OCR Text |
Show Historic Main Street News by Michele Sandoval Promotions Committee Co-chair In recent years the quality of the stores in downtown Springville seems to have improved. In addition, several sever-al property owners have rehabilitated their buildings, enhancing the appearance and image of Main Street. In the next five years or so, new pubic improvements (street-scape (street-scape enhancements) will further enhance downtown's image and pedestrian environment. envi-ronment. And several businesses busi-nesses are considering moving mov-ing to downtown from locations loca-tions at or near the edge of town, increasing the "density" "densi-ty" of business activity downtown. dow-ntown. Development of a professional profes-sional art academy at the Incredible Journey building will bring artists and students downtown, generating activity activi-ty and traffic that may feed downtown businesses. The Downtown Business ToB five mail The Postal Service's top law enforcement official and consumer advocate have released their list of Top Five Mail Fraud Scams just in time for National Consumer Consum-er Protection Week (NCPW). The top five mail fraud scams based on number of victims and amount of monetary mone-tary loss are: - Free-Prize Schemes - Foreign Lotteries - Pyramid Schemes Investment-Fraud Schemes - Work-At-Home Schemes The Postal Service's message for this year's NCPW campaign is "Get Rich Quick? Don't Count On It." As in past years, the campaign will focus on educating edu-cating consumers about protecting themselves from becoming victims. "Our goal is to educate postal customers to reduce the number of consumers who fall victim to these mail fraud scams every year," said the Postal Service's Consumer Consum-er Advocate, Francia Smith. "An informed consumer is the best defense against mail fraud." "The Postal Inspection Service is a law enforcement agency that devotes significant signifi-cant resources to investigating investigat-ing these schemes and bringing bring-ing the fraudsters to justice, but we also provide extensive consumer education and crime prevention efforts," said Chief Postal Inspector Lee R. Heath. Focusing on foreign lottery schemes, he added, "For example, many consumers are unaware that it is a federal crime to participate partic-ipate in a foreign lottery by mail or event to send lottery solicitations through the U.S. Mail." Mostif not all-foreign lottery come-ons sent to U.S. addresses through the mail are bogus. They don't' come from foreign government agencies or licensees. Instead, In-stead, they come from con artists who take your money and give you nothing in Valentine Alliance is moving forward with projects that will enhance en-hance the economic strength of our downtown corridor. We need your help, your support and jour involvement involve-ment (business owners and concerned citizens). Please attend our monthly meeting and volunteer to work on one of our three committees! We look forward to seeing you at The Awakenings Cafe on Thursday, Feb. 5, 7-8 p.m. Questions on the location? Call Carla at 489-4674. - Get an Update on our UDOT Enhancement Grant request. - News on our UDOT Lighting Funding request that goes with the. plans for redoing re-doing Historic Main Street. - Promotions Committee will give an update on their work. - Design Committee will give an update on their work over the past month. You'll want to hear all about that. return. A federal statue prohibits mailing payments to purchase any ticket, share or chance in a foreign lottery. Except for state-owned and operated lotteries, federal law prohibits sending lottery material through the mail. Every day thousands of people are notified by mail that they have won a "free" prize, usually, it is a postcard post-card that says your prize will be one of four or five "valuable" "valu-able" items-like a new car, a color television or a vacation. vaca-tion. Typically, con artists mail these notices. When you contact the company by phone to claim your prize, the scam artist will tell you that you are required to pay a "processing fee" and pressure you to give out your credit card number. Don't do it! The fraudster may make thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges char-ges to your account. Beware of the con artist's other scam-convincing you to cover the processing fee by sending a check for hundreds of dollars. Either way, your prize will cost you more than it's worth, will be worthless junk-or it may never arrive at all. Have you ever received a solicitation or chain letter guaranteeing you'll "earn big $$$$" with one small investment? invest-ment? All you have to do is send a small amount to everyone ev-eryone on the list and mail the solicitations to 10 friends. Then just sit back and watch' the checks fill your mailbox. Pyramid schemes don't work because it takes more participants partici-pants than there are people in the entire world! In addition, if you participate in a pyramid pyra-mid scheme, you could be committing a federal crime. The same law that prohibits lotteries covers chain letters as well. Investment schemers market by mail and by telephone, tele-phone, armed with high-pressure high-pressure and sophisticated selling techniques. Some swindlers surround them 2 Medium 1 Topping Pizzas 99 2 Large 1 Topping luTURDOUGHIi 296 South Main, Springville 491-91 11 - Business Growth Committee Com-mittee will get their chairman voted in and perhaps will give us an update on work in that committee. Several large renderings of the proposed re-design of Springville's Historic Main Street have been placed throughout the city and we encourage and invite the community to visit one of the locations to review the plan. The locations are as follows: City Hall, City Library, The Herb Shop, Read Leaf Bookstore, SOS Drug, Central Bank, Pier 49 Pizza, Vaud Hanks Furniture, Furni-ture, Art Museum, Senior Citizen Center, Wells Fargo Bank, Stouffers and Wal Mart. Questions and comments can be directed to Jeff Mills, President 368-4120; Daniel Bolz, Director, 465-3000; Design Committee contact Tony Pickering, 489-7086; Promotion Committee contact Allen Hughes, 489-6838. fraud selves with the trappings of legitimacy rented office space, a receptionist, investment invest-ment counselors and professionally profes-sionally designed color brochures bro-chures describing the investment. invest-ment. You may be dealing with an investment swindler if you can answer "yes" to the following: - Does the salesperson make it sound as if you can't lose? - Are you promised an unusually high return or interest payment on your capital? - Are you pressured to make a decision because new investment units "are selling fast?" Working at home is an attractive alternative for many. Con artists take advantage ad-vantage and place work-at-home ads. Beware! Work-at-home fraud is envelope stuffing. Typically, there is nothing to stuff. Instead, you receive instructions on how to deceive others by placing an ad like the one you responded re-sponded to! Always suspect any ad claiming you can earn unusually high income with little or no effort on your part. Recently, Postal inspectors inspec-tors arrested a Texas man for his involvement as the organizer orga-nizer of a large envelope stuffing scheme that was in operation for at least eighteen months and generated more than $2.5 million from approximately ap-proximately 100,000 victims throughout the country. Each victim was required to mail an advance fee of $25. The Postal Service delivers deliv-ers over 650 million pieces of mail each day. Every year the Postal Inspection Service receives inquiries and investigates investi-gates complaints from consumers con-sumers who feel they have been defrauded by offers received via the mail. In 2003 Postal Inspectors investigated inves-tigated over 3,100 fraud cases and Inspection Service analysts processed more than 80,000 mail fraud com- Pizzas aw Cannon sees need for more discussion on No Child Left Behind At the urging of Congressman Con-gressman Chris Cannon of Mapleton (R-UT), a senior U.S. Department of Education Educa-tion official will travel to Utah to meet with state legislators, legis-lators, education leaders and the public on Feb. 17, to discuss the No Child Left Behind Act. "The Utah legislature is wrestling with serious issues related to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, including in-cluding the possibility of 'opting out' of participation in the program," Cannon said. "There is a great deal of confusion and concern about the application of this law, and we in Utah need our questions answered. I want to make sure that we are fully aware of the pros, cons, costs and ramifications of either implementing or scams plaints. The mail fraud program pro-gram of the Postal Inspection Service also produced $2 billion in court ordered restitution resti-tution to fraud victims and 780 civil or administrative actions. While it is impossible for consumers to protect themselves them-selves from every swindler, there are actions that can be taken to substantially minimize mini-mize the risk of falling victim vic-tim to a fraud scam. Consumers Con-sumers can take the following follow-ing steps: - Know who you are doing business with before you send money. - Be skeptical of anything that sounds "too good to be true." - Discard foreign lottery solicitations. - Never given personal information such as your credit card number, social security number; ' date of birth, mother's maiden name or bank personal identification identifica-tion number (PIN) over the telephone unless you initiated the phone call. Report fraud complaints to the fraud complaint hotline at 1-800-372-8347 or visit the Postal Inspection Service Web site at www.usps.com-postalinspectors. www.usps.com-postalinspectors. For more information about National Consumer Protection Week, visit the NCPW Web site at ww w. consumer, go v nepw. Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived. Samuel Johnson OS, SJncfucfesCflppetizer, Soup or Safacf, CBreacf from our S7niiouse CBalteiy, &ntiee Selection and GAoce ofZJafentine (Desser Serving from 4:30-9 p.m. Gnerainmen provided Gy CRoSerla Curis and 9?andy tfoinson i 20 South 100 February 5, 2004 - I he opting out of No Child Left Behind." The Utah State House' Education Standing Committee Commit-tee approved a bill on Thursday Thurs-day that would allow Utah to opt out of the No Child Left Behind Act. While this would potentially free Utah from federal regulations attached to No Child Left Behind, there is uncertainty about the magnitude of feder-'al feder-'al funding that could be lost as well. At Cannon's request. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education Ken Meyer will rjclllIli'' "The Place to Watch a Movie!" Stadium Seating THX Sound Exit 252 in Payson, 633 South 950 West February 6-12 (1:05) 4:00 7:00 9:25 is (1:25) 4:25 7:05 9:30 (1:10) (1:20) 4:20 EG (12:45) 3:45 (12:30) Early matinee will play on Saturday and Sunday Only No 9 p.m. showings on Sunday Order and print your tickets online! www.stadiumcinemas.com No discount passes. Matinee Price $4.00 Showtime it 465-8500 www.stadiumcinemas.com sweeJiear ring m tour for our special inner ror T FEATURING ' J & BAKERY H0MESTYLE DEL! West, Payson 465-9182 Fax 465-9176 Springville Herald - Page Three meet with state legislators and state education leaders in a series of meetings to answer an-swer questions and concerns labout the application of No Child Left Behind on Feb. '17. Cannon will then hold a public neighborhood meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary Secre-tary Meyer at Kearns High School at 7 p.m. that day. "Utah's school children deserve the best education possible," Cannon said. "I look forward to working with state leaders and the administration adminis-tration to help ensure that No Child Left Behind contributes to achieving that goal-rather than detracting from it." In November of 2003, Cannon sent a letter to Secretary Secre-tary of Education Rod Paige about the need for greater flexibility of the No Child Left Behind Act to better address the needs of rural schools in Utah. 9:25 7:15 9:30 (f2D) 6:40 9:35 4:30 8:30 7:10 Uwo k |