OCR Text |
Show SMtoini to air Page Two - The Springville Herald - January 5, 1994 EDITORIAL Springville-Mapieton needs an additional Middle School Anyone who lives in Springville or Mapleton knows of the phenomenal growth in this community in the past few years. New homes mean more adults and more children. We have also read of the increased numbers of students in all of the schools in the area. Some of the schools have been added onto the past year, the high school, Jr. High and Sage Creek Elementary. The Springville Middle School also has a new addition. Others are using portable units to help with their additional growth. It has come to our attention that plans are being made to make a major addition to the Middle School because of anticipated increases in number of students. We question this proposal and hope that the committee studying it will look further at other options. It would not be in the best interest of the students to put many more in a larger facility at the present location of the Middle School. Ask any parent who tries to drop off a child before classes or pick them up after school. The traffic problem is terrible. The school sits on the narrowest street in town and empties onto the busiest side street, 400 South. There are several other problems with adding onto that building. We would think it not in the best interest of sixth and seventh grade young people to move them from elementary to a studentbody of 1600 or more. Not to mention the problem of space and parking at the present site of the Middle School. We understand that the school district already owns property in north Mapleton. This would seem a perfect place to build an additional middle school to which all Mapleton students as well as those living in southeast Springville could attend. The community isn't going to get any smaller. Two middle schools are needed. And it will be less expensive to build it now than later. Nebo School District is planning a bond election for raising monies for school buildings in other areas of the district. The addition to the Springville Middle School will be included in that. We propose that instead of an addition, that a new middle school be built at some other location. It makes good sense. Springville police report The list of arrests by Springville Spring-ville Police this past week included includ-ed that of Douglas L. Smith, 340 W. 940 South, Provo. He was arrested for driving under the : influence of alcohol, open container, con-tainer, ' no . driver' s , license, no insurance and traffic - offense. Curt T. Jones, 1724 N. 1015 West, Orem, was arrested on a warrant. Clayton L. Christensen, 693 S 170 West, Springville, was arrested ar-rested on a warrant. Nicholas R. Forbush, 360 W. 400 North 77, Springville, was arrested on a warrant, possession of a controlled con-trolled substance and weapons offense. Chad Harding, 963 N. State . 6, Orem, was arrested for public pub-lic intoxication, concealed weapon, weap-on, illegal consumption and vehicle burglary. Justin W. Band-ley, Band-ley, 135 W. Lake View Way, Woodland Hills, was arrested for shoplifting at Reams. Michael G. Suth, 1097 N. 150 West, Orem, was arrested on a warrant. Walter H. White, 580 N. 600 East 3, Springville, was charged with simple assault. Benjamin L. Winward, 89 S. 400 East, Springville, was arrested for shoplifting at Reams. Springville Police have recovered recov-ered rims and tires that were taken from Sid's Alignment recently. They are investigating the case. Two male juveniles were picked up for violating the curfew cur-few when they were caught going to the 7-11 in the middle of the night. prirtgtrill? !?ralii (USPS 513-060) Published Weekly by Art City Publishing Co., Inc. 161 South Main Street Springville, Utah 84663 Publisher Martin W. Conover Editor Patricia Conover Second Class Postage Paid in Springville, UT 84663 Postmaster send change of address notice to: The Springville Herald, 161 S. Main, Springville UT 84663 Subscriptions in Advance per year $18.00 Out of County Subscriptions per year $21 .00 Per Copy $0.50. Delivered by carrier, per month $1.80 Member Utah Press Association Charges were filed against a male juvenile for assaulting his sister. And three male juveniles were caught after they had glued the corner of twenty dollar bills to one dollar bills and passed them off in several stores. They were caught here and at BYU. A juvenile was caught shoplifting shoplift-ing cigarettes at the Chevron Station. ; A Christmas ornament valued over $100 was1" taken from: a front porch. " ' Springville Police had 133 calss during the week. Mapleton police report Mapleton Police assisted the Utah County Sheriff Sunday in a search of a home in Mapleton. Patrick Ferguson, 1125 W. 1200 North, was arrested and booked into the county jail for possession of a firearm by a restricted person. per-son. Two male juveniles were referred to juvenile court for illegal consumption of alcohol and failure to stop for a stop sign. In another incident someone shot through walls and windows of a shed at a Mapleton home. Two propane tanks and a weed burner were also taken. Mapleton Police handled 30 calls last week including nine animal related. Conventions are like coins, an easy way of dealing with the commerce of relations. Freya Stark By Howard Stephenson The Utah Legislature's debate on health care reform will be perhaps the most significant legislation affecting taxpayers and businesses in this decade. While to most citizens the debate will be as confusing as reading the IRS code, the only real question is whether the legislation moves us toward free market solutions or toward more government control and central planning. . The battle is expected to be ugly: hospitals and physicians will be pitted against insurers, small employers and the self-insured self-insured are likely to be on opposite oppo-site sides of the debate from large employers, and the healthy and young will certainly oppose paying uniform premiums with older citizens and those who choose unhealthy lifestyles. Unless we have strong leadership leader-ship for a plan based on free market principles, the cure for what ails health care may be worse than the disease. This issue goes far beyond a potential payroll pay-roll tax increase. Most people teel our health care system serves them well, but feel the dramatic cost increases in recent years are a serious problem. prob-lem. Another problem is that about 15 percent of citizens have no health insurance coverage, although about half of these are without coverage for only a few months while they change employment. em-ployment. These problems of cost and access are not due to a failure of the free market, but the result of Chronic tax problem? For taxpayers who feel they have reached the last straw with a chronic tax problem, the Internal Revenue Service suggests contacting con-tacting the Problem Resolution 1 'Program (PRP) staff . The IRS Salt Lake District Office suggests taxpayers handle tax problems as soon as possible. Taxpayers should respond to notices quickly and try to resolve any problem through normal channels. PRP is designed to handle difficult situations that persist after repeated attempts have been made to solve them. When a taxpayer is suffering a significant hardship as a result of a federal tax problem, a problem : resolution officer can be helpful. ! A "significant hardship" could mean that the taxpayer is unable to keep a job, a home or is unable un-able to buy needed medication. To contact the IRS Problem ' Resolution Office (PRP), call IRS toll free at 1-800-829-1040, or 1-801-524-6287 in Salt Lake City. A nation is molded by the tests that its people meet and master. Lyndon B. Johnson Klondike National Historical Park is set in two states, Wash-ington Wash-ington and Alaska divided by thousands of miles of Canada. Invisible threads are the stron-gest stron-gest ties. Friedrich Nietzsche .Jl focfc Hay "Hard Rock.. ..then and now" is the title of this cartoon that was drawn by Rebecca Jones, a ninth grade student in Mr. Wood's art class at the Springville Jr. High School. irrational tax policy and federal social program mandates that have undermined the ability of the free market to function properly. prop-erly. We limited the free market when through tax incentives, health insurance coverage became a benefit of employment. When a employer provides health insurance, insur-ance, consumers have little incentive incen-tive to be cost-conscious-they mistakenly think their employer, through a third party insurance company, pays for their coverage. cover-age. The more services they consume, the more they feel they're "getting their money's worth." They fail to recognize that poor consumer habits result in higher insurance premiums which are ultimately offset by lower wages. Reforms must remove the employer from the health insurance insur-ance decisions of the consumer and provide a way for all citizens, citi-zens, to directly pay ordinary medical expenses so they recognize recog-nize the true costs of their decisions. deci-sions. Employer mandated coverage must be rejected. Such mandates would "only increase consumer insensitivity to cost and cause greater unemployment for those now occupying "gateway" jobs. Higher unemployment means welfare costs would increase while more and more beginning jobs would be lost to other countries. coun-tries. We restricted the free market when we mandated coverage and costs on states and health care COMMENT PAGE Thanks for smoke-free environment Editor: U. I would like to express my thanks to the 105 restaurants in Utah County that provide a smoke-free environment for their employees and their customers. Over the past several years I have seen more and more public places such as restaurants providing this service. I have five children, four of them work in public places. It has always been a concern to me that they may have to work where they are involuntarily exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Many of them have allergies aller-gies and I have asthma and the exposure to tobacco smoke possesses pos-sesses a real health problem for us. I also have small grandchildren grandchil-dren who I love to take to restaurants, restau-rants, and tobacco smoke is not good for their small lungs nor anyone else's lungs for that matter. mat-ter. I work at the City County Health Department of Utah County and have worked in nursing for 29 years. The fact is 94 percent of the people of Utah County, 85 percent of the people in Utah and 74 percent of the people in the United States are nonsmokers. The current trend is to provide a clean smoke-free environment in public places for hcn W" Government's appropriate role is in ensuring that consumers have price information and quali-ty-of-care information (which, is now unavailable) so that consumer consum-er health care choices can be meaningful. What I am describing is a true market-approach to cost containment contain-ment which works every time it's tried because it is based on an understanding of human nature. There's no reason why those receiving free care at taxpayer expense should get Cadillac coverage. A two-tiered system is essential in providing a basic, no frills pan as an incentive to get off tax-funded health care. Of course, a free market approach ap-proach should also include tort reform, standard claim forms, and transferability. There should be no waiting periods for preexisting pre-existing conditions for those transferring coverage, but the previously uninsured should have waiting periods. The health care reforms adopted adopt-ed in the next few years must allow the free market system to solve these and other problems while ensuring quality. We must steer clear of mandated purchasing purchas-ing alliances which take the responsibility for market choices away from consumers and give them to an all-wise purchasing cooperative that could become beholden to health care providers. provid-ers. We must avoid uniform "Community" insurance rates which would eliminate incentives for healthy lifestyles while forcing forc-ing the young (who already have the non-smoking majority. The entire state of Vermont is tobacco free in public places because of the health risks is poses. There are 81 cities in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose restaurants restau-rants and businesses are smoke-free. smoke-free. Some people have voiced a concern that establishing a smoke-free environment will affect sales, but these cities are saying business is the same or better. Let's not beat around the bush. Tobacco smoke is a killer. It is the leading cause of indoor air pollution. It is also the leading cause of chronic diseases such as colds, ear infections, pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis. It puts added burden on the nonsmokers to "Class A" cancer causing elements. Simply separating smokers from nonsmokers has proven to be ineffective. I would like to thank Representative Repre-sentative Jordan Tanner and Senator Robert Montgomery who are concerned about the health of the citizens of Utah. They are sponsoring a bill which I feel is fair and has the endorsement of the Utah Department of Health and others in the health and business fields. We are not the first state to show concern for the (ENVIRO-FUEkS CLEAN COAL SAVES M ON E Y Made of Recycled coal fit Packaged for clean Handling Available by the pallet or in bulk To Order Call 1-800-748-4341 Ideal for Home Storage 72 Hour difficulty affording coverage) to' subsidize older, wealthier citi- w zens. I've said it before: Utah needs ... more believers in the power of;., the free market to meet our needs. This is especially true in utile u-tile health care arena. . Hopefully, enough believers ., will convince Governor Leavitt .... and the Utah Legislature to reject .... the pressure from Washington to abandon free market principles in exchange for socialized central . planning. ;:. providers which resulted in cost1', shifting from the uninsured and ", below-cost Medicaid patients to the price-insensitive private con-.', sumer. We must avoid capitated plans which require either more money, more cost shifting or'j health care rationing. jf We must establish a tax-free;; medical savings account which enables citizens to purchase catastrophic insurance and pay for normal medical services from their savings account. The medical savings account -for those who cut costs through wise choices and healthy life -styles could grow to a level ' where they would be able to use " excess funds for their own pur-"; poses after paying taxes as any ' other income. The medical savings sav-ings accounts would eventually-' reduce the load on Medicaid, as : the elderly would be able to pay for more of their own care. Aside from the health benefits, can you imagine what these savings ac- 'I counts could do to provide a ' source of investment capital in America? '! influence of environmental smoke on health. Apathy won't provide ; a smoke-free environment. .' If you are concerned, please write your legislators and Gover-' nor Leavitt voicing your opinion. ; For more information the local, health department has information ' on environmental tobacco smoke. (ETS), list of smoke-free restau-! rants and addresses of local' legislators. I Pat Tucker J Provo Blood glucose testing at UVRMC . ' ." Blood glucose testing is now I available the second Friday ofl each month in the Clark Auditor?, um at Utah Valley Regional" Medical Center, 1034 N. 500" West, Provo. ; ? The blood glucose screenings! are $2 and are held 10 a.m. til noon. The next screening will be, held January , 14. For additional information call 373-7850, ext.; 2343. :.:! It is one thing to praise discjv pline, and another to submit to it? Cervantes . 30 hotter Than Wood 75 cleaner Than Wood Lasts U p To 4 Times Longer Ideal For Stoves, Fireplaces and camping! Kit |