when the public points them out. Uintah Basin's cities and counties are all in the process of making decisions that will determine how and where growth will occur. Vernal and Naples are reviewing long term plans for their city centers. cen-ters. Uintah County is reviewing its master plan. It is only through the commenting process that officials will know what members of the public want. So show up to a public hearing and be heard. Let officials know about your vision for your community. BERTHA BUTTERBEAN The games Bertha plays By Paha CotowcH. Guest Writer Addictions Ad-dictions and neuroses have hpfinrrooDina ' - r , up all over the f place the past few years. For instance, there are now ecc- therapists who specialize special-ize in treating ecc-anxiety. I'll let you figure out what that is. I am not going to say that I don't have any neuroses, tics, or irrational ir-rational behaviors, but you will never see my name on the roils of the local chapter of Gambler's Anonymous. "Fickle" is too nice a word to describe Lady Luck - my lady or yours. To be sure, I am all for getting the most for my dollar, in fact if there is a bargain to be found, I could be a little neurotic about getting in on it. But putting money on the barrel head and then trusting in something I have very little of (luck) is not part of my agenda. I know you could argue with the sensibilities of Bertha. Rationality or brains may not be my long suit, but I'll take them over clubs or spades any day. Whatever kind of sense I employ, I know it is more reliable reli-able than luck. Forone thing, my Lady Luck is a flint-faced, tight-fisted crone whose only smiles in my direction are smirks.Actually the same lady's influence inflicts my whole family to one degree or another. I like to play games, board games, word games, mind games (not the kind where I mess with your brain; I'm not smartenoughforthat); but don't try to enlist me to play any kind of game that depends on the the roll of little white cubes with no minds at all. I can almost happily concede a loss to a game player who is better than I, but not to a mindless spinner or a deck of cards. In fact, if zero-IQ cards or dice get the best of me in any game, I might go home and never play with them again. I once played canasta with Father Butterbean and lost seventeen hands in a row. That made me angrier than losing at a word game all afternoon to my brother who I know is smarter than I am. I am still trying to beat my brother and everyone else at word games, but I have not played canasta in thirty years. And I have never lost seventeen games of Trivial Pursuit, but I would rather lose at it than win at Uno. If I played any game with seventeen randomly picked players and we matched wits, there would be no way I could lose that many times in a row, however weak my sensibilities are. Relying on the luck of the draw or the roll of the dice is like letting someone you have never met do your homework for you. That is a scary thought. You may or may not be able to do it better, but doing it yourself allows al-lows you to be in control. Maybe that's what this is about. You can usually count on your own brains. You can even count on the lack of them in which case you might have to count on your fingers, but at least you know what you have got to work with. . No one can pull on your arm and one time come I 1 up with cherries and another time get fruit salad. Your arm is remotely connected to your brain and you are always going togetyourown particularvariety of smart. So, no, I have never lost time from work or school due to gambling. And I haven't sold the family farm to finance a trip to Vegas. There isn't a drop of Irish blood in my veins, and if I ever had a lucky shirt I wore it out. I could bring up rabbits' rab-bits' feet here, but I haven't seen one of those in years. There's probably a reason for that. After all, they weren't very lucky for the rabbits, were they? But the sight of one of those would likely trigger an episode and send anyone with eco-angst into a tailspin - or would that be a foot-spin? INC. I Immn$ All "I've always had an exit strategy . . . just not one for the troops.' WAS OUR TIME BETTER OR NOT? BvKBrBlftSHEY Express Publisher i. : The' followihcj dates back to at least i002i ' when it was passed around the Internet on e-mail and later posted on blogs. As it was passed around, people added their own lines. V Close your eyes ... And go back. Go back ... Before the Internet or PC or the Mac ... Before semi-automatics and crack ... Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari ... Before cell phones, CDs, DVDs, voice mail and e-mail. Go way back ... way ... way ... way back. I'm talkin' 'bout hide and seek at dusk, red light, green light red rover red rove ... . Playing kickball and dodge ball until the first, no second, no ... third street light came on. Ring around the rosie, London Bridge, hot potato, hop scotch, jump rope, you're it! Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones. Take one giant step ... May I? Seeing shapes in the clouds. Endless summer days and hot summer sum-mer nights (no AC) with the windows open. The sound of crickets. Running Run-ning through the sprinkler. Cereal boxes with that great prize in the bottom. Cracker Jacks with the same thing. Ice pops with two sticks you could break and share with a friend. Watching Saturday morning cartoons, Tom and Jerry, serial adventures, adven-tures, Captain Midnight, Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Boston Blackie, catching catch-ing lightning bugs in a jar, Christmas morning, your first day of school. Bedtime prayers and goodnight kisses. Climbing trees. Swinging as high as you could in those long swings to try and reach the sky. A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers. Jumping down the steps. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Running home from the Western movie you just say until you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Being tired from playing. Work meant taking out the garbage, cutting the grass, washing the car, or doing the dishes. Your first crush. Your first kiss - the one that you kept your mouth . closed and your eyes open. Rainy days at school and the smell of damp concrete and chalk erasers. Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer. So was a swig from the hose. Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars of your bike. When any parent could discipline any kid or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody - not even the kid - thought a thing of it. When your parents took you to the cafeteria and it was a real treat. When being sent to the principals office was nothing compared to . the fate that awaited you at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive by shooting, drugs, gangs, etc. We simply did not want our parents to get mad at us. Let's go back to the time when decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo!" Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do-over!" "Race issues" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening. It wasn't odd to have two or three "best friends." The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties. Nobody was prettier than Mom. Scrapes and bruises were kissed by Mom and made better. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare." Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was a cause for giggles. And the worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon. If you can remember most of or all of these, then you have lived during dur-ing a more pleasant and simpler time. But what do we do? Was "our time" better than the time our kids are enjoying today? Is it even possible to go back once we have moved as a mass forward? Probably not and even though we think that we grew up in the best time, I can remember my parents commenting the same when I was young about their great childhood experiences as being the best around. And I can guarantee you that our children will be touting the same claim when they have grown a foot or two and become moms and dads themselves. Was my time the best time? Of course. But I won't exclude other times as being fun and yes, productive, for the raising of kids to be responsible, respon-sible, dependable, hardworking members of society. Public Forum - Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if in good taste and not libelous or vindictive. Letters may be edited for grammar and style, length and content. All letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the full name, signature, phone number and address of the writer or writers. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in this forum. Submissions may be mailed to 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078; faxed to 435-789-8690 or sent by e-rnail to editorvernal.com,The name or names of the persons' submitting letters must appear on all published letters. Letters, express, the opjn.ior) ,of he writer pr writers and are not necessarily the opinion of the Vernal Express. Soccer facilities inadequate inad-equate Letter to the Editor, I am a new soccer mom and my kids love the sport! However, How-ever, I believe most parents like me have noticed the lack of bathroom facilities at the soccer fields this year. I called the Parks and Recreation Department and asked if they would be willing to rent some units for the season so our children don't have to run behind the buildings, or create a traffic problem by running back and forth to Mort's or 7-Eleven. Shanna, with whom I spoke, informed me that they attempted to rent facilities from the same company that was used last year but were declined due to extensive damage caused by individuals individu-als tipping over the units. Shanna indicated that the vandalism occurred late at night when no one was around, and expressed regret that those who need and use the facilities are punished for someone else's neglect and disregard for another's property. I appreciate those who have to service the bathroom units, keeping them cleaned up and functional for the general public. I'm sure most of us have never stopped to realize the great efforts that go into maintaining those units - until now when we are forced to go without. Therefore, There-fore, I want to publicly thank the company that serviced our soccer games last year. You are missed and I am sorry that your units were damaged and mistreated. My hope is that we as a community can be diligent in standing up for what we know is right when special privileges are given to us and be able to teach our families respect, not only for our own personal property, but for that of others oth-ers as well. Stacey Schneider Vernal School Transportation The wheels on the bus go round and round - but only when there's a driver at the wheel. Our local school board alongwith the administrators and staff of the elementary schools, realize elementary students excel in academics better in the morning than later in the afternoon. It has been one goal of the school board for the east side to start and end elementary school at the same time. Also the Maeser Meadow area and the apartments north of the hospital are in parent responsibility zones and are unfunded routes. The safety of so many students crossing the Maeser Highway in these two areas is a great concern for the school board. As a result of the school board meeting the other night, they approved four new buses and drivers to accomplish ac-complish these two issues. Because of this decision the transportation department has been put in a situation where we can not accomplish allyour transportation needs, beginning with the new school year. With the student population popula-tion on the rise in the future and a shortage of qualified drivers, extra auricular services ser-vices or routes may need to be reduced unless substitute drivers can be found. Please consider being a substitute bus driver. We will train you and help you get your CDL so you will be ready drive when school starts again. We need your help to get your student to the teacher. Call the District Office for an application. ap-plication. Russell Anderson Transportation Coordinator Uintah School District ' Web opinion poll Each week the Vernal Express offers an online poll to its readers. To participate in the poll, visit www. vernal.com and click on the opinion link. Polls are not scientific and represent the opinions of voluntary Internet users. New polls are posted weekly and printed results represent voting as of Tuesday morning. If you have an idea for an opinion poll, e-mail it to editorvernal.com. Results for this week The oversight provided by the BLM and other federal, state and local entities to protect the cultural, environmental environ-mental and natural resources is ... a) Not enough. (63) b) Too much. (25) c) Sufficient. (13) Question for next week Utah High School Activities Association has proposed moving Uintuh High School to the 4A class. Are you for or against the change? a) For. b) Against. B ) J EXPRESS YOURSELF YOUR-SELF ON VERNAL.COM Each week the Vernal Express prints a sample of reader comments posted to the previous pre-vious week's headlines at the newspaper's Web site. Not all comments are considered. Comments may be edited prior to printing. Conservationists push for Nine Mile historic district P wrote: Start drilling now. They will want your back yard next. These people only want something that is not theirs. If they want to keep people off the land BUY IT! E wrote: Anyone who saw the Bill Barrett Corp. ads in the Express Ex-press the previous 2 weeks has to wonder what Nine Mile Canyon they've been working in. There just isn't any peace there any more, with all the trucks and the compressor station going 24 hours a day. With the new rigs, the traffic will triple. I see nothing wrong with paving the road, stopping the use of chemicals for dust control, and looking at alternative travel routes. MM wrote: "These People " already own this land - they're called "Americans". The gas producer's don't own Nine Mile Canyon Jo any greater degree than "these people" who are protesting. BF wrote: Unfortunately, there is no easy way to resolve this issue... Damage to the ancient art will continue regardless of the measures taken. This is just more obvious proof that our continued reliance on fossil fuels is damaging not only to the air we breathe, but to our historical and archaeological archaeologi-cal treasures as well. |