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Show A6 Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Vernal Express kJ pi in son fl VERNAL xpress : $ V OPINION M0VING...THE YEAS AND NAYS! ByKeVW ASHBY Express Publisher It is with mixed emotions that we contemplate our move to the new Vernal Express office building at 60 East 100 North in Vernal this week. It is sad saying goodbye to an old, but well-used building on North Vernal Avenue. As we have talked to people about our move, they have shared stories of this building's face lifts over the years and the burying the old press used in the 1970s because it was cheaper to bury than to remove.- . Many years ago the Express offices were located upstairs in a building on Main Street (or Uintah Avenue back in those days). The move to the Vernal Avenue location was a good one back in the mid-1980s. There have been two additions to the present building that made it more conducive to newspaper production, and now it is time we move again as we take newspapers into the 21st century and address the current and future needs we anticipate. The new building was constructed around the old press building where an . older 1960s vintage Goss Community Press printed the Vernal Express for many years. In recent years, it was Steve Wallace and a group of dedicated part-time employees who operated and maintained that press, and it was time consuming to say the least. Eighteen months ago we decided to move our printing to a newer vintage press in Roosevelt. This move would allow the printing crews to become full time, with maintenance and upkeep scheduled to happen daily and weekly, as the press is being be-ing used. Quality and a more stable workforce has been the expected outcome. Our new building extended the old press building on both ends, and we now have a very modern, open, spacious, organized work area in which our readers and advertisers will feel at home. As we move to the new facility we hope our work flow is also streamlined and that we will be able to give answers and solutions to your questions quicker. The past 18 months have been fantastic -- as measured by your interest in subscribing to the Vernal Express and your use of our classified and regular store advertising programs. As our readership increases, so does the interest of advertisers in using the Express to promote their wares and services. With these increased revenues, we are able to hire additional reporters and advertising reps, which allows for more in-depth stories and more pages in the paper. As with each of the past moves and building upgrades, we are planning on this move being the most successful. Our new facilities will allow us to invite readers to community input meetings and focus groups to help improve the newspaper and its content. We have office space set aside for Web management and content improvements associated with the Web and how it is accessed by our Web-sawy readers. A huge conference and break room will not only allow our employees to be better informed about newspaper content and improvements, but we will also invite area groups to use the room for special meetings. In the end, we hope your reading list continues to include the Vernal Express. Ex-press. We hope that you have already noticed positive changes to the paper and that additional changes will be beneficial to the reader and advertiser. Thanks for your continued support. Web opinion poll Each week the Vernal Express offers an online poll to its readers. To participate in the poll, visif www. vernal xom and click on the opinion link. Polls are hot 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. NO THE DEEME.. 7 W OPPONENT JUiT HOT UNDERSTAND, JOHM OH THIS. BERTHA BUTTERBEAN Double Bubble in the money bin Dana Coiowch U -I Guest Writer I guess if I don't write something about the economic crisis the country is going go-ing through I will be the only person anywhere to remain silent on the subject. However, I doubt this will be my only chance. The subject might be relevant for quite a while. The stock market is "roller-coastering" and who knows when it will settle. Credit has gone somewhere, don't ask me where. Congress is too busy passing bucks to be passingbills. And the '00s will likely be remembered most for the "great government bail-out." All in all, the horizon looks a little bleak. To lighten the mood, and since the whole crisis is about the "flow of cash," I wantto tell you about how my kids learned their first lessons in economics. The legal tender among our children was chewing gum. If you had it you were rich. If you didn't you were always trying to get "the government" you give you some. In our house, the war-to-end-all-wars was fought over chewing gum. We had staff meetings to legislate rules for the proper use and control of the substance. The components of the modern-day tragedy were two children and one stick of gum. Taking a piece without asking ask-ing carried penalties usually reserved for horse thieves. Each child had a well-secured well-secured money bin, not for money, but for chewing gum, which was traded on the market something like this: "Will you go upstairs and get my book bag?" "How much will you pay me?" "I'll give you a stick of gum." "Only one piece? No way." (Don't try to get something for nothing.) "Then I'll give you a whole pack on Friday." (Payinglater makes things cost more.) "Okay, then, I want a 10-pack 10-pack of strawberry bubble gum." (Everything has its price.) The traditional form of lending with interest was practiced, too. "Do you have a piece of gum?" "Yeah." "Can I have one?" "Only if you pay me two back, or three if it takes too long." (Interest never sleeps.) Just to show you the regard re-gard our kids had for gum I'll tell you a story my daughter told me. She said that her best friend had walked all the way to town about 12 blocks to buy a pack of gum. "Ha, ha, ha; she could have walked to the convenience store, but she walked all the way to town. She could have saved four blocks." (If you work hard enough, you'll get rich.) "Yuk, yuk, yuk. That was so dumb." I'll tell you about dumb. Only a gum-greedy capitalist capital-ist would walk beyond the next room for a stick of the stuff. My daughter didn't think that it was strange to walk a long way for a pack of gum. She only thought it was strange to walk farther than necessary. Like the medium of exchange ex-change that most people use, gum tends to be unpredictable, unpredict-able, and it has a destructive side. (Keep your legal tender in a safe place.) The similarities end there because it doesn't slip through your fingers. In fact, once used, it is non-biodegradable and indestructible, and you can't get rid of it. If gum gets where it doesn't belong, you will have to live with it. And so will your children and your children's children. (Be careful what you want, you may get it.) Your children will inherit the piece that is stuck to the brass bedpost. Your nephew might end up with the gob that's under the dining room table, which by the way will be free. Real money, once you use it just sort of moves around the marketplace and isn't really used up. This past week would be the exception. But no matter which kind of green you value neither the most conscientious environmentalist environ-mentalist nor the greediest capitalist wants to recycle chewing gum. : o I I k ' I 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-mail to editorvernal.com The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. Letters express the opiniorfbf the Writer or writers "and are not necessarily the opinion ohhe Vernal Express. ' ' ; ' ; .. , , . Results for this week Do you support law makers decision to drill on the Tavaputs? a) Yes (72) , b) No (28) f Question for next week Who is more to blame for the nation's economic woes? a) Democrats b) Republicans c) Foreign Influences A BURNING ISSUE Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 5-11 How many times have you left the house in the morning and wondered, "Did I turn off the stove?" With our busy lives, the safety of our homes and families are sometimes relegated to the back of our minds - an afterthought as we hop in the car to start the day. Uintah Fire District wants you to make sure that the stove burner is turned off or the damaged electrical cord you've been meaning to fix is your top priority prior-ity during Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 5-11. The theme of this year's campaign, "Prevent Home Fires," focuses on preventing the leading causes of home fires - cooking, heating and electrical equipment, and smoking materials. According to the latest statistics from the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there were an estimated 396,000 reported home structure fires in 2006, resulting in 2,580 civilian deaths, 12,500 civilian injuries and $6.8 billion in direct damage in the United States. Home fires caused 80 percent of civilian deaths and 76 percent of injuries. While the statistics are daunting, most home fires are easily preventable when we narrow our focus and take personal steps to increase our safety. One way to do this is by proactively combing through each room in your home to find signs of danger and fix them. Uintah Fire District is encouraging Uintah County and their families to put their safety first by performing a home hazards inspection during Fire Prevention Week. You can pick up a checklist at your local fire department depart-ment or you can download one from www.firepreventionweek.org. There are also a number of simple steps that you can put into action to keep your home safe from fire: Cooking: Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period time, turn off the stove. Heating: Keep all things that can burn, such as paper, bedding or furniture, at least 3 feet away form heating equipment. Electrical: Replace cracked and damaged electrical cords; use extension cords from temnorarv wir ing only. Consider having hav-ing additional circuits or receptacles added by a qualified electrician. electri-cian. Smoking: If you smoke, smoke outside; wherever you smoke, use deep, sturdy ashtrays. ash-trays. As firefighters and fire safety educators, fire prevention is always al-ways on our minds. We hope that you use the checklist and home fire prevention tips to put your safety first during Fire Prevention Preven-tion Week, and year-round. DWR to hold checkpoints The Utah Division of Wildlife Wild-life Resources is planning a number of administrative checkpoints during big game hunting seasons in northeastern northeast-ern Utah. In addition to biological data collection, conservation officers will check compliance with game laws, issue citations cita-tions and, when necessary, make arrests. Checkpoints will occur along various highways and roads during all hours of the day and night. The public's patience and cooperation is appreciated as the DWR works to accomplish its mission mis-sion as steward of the state's wildlife resources. Veterans praise Ashley Ash-ley Elementary School Dear Editor, A few days ago some of the faculty at Ashley Elementary School asked the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5560, to come and participate in a flag ceremony as part of their PTA assembly, something that was very special to this veteran group. We want to commend the teachers and all the students about how well everything went that morning and for the respect that they all showed us. Also we couldn't help but notice how behaved and cooperative those fine young students were, and to top things off, they sang a special song for us, something that was very touching and heart-warming to say the least. We left there with a very good feeling, knowing that in this fine school, there are those fundamentals being taught as to the importance of our country, its flag and those who have and are participating participat-ing in helping keep this great nation free. Along with this special thanks to those teachers and students, we also want to thank one of our members, Harry Miyoshi, for all he did in arranging and getting us there to take part in this wonderful occasion. Harry is one who doesn't mind going the extra mile for his fellow members of this post. Respectfully submitted by, Members of The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, 5560 HAVE VDU CH6CKBQ 4otcio I-AT5UV? Citizens should fire incumbents Dear Editor, Now is a time of great uncertainty, un-certainty, economic turmoil, and risk to the country and to the people. With whom have we placed our trust to keep our great ship of freedom and liberty on an even keel and a true course based on our Constitutional compass? It's the U.S. Congress, whom we can no longer trust. Far too many think the president has all of the power to do so, but they are wrong. It is the Congress that has it through the power of the purse. The president can't spend a dime without authorization au-thorization by the Congress. Additionally, all taxation must be approved by the Congress before going to the president. Because of gross negligence negli-gence and abdication of its duty, obsession for inter-party inter-party disrespect and intrigue, in-trigue, incredible economic ignorance and greed, it has richly earned its more than 80 percent disapproval rating, and deserves to be fired! We voters have the constitutional con-stitutional right to do so on Election Day. Every member of the House of Representatives Representa-tives and one-third of the U.S. Senate stands for re-election that day, and most, if not all, ought to be fired! If ever there was a time for a sea-change of the Congress, it is now (our only chance for two more years). Let's not replace them with more of the same- take a look at the other political parties. We don't need two political monoliths that hate each other to do the people's business! Fire 'em all on Nov. 4! Bruce A. Daniel, DDS Vernal W, OTmiMEKT PROGRAMS I i v 4& fa BUT m aWBECOUUFAL? Wre almost wed cur... SHHHH...IF HOT Gets currn'REremviuirajHE B it SiWO ill |