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Show -Wednesday July 1, 1987 IP OS ? fDUTiClflNS WfNDpOWKRlG W'RWY WORK?, 1987 B Postmaster Clyde E. Weeks Orem-Geneva Times- V , One of the modern miracles is the travel agency which provides a myriad of free services to people in arranging for airplane tickets, train reservations, river trips and tours to exciting places all over the world. The City of Orem has a number of travel agencies which provide these services - all without cost to the traveler. Of course, your local travel agent does not work for nothing. His fees are paid by the various airlines, steamship lines, railroads and touring companies which provide the transportation. It is an arrangement which benefits everybody : the traveler gets expert advice and services from knowlegeable people at no extra cost, and the providers of transportation get much of their reservation and ticketing work done on a contract basis by independent firms. Another marvel of the age is the extensive network of computers which connect each travel agency to the many providers of surface and air transportation. As scheduled flights fill up with reservations, the travel agent can quickly ascertain by computer which seats are not taken andean be sold. ADVANCE SALES Naturally, it is in the interest of every airline, railroad and steamship steam-ship line to fill up every plane, train and ship with passengers. For this reason, it is usually possible to get a discount on travel tickets if one is in a position to buy his tickets well in advance ad-vance of leaving. , Thanks to the good offices of Morris TravelAsk Mr. Foster Travel Agency in Orem, my wife, Helen, and I have flown to Vienna, Austria, to meet our son, David, who is completing a mission for the LDS Church. . .., David is the fifth and last of our nine children to have completed missions for the Church, and we are very pleased to be able to travel Europe with him before he returns home. One of the best ways to travel Europe is by means of the Eurail Pass. This pass provides the traveler unlimited travel on the national railroads and many private rail lines, bus lines, steamers and ferry crossings of 13 European countries, as well as Greece, Ireland and Scandinavia. Scan-dinavia. How to experience the sights and sounds of Europe, Greece, Ireland and Scandinavia on a 30-day Eurail Teleconference Literacy, your community and its workforce Mrs. Barbara Bush, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Governor Kay Orr of Nebraska, and Andrew Young, the Mayor of Atlanta spoke Tuesday night on literacy at Utah Valley Community Com-munity College and 1000 other community com-munity and junior colleges through a satellite link-up. The teleconference addressed the problem of literacy, your community communi-ty and its workforce. Dale Parnell, president of the American Association Associa-tion of Community and Junior Colleges, Col-leges, said 23 million adult Americans are functionally illiterate and that 45 million others read and write at a marginal level. This means nearly one-third of the entire adult population popula-tion has marginal skills at best. Currently, the pool of illiterates is growing, said Parnell, with a growth rate of 1.5 million per year due 'to high school dropouts. The current national dropout rate is 20 percent with it reaching as high as 50 percent in some major areas. William Brock, Secretary of Labor, said, "We've got to set a goal to eliminate illiteracy and we can do it by the year 2000. If we do, nobody will lay a glove on us. If we do, we're going to have more jobs, more growth, more income, better jobs, cleaner jobs and safer jobs and more excited people than any country in the world." By 1990, three out of four jobs will require some education or technical training beyond high school. Almost all of those who will fill the jobs of 1990 are already in the workforce. A recent national survey of employers indicates that over 50 percent per-cent of employees have problems in grammar, spelling, punctuation and Pass is surely one of the challenges of the modern traveler! After touring Austria by car for three days, we boarded one of the 17 daily trains for Venice for an enjoyable four-hour scenic trip to this romantic city of canals and glassworks. t One day in Venice is hardly enough to see the many fascinating things in this unique city, but we had to board the night train for the nine-hour nine-hour trip along the Italian seacoast to Brindisi, the seacoast town located at the very heel of the Italian boot. At Brindisi we board a steamship of the Hellenic Mediterranean Lines which takes us on a very pleasant cruise through the Ionian Sea to Patras, Greece. We soon discover that the trains of Greece do not travel as fast as the Italian trains, as we encounter en-counter stark mountains and coastal plains on the two-hour journey to Athens. Life in Greece is leisurely and unhurried. More than half of the people make their living by farming. Grey-green olive trees and grape vineyards grow on the mountain slopes that cover four-fifths of the country. Of course, the ruins of ancient Greece are the chief attraction for most travelers. At Athens we see the most famous ruins of the Acropolis. Here stand the Erectheum and the temple of Nike Apteros. The Acropolis also includes the Parthenon, Par-thenon, which many people consider the world's most beautiful building. I agree. ORACLE AT DELPHI Another famous Greek ruin not to be missed is the shrine of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. We spent an afternoon af-ternoon in the National Archaeological Ar-chaeological Museum in Athens and were fascinated by it all. A popular form of entertainment we enjoyed in Athens was the Karagiozis, or shadow play, which is performed with a screen. The "actors" "ac-tors" are cardboard figures that are moved about with sticks. Lamps behind the cardboard actors throw their shadows on the screen. The hero of every performance is Karagiozis, a hunch-backed dwarf, a clever troublemaker who invents stories to obtain food for his family. Helen could not enter Mount Athos, a self-governing community of 20 Greek Orthodox monasteries. No women or female animals have ever been allowed to enter this community. com-munity. Unfortunately, Mount Athos has no Rotary Club! mathematics, said Parnell. Adult illiteracy costs society an estimated $225 billion a year in lost industrial in-dustrial productivity, unrealized tax revenues, welfare, crime, poverty and related social ills. Part of this lost revenue comes from the aDDrox-imate aDDrox-imate 13 percent of the American workforce that is illiterate, said Parnell. Senator Kennedy said, one of his greatest concerns is that fact that to read the nation's most treasured document, the Constitution, requires at least an 11th grade level to comprehend. The teleconference presented four goals in the areas of literacy to be attained at-tained by the year 2000. These goals are: Bring together 1,000 communities com-munities and 100,000 leaders from business, government, labor, civic groups, and literacy programs generate 1,000 literacy Education Educa-tion Action Programs assure that America has a 100 percent trainable workforce by improving im-proving the basic skill of present and future workers 1 double the number of persons obtaining a high school equivalency credential through the General Education Development (GED) test and other adult diploma programs. Utah Valley Community College aloiig with community, business, existing ex-isting literacy programs and government govern-ment leaders are organizing a literacy task force to assess and meet the community needs here in Utah Valley. Letter to Editor: Nepotism law needs enforcing Editor: Evidently Alpine School Board member Linda Campbell with some pressure from school teachers and the Union, is trying to resurrect the ugly head of nepotism in the school district again. Several years ago the district was severely criticized for, many violations viola-tions of the nepotism law, as well as other violations, and so they subsequently subse-quently established a policy against hiring relatives in the district. This policy has been adhered to for the most part, since it was passed, pass-ed, and I see no reason for relaxing or reverting to the former practices. The State law is quite clear on this matter, mat-ter, and any changes which would circumvent cir-cumvent or replace State law in the district again would be a mistake. Some of the most difficult times of my own career as a supervisor on the railroad, were brought about as a result of relatives in the same office. Mrs. Campbell says they want to be able to hire the best teachers. I fully ful-ly agree with this philosophy; but I do not necessarily believe that because a person is a relative of Mrs. Campbell, Camp-bell, Dr. Cox, a teacher or a principal in the district, that they are the best candidate. Because of the past flagrant violations of this hiring of relatives, and the still lingering distrust and credibility gap between the administration ad-ministration and the public, concerning concer-ning their past investment practices, and the leeway propaganda, I would strongly urge that they do not tamper with this nepotism policy, below the estalished State law. W. L. Wright 1010 N. 700 W. Orem, Utah 84057 226-0862 Letter To The Editor On behalf of the ProvoOrem Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, we wish to publicly thank the Miss Utah Pageant Night Parade Committee for a job well done. Mrs. Susan Booras, chairman of the committee, created a great evening for the people of our city and valley to enjoy. en-joy. Hundreds of volunteer hours were spent and thousands of dollars were raised to supplement Orem City's contribution. Our thanks also go to the homeowners along the parade route for any inconvenience they may have experienced, and the city ci-ty employees who went the extra mile to see the evening succeed. The fireworks, dances, fountain, and parade were very well done. The Miss Utah Pageant directors direc-tors and girls were great to work with and the parade helped highlight what has become an Orem tradition with the pageant being held here for the past several years. If the night parade is something the citizens would like to see continue we suggest they contact the Chamber of Commerce Com-merce or City Council and voice their opinions. Thanks, President Steve Densley Chairman Dave Voegele Landfill tipping fee increases The Landfill tipping fee increased increas-ed this week from $10 a ton to $17.50. Regular pick-up loads to be dumped will remain the same price: $2.50 a pickup load. Rolfe Kerr offers opinions on recent tax increases As our colleges and universities have prepared to implement their operating budgets for fiscal year 1987-88, an import realization has become quite clear. Four months ago the Utah Legislature acted in the finest tradition of responsible statesmanship to take the most difficult dif-ficult action legislators are called upon to take. They raised our taxes! They raised our taxes in an honest effort ef-fort to preserve the quality of the public and higher education systems of this state. They joined the Governor Gover-nor in placing their political futures on the line for what they knew to be right, not what they thought was politically expedient. Some legislators are now receiving what you wouldn't exactly call "thank you notes" from their constituents. Legislators and the Governor are being attacked with haughty letters to the editor, angry telephone calls, and signatures on tax limitation petitions. Some Utah citizens seem to be saying, "We want quality education for our children and our growing school age population, but we don't want our taxes increased to pay for it." The vast majority of our citizens are not saying that, and I believe they are standing solidly behind government leaders for the actions they were willing to take. I am convinced that eventually even the harshest critics of the Legislature and the Governor will come to see that their actions were in the best interest of the people of Utah, as children, young adults, and an increasing in-creasing number of older adults are provided quality education in the state's public schools and colleges and universities. Thank you notes may have to come in future history books and not in today's newspapers. We should all recognize that the tax increases of this past legislative session did not even replace the losses in revenue incurred by the downturn in our economy. We know that many of the individuals, businesses, and industries shouldering the pain of those economic downturns area also called upon to carry the burden of the tax increases. in-creases. Everyone in this room , carries part of that burden. I believe, however, that we consider the burden to be a privilege because we know that dollars spent today for education will pay off, not only with a well educated populace and well prepared work force, but with a stronger economy. As Adam Smith said a century cen-tury ago, "The skill, dexterity, and knowledge of a nation's people is the most powerful engines of its economic growth." That describes the teaching, research, and training missions of our schools and institutions in-stitutions of higher education. I believe that this was the motivating influence which prompted the Legislature and Governor to lead out and act as they did when their personal per-sonal and political instincts would have had them do otherwise. The Utah System of Higher Education is trying to say thanks not with words but with actions by seeking maximum efficiency and effectiveness ef-fectiveness with every tax dollar we spend. Our 94 percent budget reduction reduc-tion and reallocation experience last fall is perhaps the most dramatic evidence of this quest. Through the effort, we eliminated 102 premiums and 445 positions. The Governor and the Legislature allowed us to reallocate our savings from those cuts to other high priority needs, so that we might do better that which we do best. We publicly thank them and other state agencies which absorbed even greater cuts without the reallocation option in order to prevent disastrous decline in the educational fiber of our state. We are continuing to evaluate everything we do to seek im provements wherever possible. Policy decisions of the State Board of Regents in the past four months and actions being deliberated in this meeting illustrate our ongoing effort to achieve greater efficiency as we strive to preserve the quality of higher education. Credit transfer articulation, ar-ticulation, capital facilities qualification and prioritization, space utilization, tuition adjustments, adjustmen-ts, differential graduate tuition, concurrent con-current enrollment, institutional advertising ad-vertising and recruitment, enrollment analysis and academic program review are just a few How Utah Can Do Better In Competing For Business What kind of a business climate should Utah cultivate to attract more industry for its growing grow-ing population? Some hints were given the other day in a national survey of 403 business executives conducted for a prestigious real estate firm, Cushman and Wakefield. It's a peek into factors corporate executives ex-ecutives weigh when seeking to locate industrial facilities in a new community. A third of the executives chose Atlanta - the most popular city rated - as "excellent" for a business location. San Diego ranked rank-ed a distant second with 19 percent rating it excellent. Other cities in order were Tampa, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. One reason for Atlanta's high showing was its quality of life - a category in which Utah might hope to rank well. And what did executives ex-ecutives consider most important in the quality of life? Good public schools. They also indicated that the best schools are most likely to be found in suburban areas. Other quality-of-life issues considered "absolutely essential" were a low crime rate, affordable housing, adequate streets and highways to handle traffic. Again, Utah can compete well on those terms. Where Utah falls down is in terms of access to domestic markets, which executives ranked as the most important factor in picking a location for industrial expansion. ex-pansion. Significantly, access to Legislative Committee to hold Sunset Review The state legislative Business, Labor, and Economic Development Interim Committee will conduct a sunset review of three state agencies charged with the oversight of business regulation, consumer protection, pro-tection, and alcoholic beverage control. con-trol. The review will take place during dur-ing the committee's July 15 meeting at 9 a.m., in room 405 of the State Capitol. The meeting is open to the public. Sunset reviews, a form of legislative auditing of executive branch activities, are conducted on certain state agencies at regularly scheduled intervals. The reviews are made to determine whether state agencies are meeting a clear public purpose. If the Legislature finds that an agency is not fulfilling its proper role, the Legislature is authorized to request corrective action, or ter (Prem-taeuaimea (USPS 411-700) Published each Wednesday for $8.00 per year by the Orem-Geneva Orem-Geneva Times, 546 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Second Class Postage Paid at Orem, Utah 84057. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Orem-Geneva Times, P. 0. Box 65, Orem, Utah 84057. examples of the issues we have been addressing. These and many more efforts will continue. Our Governor and our legislators stood tall and were willing to have their voices heard and their votes counted. At their most recent meeting, the State Board of Regents and the presidents of all nine colleges and universities unamimously resolved to formally commend the Governor and the Legislature for doing what was right - not just what was politically expedient. I hope that we and all the citizens of this state can be as statesmanlike, farsighted, and courageous in the months ahead. international customers ranked well down the list. So where does all that put Utah? The state has some significant signifi-cant strengths that can help to offset off-set other factors. One of the foremost is a hard-working and educated work force at reasonable salaries. National firms moving into Utah have been impressed with the caliber of the work force. Another strength is transportation. transpor-tation. The merger of Delta and Western Air Lines plus the presence of the other carriers feeding into Salt Lake City, have integrated the state into a nationwide nation-wide network, and this can serve the state well for quick business consultations. As for industries, Utah does well in defense exports - an "accident "ac-cident of history," says University Universi-ty of Utah Economist Thayne Rob-son, Rob-son, when airfields and storage depots were placed in remote Utah away from any possible West Coast invasion in World War II. Utah also does well in some high-tech industries simply because thei founders wanted to live in the state - such as Evans & Sutherland. Others, such as bio-engineering bio-engineering firms, are spinoffs from research conducted at univers ties within the state. If ' tah is to compete in the 1990s and beyond, it must look first to improving its educational facilities and then to maintaining the quality of Lie here. As for markets, there are still niches the state can fill well with some creative thinking and marketing techniques. It's a challenge Utah must accept. minate the agency. Legislative staff member Brian Allred said while agencies are not routinely terminated, the suggestions made to the agencies during sunset review meetings usually achieve positive results. He added that the sunset review meetings provide a forum for public comment on state agnecv performance. "The Legislature welcomes public input at these meetings, especially from citizens who have had recent contact with the agency undergoing sunset review," Allred said. "Legislators depend on the experiences ex-periences of those citizens to help evaluate agency performance." For additional infomation about the meeting, contact Brian Allred, Office Of-fice of Legislative Research and General Counsel, 533-5481. |