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Show iiii("ttwiTiyx'xrww'VMi"'f'itivt n o Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at Commentary our office, located at 538 South State 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. Wfdri. -fi.iv Ai.nl 1. 001 EDITORIAL 7Tl 01 of'f limit community service to Orem City h !d its annual hearing on Community Development Devel-opment Mock Crant (CDBG) and IIOMF. Investment Partnership Part-nership Crant funding March 27, and one of the powerful lingering lin-gering impressions from the meeting is the breadth and depth of social service needs in the community at large. Af'er hearing recommendation., recommenda-tion., from the CDBGIIOMK Citien Advisory Commission, which studied funding proposals propos-als from var:ous community applicants ap-plicants over the past several months, the Orem City Council made its own adjustments and then allocated $117,300 to the Letters Responds to Wright's letter I 1i .ii Ivhtor Mi Boh Wright pre-.ed -nine 'i'i I -( lllg II llde'-t, Hidings ol 1 he ipme l)i-tiict bond in Ins letter What kind of home and garden work do you do to prepare for spring? "Fertilize my yard, spray my fruit trees, edge the grass, it's all I've been doing the last three weeks." - Art McOmber, Lehi "I'll rake the law n. We have pine trees that leave a lot of needles." - Alan Dick, Orem Online Edition: www.oremtimes.com E-mail: oremtimesfn networld.com USPS 411-700 538 South State Street. Orem, Utah 84058 Telephone 225-1340 The Orem-fjeneva 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, L'tah H4058 Periodical Postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Orem-Geneva Monday, 12 noon, advertising Monday, 2:00 p.m. The entire contents of this newspaper is Copyright 1 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 assorted public service causes. The money represents the maximum W!i amount permitted for social services funding under the CDBG requirements. Prior to the council vote on final fi-nal funding, representatives from diverse agencies addressed the group about the needs of their or gamzations. These agencies offer shelter and aid to abused women and children; provide food and shelter to the destitute; give hope through counseling and therapy to substance abusers; help babies and toddlers with disabilities and their families; and assist citizens young and old in improving their literacy skills. And that's just a to the 'March 2H. The $200 million bund i to build schools over a ten-war ten-war period. He believes that the 1 .000 per year student increase is only going to occur in kindergarten kindergar-ten -Indents replacing high school seniors. 1 believe the estimation is trying to account for the tremendous tre-mendous amount of growth that "My husband tills the garden and breaks up the clay. He usually puts in fertilizer." - Angela Jensen, Lindon "Planting a garden-beans, corn, so on. Start to water and mow the lawn weekly." - Kim Usher, Orem Times, PO. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. If 4' V : iV i til -- J a 11 mi ' Editor Pat Knoell snapshot of what is going on in the community, day in and day out, to address many serious, vital needs that impact society as a whole. Councilwoman Karen McCandless disclosed early on in the discussion that she serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity, Human-ity, and indeed, was the individual responsible for putting together that agency's application for CDBG funds. (The $52,000 Habitat Habi-tat funds approved fell under a different category than social services, ser-vices, and will be used to buy lots for building homes for the poor.) After consultation with the city attorney, McCandless was "cleared" to vote on the funding Editor Utah County has experienced the past five years. With communities such as Eagle Mountain and Vineyard Vine-yard building new homes in areas that had little or no population, how can the district expect to house this population increase? The recent census seems to show that Utah was one of the I mow the lawn for my mom. Daniel Bischoff, Orem . S I "Just help my grandparents get their plants planted." Alex Bui gin, Orem Fax 225-1341 News deadline Member : B because she, personally, does not benefit from the money as a volunteer. vol-unteer. McCandless was responsible for a dramatic moment during the meeting when she said she wanted to share her feelings with the public pub-lic and the council. She challenged members of the community to look at their own resources, and to see what they can do to volunteer or serve in the community apart from church donations and service. The councilwoman noted that her own community service has been very fulfilling. Mayor Jerry Washburn agreed with McCandless' assessment, and, as he looked over the City fastest-growing states in the past decade. Are we really going to ignore ig-nore this data and blindly believe that the current school structures will reallv suffice for the next ten years? When he uses the phrase, "There has not been any lack of expense in any of the schools built in recent years", is he upset that modern schools come well-equipped well-equipped to deal with the goals of our nation and state? I believe that most politicians have run campaigns regarding improvement improve-ment in education. Building schools that will handle our growth in technology and other "extravagance" seems like a justifiable jus-tifiable use of taxpayers' money, especially when it directly benefits ben-efits our children. I believe that all parties that involved agree that we all need to use tax dollars wisely. The bond will be an example of taxes being used responsibly to directly enhance en-hance and house our community activities and educational goals. 1 will be voting in favor of this huge bond election in May to handle our huge community growth. John Paynter Orchard Elementary School Orem Advocate for Foster Children The Foster Care Citizen Review Board is seeking dedicated volunteers volun-teers to serve within our community. commu-nity. The Foster Care Citizen Review Re-view Board is a statewide effort to better the situation of children in the foster care system. Volunteers with the Citizen Review Board make an impact on the community by acting as advocates for children throughout the county. Board members dedicate themselves by reviewing cases and working toward to-ward permanency for children in foster care. Volunteers review foster care cases on an individual basis and make recommendations to the Fourth District Juvenile Court and the Division of Child and Family Services concerning that which they believe is best for the child and the child's family. Because not everyone in the community is able to act as a foster parent, it is an effective way for people in the community com-munity to make a difference in the foster care system. The two-day training session in Utah County will be held May 4 and 5. Applications are mailed to the volunteers' homes upon request. re-quest. Volunteers are asked to donate do-nate one day per month and must be at least 21 years old. The United Way Volunteer Center Cen-ter is the community connection to volunteer activities, enabling Utah County residents to help those who need it most. For further information informa-tion regarding these and other volunteer vol-unteer opportunities available in Utah County, contact the United Way Volunteer Center weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 374-8108. Otherwise, contact us via e-mail (volunteer unitedwayuc.org) or by searching the Volunteer Opportunities Oppor-tunities database on the United Way of Utah County Web site (www.unitedwavuc.org). involvement Council Chambers filled with representatives rep-resentatives and volunteers from the various organizations and agencies, said with a smile, "We may be "preaching to the choir here." He urged that the "word" for volunteerism get out to the public. pub-lic. Former Orem mayor Stella Welsh was among those in the audience au-dience (or choir). Although she is no longer in office, she has been active in serving with Habitat for Humanity and with the League of Women Voters of Utah County, to name just two of her activities. She' said that there are many community commu-nity needs outside of religious organizations, or-ganizations, and citizens ought to Lower the size of schools Dear Editor: The best way for schools to lower the incidence of violence is simply to lower the size of the schools. I would like to share with you a sampling of the over 100 research projects this past decade that show conclusively that we have forced our schools to become too big for our own good. James Garbarino of Cornell, an expert on adolescent crime, said that if he could do one thing to stop violence, "it would be to ensure en-sure that teenagers are not in high schools bigger than 400 to 500 students." "The data are clear that the smaller the school, the fewer the incidents of violence, as well as vandalism and just plain rudeness. rude-ness. Small schools offer what metal detectors and guards cannot can-not the safety and security of being where you are known well by people who care for you." (Deborah Meier, 1996) "Behavior problems are so much greater in larger schools that any possible virtue of larger size is canceled out by the difficulties diffi-culties of maintaining an orderly learning environment." (Stockard and Mayberry, 1992) "The research linking school size to social behavior has investigated inves-tigated everything from truancy and classroom disruption to vandalism, van-dalism, aggressive behavior, theft, substance abuse, and gang participation. par-ticipation. This research shows that small schools have lower incidents of negative social behavior, however measured, than do large schools... The social behavior of ethnic minority and low (socio-economic) students is even more positively impacted by small schools..." (Kathleen Cotton, Cot-ton, 1999) "...investigators have found a much greater sense of belonging (lower level of alienation) among Public hearing on natural gas rates to be held April 5 The Utah Public Service Commission Com-mission (PSC) has scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, April 5, at 5:30 p.m. to provide Utah residents another opportunity to make comments on recent natural natu-ral gas rate increase requests made by Questar Gas. In January, Questar Gas requested re-quested a $ 167 million increase in its Utah natural gas rates in its semi-annual gas cost adjustment or "pass through" filing. Such filings fil-ings enable the company to adjust rates each year to reflect changes in gas supply costs. These costs are passed on to the customer on a dollar-for-dollar basis with no mark-up. On January 4, 2001, the PSC granted the request on an interim basis, raising the typical customer's annual bill 28.5 percent. per-cent. The increase was temporarily tempo-rarily approved based on sharp increases in the cost of wholesale natural gas. A final decision on be willing to serve by expanding expand-ing beyond their own circle to make society better. Community service, she declared, is "enlarging" "enlarg-ing" to an individual. ' The late Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer, once said: "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me." While no one can do everything, every-thing, almost everyone can do something. "If you can't feed a hundred people," said Mother Teresa, "then feed just one." students in small schools than in large ones..." (Kathleen Cotton, 1999) "...the consensus of researchers is that no school should serve more than 1,000 students." (from the Education Commission of the States, Sept. 1999) The optimum size is 300-500 for elementaries and 600-900 for high schools. (Karen Irmsher, 1999) 85 of Utah's high school students are in schools that research says are too large. Anna Quindlen of Newsweek, in an article the Salt Lake Tribune Tri-bune published March 21st, wrote: "And(in schools that big (over 1,000) there is inevitably a critical mass of kids who are neither nei-ther jocks nor artists nor even nerds, kids who are nothing at all, nonentities in their own lives. "The creditable ballplayer who might have made the team in a smaller school is edged out by better bet-ter athletes. The artist wh might have had work hung in a smaller school is supplanted by abler talents. tal-ents. And the disaffected and depressed de-pressed boy who might have found a niche, or a friend, or a teacher who noticed, falls between be-tween the cracks. Sometimes he quietly drops out. Sometimes he quietly passes through. And sometimes some-times he comes to school with a gun." "We herd them together in their thousands, and tell ourselves we must, for smaller schools are too expensive. Smaller schools would take money away from us, from our big houses on the new cul-de-sacs, from the SUVs we need for the two-hour commute, from the toys with which we distract ourselves our-selves from the truth: that we fear our children. ..And still we build another Columbine..." ("We Sow the Seeds of Columbine", Louise Wagenknecht) David N. Cox 5th grade teacher State representative Questar Gas's pass-through filing will be made after a thorough analysis has been done and the PSC hears public comment about the increase. The PSC organized two hearings hear-ings in early March; however, few customers participated. As a result, re-sult, the commission has planned a follow-up hearing that will be broadcast from the University of Utah EDNET facility to several locations in order to give residents in other parts of the state a bet-' bet-' ter opportunity to comment. The broadcast will begin at 5:30 p.m. Customers are encouraged to attend and participate. Those who are interested in making comments com-ments during the telecast should contact the remote EDNET site in their area. A local hearing site will be at the Orem USU Continuing Continu-ing Education Center, 800 West University Drive, LC Building, Orem. Contact Elizabeth Warner, 222-8907, for more information. JfpOOR |