OCR Text |
Show fa O Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at our office, located at 538 South State Commentary in Orem. Deadlines are Monday noon. All submissions are subject to editing for length, and the Orem-Geneva Times reserves the right to publish or not to publish a submission. Wednesday, March 28, 2001 (Dpi roposed Orem budget may give harried citizens a break At first glance, Orem's tentative budget for fiscal fis-cal year 2001-2002 appears to give overburdened taxpayers and citizens beset with ever-increasing fee payments a break. The proposed budget outlines just over $60 million mil-lion in expenditures, but in his budget message to the mayor and council, City Manager Jim Reams wrote: "...This budget recommends that the city maintain the certified property tax rate, the current cur-rent franchise tax rate, water rates, wastewater rates, storm water utility fee, and street lighting fee. The contract for residential solid waste collection collec-tion and recycling services is currently out to bid. The budget assumes that the fees for those services ill remain the same. There are minor increases in some of the Fitness Center and Recreation pro gram fees..." A possible $1 per month fee to be assessed to cell phone users has the potential to be controversial and annoying, but even that proposed fee is softened by having the projected revenues of $250,009 per year dedicated to the Public Safety Department for the hiring of new officers and for financing the replacement replace-ment of vital self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs) for firefighters. Another proposed fee increase, for water impact fees, appears to place the financial responsibility for acquiring new water rights exactly where it belongs -- on the new development that increases the city's need for water. An acre foot of water that cost only. $880 when the water impact fees were implemented now costs $1,400. " Orem citizens can be grateful for whatever municipal munici-pal belt-tightening and restraint come their way, because be-cause utility bill payers have yet to feel the brunt of the costs of the citywide lighting program, set to begin be-gin its phased installation in April. With sharply spiking spik-ing costs in natural gas and electricity due to supply and demand problems, citizens are or will be hurting, hurt-ing, and will be paying significantly more in franchise fees tacked onto those essential services. As one of its budget issues, the city is looking at scaling back contributions to outside organizations and the reduction of funding for holiday celebrations. Funding for the Sister City program, the OK2BKind campaign, and education grants program are proposed to be cut in half A SCERA donation and CEDO (Commission (Com-mission for Economic Development in Orem) contri bution are proposed to be trimmed by $5,000 and $10,000, respectively. Holiday lighting, for which $10,000 was spent last year, would receive no new funding this year. Although the total savings with all of these cuts amounts to only $41,000 a small piece of a $60 million pie the trend is a positive one. All in all, the new budget does seem to have a heart. But, to paraphrase what the young book reviewers in a popular children's program are fond of saying, "You don't have to take SEX. word for it..." Citizens are invited to give input at an upcoming up-coming work session, open house, and public hearing hear-ing before the budget is officially adopted. (See budget article for dates and times.) Letters to the Editor Objects to school bond Dear Editor, Can you believe a $200 million school bond election and property tax increase'.' Alpine District property owners have been generous in passing $180 million bond elections over the past ten years. But now, the school district is going to hold a humongous, one-year $200 million mil-lion mid-year bond election on May 8th. The Alpine School District has been very extravagant with our past generosity, and do not deserve de-serve another huge, one-year The power of the key word I lull tor's note: Connie Sokol of the Teleios Group, a business designed de-signed to help educate, empower and encourage women, will be run nmf,' periodic columns in the Times designed de-signed to help bring concepts helpful to women to light. For a free information packet on the Teleios Croup call fJII L'.IW. I BY CONNIE SOKOL V 7 Kadi of my four children was born with abnormal hearing. Through exhaustive re-M-arrh I have discovered they are afflicted with SDKS, or Selective Dog-like Response Svsti ms. Similar to Pavlovian responses, i hough more sophisticated, my children hear entire conversations hnl only respond to particular words. Eur example, I clearly say, "Boys, please pick up the Legos and put them in your Lego tub." What they hear translates to "Blah blah Legos, blah blah Legos". To which they respond, "Hey, my I.E IOS'" Interestingly, I notice a similar disorder in their father. I -ay. "I loney, will you take out the garbage and put softener salts in the tank?" and what he hears is "Blah blah take out blah blah tank "What 1 get is chow mein from Wong Fu and a reading on our water heater. Where was I going wrong? The future looked bleak indeed when, like a toddler's rejected pancake, it hit me: I was trying to be logical, I was trying to make sense. You see, I had forgotten I was dealing with men and small children. With this epiphany, I deviled de-viled a new strategy - only use words that motivate, that contain two syllables or less, and do it without any logic whatsoever. Eor example, I now say, "Boys, please clean your room with ice cream and you can empty the dishwasher treats." This gets their attention. Which leads to, "What mom?" or, "What was that?" This i- big. really big, because I get what every mother wants - eyeballs. Nov. they are committed - they have acknowledged I exist and I have witnessed their vocal cords in motion. The ult imate benefit of this technique is that, though the key v. Hnl- change, the principle remains the same. Sure, they gradual gradu-al ' ii bigger words like "keys-to-the-car," and "remote control," bu' no matter the age, the response is generally the same - a re-.-.poiise. And in my book, that is big. Kecentlv, I retrieved my 4-year-old son from the neighborhood pn-M-hool After joining the moms outside, I was juggling my one-ear one-ear old daughter and two-year-old son when the latter wriggled In ', running diaper naked down the street. Quickly, I had to choose rha.-e him in thick clogs with a flailing infant or use a key word? Technique and vanity won, and grappling for the right word, I m reamed 'Ethan, come here." He ran. "Ethan come HERE" He laughed Think, think - the nice neighbor ladies watched with ping pong head motions. My final serve, "Ethan, ICE CREAM", lb -topped in his tracks, turned about, and ran his diapered fanny riL'ht into my arms. filer I said, the power of the hey word. ook Pick: Parenting with Love and Logic CI i ne and Fay I.IEEChangeTip: Appropriate to age and understanding, use key words to motivate rather than force. property tax increase. I would invite all citizens to take a drive one mile east of the Mount Timpanogos Temple, to visit and tour the new Lone Peak High School. They even advertise on the side of the building: "A World Class High School". This is the ultimate example of extravagance extrava-gance with taxpayer money. There has not been any lack of expense in any of the schools built n recent years. The district is planning on spending this new money in four phases over the next ten years, based on an estimated influx of 1,000 more students each year. We graduate more than 1,000 students stu-dents out of school each year, so I believe this estimated influx is exaggerated and not verifiable. Yet, they want to build eight more schools based on this assumption, and they are changing boundaries so that more students can occupy half-empty American Fork High School. I believe they are in a panic mode, and rushing to judgement. 1 believe responsible and accountable account-able administration dictates that they prioritize projects and use available property tax income due to growth and bond payoffs as needed each year, instead of taking tak-ing the easy route to more bonded indebtedness, and property tax increases during this economic crisis. I will not be voting in favor of this huge bond election on May 8th. Bob Wright 1010 N. 700 W. Orem "SingirV in the Rain" dinner-dance dinner-dance coming April 7 A "Singin' in the Rain"-themed dinner-dance is coming to the Orem Senior Friendship Center on Saturday, April 7, 2001, at 7 p.m. The Friendship Center is located lo-cated at 93 North 400 East. A roast beef dinner, catered by BYU, will be served. The meal includes in-cludes mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, salad, drink, and dessert. Cost of the meal and dance is $10.50 per person. Payment must be made by April 4th. The dance will feature a live combo. All those age 18 and older are welcome. Cost of the dance only is $5 per person at the door after 8 p.m. There will be door prizes and refreshments re-freshments at intermission. For more information, please call 229-7111. k fflran-femra Slimes Online Edition: www.oremtimes.com E-mail: oremtimesfa networld.com USPS 411-700 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058 Telephone 225-1340 Fax 225-1341 The Orem-Geneva Times (411-700) is published each Wednesday for $16.00 per year in area, $35.00 per year out of area, and $.50 cents per issue by the Orem-Geneva Times, 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodical Postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Orem-Geneva Times, PO. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. News deadline, Monday, 12 noon, advertising Monday, 2:00 p.m. The entire contents of this newspaper is Copyright 2000 The Orem-Geneva Times. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the editor or publisher. Publisher - Brent Sumner Editor - Pat Knoell Member What do you think about the District Board of Education's million school bond that will increase taxes? Alpine School call for a $200 if '" I ''"- A:f J' 'Mm A 1 i f A- r w r- f f ' "We need schools, so I'm for it. "I think it's good." I full expect to pay for the growth - Jake Hansen, Orem of the community in which I live." -Ken Hulon, Orem "I believe in education for the kids, so if it'll help I'm for it." - Sandy Shell, Orem I : ,.i i i k i Mi ( . .- v 1 rv tig he h "I don't keep up on it much now "I do not know anything about "Wow! It is a lot of money." that my kids are out of school." it." - Salvador Lopez, Orem - Lois Chapman, Provo . Shannon Winzeler, Orem IP n . mrum JS BEAT Orem Department of Public Safety Paramedic Wayne Fish was driving the ambulance (code 3 -lights and siren going) on Friday evening as he was responding to an injury accident at 800 S. 400 East. As he driving in the area of 400 S. 400 West someone threw an apple through the open driver's side window and hit Fish in the shoulder. He was able to maintain control of the rescue unit and went on to the accident and took the elderly eld-erly patient to the hospital before being checked out himself for the bruising and swelling that was developing de-veloping in his shoulder. Fish went home on the advice of the Doctor. Fish had rotator cuff surgery on his left shoulder not too long ago and there was some concern about that, but he appears to be all right. Paramedics told officers they had seen dark colored car with several people inside that passed them when this happened and it's believed be-lieved an occupant of the car was perhaps responsible for throwing or even firing (from a potato cannon) can-non) the apple. If anyone has information in-formation on the person or person who are responsible for this, please contact the police department with that information. This, and every incident where someone throws something at or from a moving vehicle, has a very real potential to end in tragedy. There were several incidents Friday night of cars and pedestrians pedestri-ans in the area of 800 S. Main being be-ing targeted by water balloon throwing juveniles in a gold colored col-ored Nissan Pathfinder. A witness to one of the attacks got a vehicle description and license plate number num-ber and gave that information to the police. Five Orem juvenile boys, ages 16 and 17, were found, questioned and referred to juvenile authorities for their prank. Officer Orlando Ruiz spotted a man trying to steal a 60 gallon air compressor behind a business at 100 S. State early Monday morning morn-ing at 12:30 a.m A 30-year-old Provo man was caught loading the stolen compressor in his truck was arrested for the theft and booking into the Orem holding facility. Auto burglary A Remington 12 ga. shotgun, two portable radios, ra-dios, a GPS device and a hand held CB radio were stolen sometime Saturday night from a car parked in the area of 100 E. 500 North. There was no sign of forced entry into the car which the owner told police had been locked. A number of vandalism to cars occurred over the weekend in the northeast end of town. Five people reported that sometime Friday night the car window had been broken out by vandals. No suspects and officers couldn't find what was used to break the windows. Criminal Trespass Three adults were cited for criminal trespassing tres-passing after a passer by noticed them kicking in a door at the old IFA plant at 500 N. Geneva. Officers Offic-ers responded and found the three Orem men who said they were just there to look around. It will end up being an expensive tour. Burglary and theft Two large tool boxes, containing about $3500 worth of tools were stolen sometime Thursday morning between be-tween 7:00 AM and Noon from the garage of a home in the area of 700 S. Geneva Road. Stolen car - A Green 1997 Saturn Sat-urn was reported stolen sometime in the past several days while the owners have been out of town. The car was stolen from the area of 700 N. Main. |