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Show Page A12 B Thursday, February 3, 1994 The Park Record O Section A M 04. Great Seafood. No Jacket Required. At CI5ERD5 ljouU find a beautiful, yet casual atmosphere, plus a menu thats anything but ordinary. LUith specialties like Chicken Lasagna, Capellini uuith 5hrimp and Calamari, Cisero's Qoppino, and always fresh seafood specials. At Cisero's, you don't need a jacket or deep pockets. Ristorante BAR 3IE Main Street 649-5D44 For all your printing needs, see us first! Complete graphic design and layout available Letterheads Flyers Envelopes Tickets Laminating Typesetting Business Forms Brochures Business Cards Posters Menu's Weddings F F'OJCT PICK UP AND DELIVERY MiCiC in park city w IP 0 Wave Publishing, Inc. 675 West 100 South P.O. Box 128 Heber City, Utah 84032 654-1471 FAX: 654-1479 Amid S0) Dl (GflDg. BY TOM CLYDE Groundhog Day forecast Yesterday was Groundhog Day, and there were no surprises. Back in Pennsylvania, home of the official Groundhog, they've had a stormy, cold, miserable winter. It's been so long since anybody saw a shadow that they forgot what one looks like. The official groundhog tried to dig his way out of the burrow and check on conditions, but between the ice storms and the heavy snow, he didn't even make an appearance. Rumor has it that he went to Miami. Not that anybody was waiting around in the cold for him to show up anyway. I've never fully understood the rules of groundhog weather forecasting. It has something to do with spring being either right around the corner, or another six weeks of winter, but I'm not sure which sign is which. I even watched Bill Murray's movie Groundhog Day. If he sees the shadow, does that mean six more weeks, or just around the comer? When you think about it, "just around the corner" is pretty much the same thing as six more weeks of winter in most places. Out here, there was no surprise "when the local potgut popped out of his burrow in the Kamas town park to check the local conditions. Our skies have been so clear for so long that even at night there are shadows. The grass is green in Salt Lake, and the other day, I saw a guy out there mowing his lawn. Shadow or no shadow, nobody who's lived here for any length of time will predict spring being just around the corner. We have to wait for the resorts to close in April before it starts snowing in earnest As weather forecasters, the local potguts are not much better than Mark Eubank. It will do what it will do, and nobody can predict it. It's a fine tradition, though. The tradition of forecasting and the media attention it receives has helped bolster the self esteem of burrowing rodents all over the country, and if anybody needs their self esteem bolstered, it' s burrowing rodents. Even though they are complete failures as weather forecasters, the burrowing rodents have acquired a certain dignity from the tradition. In an effort to maintain their market share, they have diversified their prediction product line. They are now predicting all kinds of things. A ground squirrel in Portland, Ore. saw its shadow on Groundhog Day it's a sure bet that Tonya Harding will skate off into sports trivia with a perfect score of 5 to 15 years. She'll probably get probation, and face a rewarding career as a 7-Eleven clerk. Oblivion is just around the comer. In Hollywood, though, a different groundhog saw Tonya's shadow in a made-for-TV movie that is sure to air opposite the Olympic coverage. A potgut out in Park Meadows, one of the few remaining in this end of the county, saw its shadow, meaning that the end of Film Festival is just around the corner. There's been a real rush on the Post Office this week as locals who haven't been near the place finally take a chance on finding a parking place. The week before Groundhog Day, I noticed that a film festival patron saw her shadow. It was an unusual moment for a person who spends most of life in a dark ' theater (or is that cinema?). She asked it for an autograph. The shadow pulled out its cellular phone and cut the conversation short. The shadow said it would have its agent call her agent about doing lunch together some time. Sources in Washington say that Bob Dole saw his shadow. Even though Dole isn't a burrowing rodent in the strict sense of the term, the sight of his shadow guarantees at least six more weeks of trying to get the public interested in Clinton's White Water real estate deal. The Republicans have tried and tried to get the public all stirred up about this Arkansas business deal gone bad. The press keeps saying it has to do with the core of Clinton's character. Nobody cares. The deal went sour, Clinton lost some money, and tried hard to cut his losses maybe too hard, and in inappropriate ways. But nobody cares. First of all, he lost money. If he had come out on the plus side, there might be lynch mobs forming. It's hard to get all stirred up about allegations of improper influence when the outcome was still a loss. Whatever strings he may have pulled came unraveled. And nobody is suffering any delusions about the core of Clinton's character. George Bush lost the election on his own merit. Locally, the State Legislature is in session. I tried to see what happened if a legislator saw his shadow, but it turns out that most of them are so lacking in substance that state legislators don't cast shadows. Not even as a group. The only shadows cast in the State Capitol are those of lobbyists. The sight of those shadows is pretty scary. The NRA crawled out from under its rock and cast a big shadow over the rural legislators, who all ran for their burrows. They are likely to adopt legislation that prohibits Salt Lake City and other urban areas from adopting gun purchasing regulations that are different from those in Burrville and Paragonah. The theory is that the gang violence problems in Burrville and Salt Lake are so similar that uniform gun purchasing regulations should apply. I'm not all that sure that Salt Lake's prohibition on gun sales to people under 25 will stop gang violence, but they ought to have the flexibility to work out local solutions. The governor has also suggested the repeal of some sales tax exemptions that give special breaks to some kinds of businesses. If you buy a Milky Way at the grocery store, you pay sales tax on it. If you buy it from a vending machine, you don't. (So where can I buy a car from a vending machine?) It probably had something to do with getting the machine to accept a couple of pennies. The vending machine lobby will show up and cast its shadow over the legislature. Cowering in fear of voters whose daily vending machine lunch of Fritos and Twinkies costs a nickel more, the legislators will do the brave thing and decide to study the proposal for a year or two, along with school impact fees. With their one day of work complete, the groundhogs are back in the burrows, waiting for next year, when they come out and forecast the future. It's not bad work if you can get it. " " IHlecycIledl TItoiwgMg... BY MARY MORRISON, PCRA Are you as smart as your kids? My recent trip to North Summit Middle School gave me an opportunity to test the knowledge of some of the young minds of this county. I presented them with a quiz as a part of my presentation on source reduction and recycling. I was pleased to discover that the North Summit Middle School students are well informed and enthusiastic about resolving some of our current solid waste problems. The format of my presentation got to wonder how the "adults" of this county might fair if I presented them with a quiz (I like to call them inventories. Students become nauseous when you say quiz, or test). Listed below are some questions that are used in an environmental education program called, THINK EARTH for students ages 10-12. Let's see how you do. 1. Most of our solid waste is: a. buried in landfills. b. burned. c. put into the ocean. 2. Overuse of our natural resources is mainly caused by: a. economic inflation. b. population growth. c. increased use of fossil fuels. 3. Putting hazardous wastes in the trash or down the drain: a. is usually safe. b. is the best way to dispose of them. c. can pollute rivers, oceans, and underground water. 4. More than 13 of what we throw away is: a. glass. b. plastic. c. paper. 5. The biggest problem with burning trash is: a. most solid waste is too wet b. it adds to air pollution. c. it smells bad. 6. To conserve natural resources, we should: a. stop building on natural lands. b quit using paper products. c. balance our needs with the environment's needs. Answers: 1. a, 2. b, 3. c, 4. c, 5. b, 6. c. Congratulations if you scored four or more points! If you scored less than four, well, it proves that I do have my work cut out for me. If you have children, hopefully they do share with you their wealth of knowledge on solid waste issues, so you can become as equally educated. Legislative Heporfr by SEN. ALARIK MYRIN The mineral lease account is important to most of the area I represent in the Senate. This account is funded by the mineral revenue to the federal government from federal lands. Fifty percent of the revenue to the federal government is returned to the state. The law requires the state to use these funds to emphasize mitigating energy development impacts in the county where they occur. This fund is projected to decline in future years. Senator Blackham and I asked for an audit of the use of this fund last year. The audit showed that much of the mineral lease funds spent on higher education is not really used as it should be. As a result legislation . proposed this year will reduce the amount of mineral lease funds going to higher education, and increase the local control of these funds. While this change is good now, higher education is willing to trade lease money for other funds because of the declining revenue collected from mineral leases. They would sooner have a fund that is going up instead of down. This fund is declining for several reasons. One ( reason is that oil production and exploration is declining. Another is that some of the federal-state land exuianges will reduce the amount of federal coal leases. Also, the federal government is taking more of the states' share of these funds for administration. A related issue is the severance tax on mineral production which is charged by the state. These taxes go into the general fund and come back to the citizens in general state services and education. We should get credit for these revenues, and they should contribute to the public infrastructure needed to support these mineral industries. An update on the school trust land issue: Many people have asked me to protect their access to public lands and school trust lands. Currently there is a section of the code which says that public access shall be allowed. The proposed redoing of the management of school trust lands this year will leave the above access law in place. In the coming year or two the board and the community will work on this issue to resolve the income need for the schools and public access. I think this issue will be resolved fairly, and the public will continue to be able to enjoy these lands. If you have concerns, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to contact me by writing co Utah State Senate, 3 19 State Capitol, Salt Lake City, Utah 841 14, or by calling (801)538-1035. Express yoursdf...ivrite the editor. |