OCR Text |
Show Thursday, September 6, 2007 Page 2 OREM TIMES NEWS AND NOTES Black. Sieve Hemingway. I.d-ward I.d-ward I .alone, Ron McDonald, Mark Seastrand and (iiry Wise. This week's edition hihlifhls the remaining six candidates including Ctrl Hernandez, Tom l ifita Sitake. Brent Sumner, Derek Whetten. Mictuiel Whimpey. Whim-pey. and Uin Wright. The three open seats are those currently held by Black, Seastrand and li-s Campbell. Campbell is finishing out a second sec-ond four-year term and opted not to run for re-election. Seastrand and Black both came to their positions by appointment ap-pointment of theOrem City Council. Seastrand was designated des-ignated to fill the seat held by late Councilman Doug f orsyth, who died in De emlx-r of 2(K)5. Black was apxinted to take the council seat of Councilman Stephen Sandstrom, who was elected to the state legislature. Though the primary election is still a few days out, registered regis-tered voters can vote early in municipal elections beginning this year due to changes in the law. Donna Weaver, ( )rem's city recorder, said registered voters vot-ers can fill out early voting ballots, bal-lots, previously called absentee ballots, at the City Center, frfi N. State Street, Suite 200, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Monday, Mon-day, Sept. 10. Though only those registered regis-tered to vote can cast early ballots in the primary election (the 30-day advanced deadline is passed), voters registered with the state who may have changed addresses can still vote on provisional ballots. Weaver said. Carl Hernandez Hernandez earned his law and master of public admin- ist rat ion degrees from Bngham Young University Uni-versity and currently serves as assistant as-sistant dean attheBYU I .aw School. lYior to joining join-ing the law school, he served as legal counsel and prosecuting attorney for several sev-eral cities. His work included advising city councils on land use planning, development, neighborhood preservation code enforcement, and transportation trans-portation matters. Hernandez cites the three most important issues facing ()rem (and how he would address ad-dress each) as follows: 1. Economiccommunity development de-velopment He would encourage encour-age engaging the community in a dialogue on how the city, Utah Valley University, and the NorthCounty WSPAPERS 399 E State St Pleasant Grove Marc Haddock 443 3268 North County Editor mhaddod heralilextra com Cathy Allred 443 3262 Lehi, Saratoga Springs, PI. Grove callredhetaldextra com Barbara Christiansen 443 3264 American Foil-. Alpine. Cedar Hills bchnstiansenheraldextra com Mike Rigert 443 3265 Orem, Vineyard mngertheraldextra com Beky Beaton 443 3267 Sports bbeaton her aldextra com Josh Walker 443 -3260 Advertising Account Executive walkerheraldextra com Volume 134 Oem Times Dlv Hwakl Efrton USPS 411-700 a ,wf!y newspaper puWisnedat 399 E Stale St Pleasant Grove Ulaf 84(K3 Pe'MfcaK postage pad at )asant Grove. Utah 84062 and at atWrton mailing ottir.es Potnuwtr '.end aovjress cnanges to Oren-. Times, PO Bo 65. Orem UijiI-. 84059 0O65 Published Thuisdavs by Lee Publications vvh;h is a division of Lee Enterprises. Inc Mmbr: Aurw B jffwjo' Cuculations V TO KEEP YOU business community can best leverage resources to create economic growth and prosperity. pros-perity. He would also protect neighborhoods by making code enforcement a top priority. 2. Transportation He would encourage creating and implementing a new, comprehensive compre-hensive Master Transportation I'lan in order to enhance traffic movement city-wide. .1 Bublic safety He would enhance Orem's public safety resources in order to protect citizens from the dangers of gang and drug-related crimes. "T he City of Orem stands at a crossroads regarding these issues, and citizens will need to carefully consider and chxse those candidates who will best fx; able to creatively and pro actively address each of these critical issues," Hernandez said. I lernandez's Web site is www.carl4orem.com. Tom Fifita Sitake Sitake attended BYU-Ha-waii and Brigham Young University where he earned a bachelor's degree in social work and completed com-pleted much of the course work for a master's degree. de-gree. For over 10 years. Sitake has been the state director of vocational rehabilitation re-habilitation at Utah State Hospital Hos-pital in Provo. He's also been heavily involved with the Orem community, serving on its public relations advisory committee, com-mittee, coaching Little League football, and serving in the Boy and Girl Scouts. Sitake was recently appointed appoint-ed to serve on the Governor's Advisory Council where he represents Utahns from the Pacific Pa-cific Islands (he and his family came from Tonga). He also sits on the board of directors for the group home organization Alpine House Inc. Sitake said the City Council needs people who are willing to serve. "I think you have to be involved in-volved in various parts of the community and hear and see what people concerns are," he said. "It's great to help people, but integrity, loyalty and honesty hon-esty go a long way." Sitake said the City Council needs to encourage more affordable af-fordable family housing in Orem. With starter homes costing cost-ing in upwards of $230,000, ordinary families and college graduates can't afford to live in Family City USA, he said. He also believes the city needs Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. I-W-1JJ 3 Jennette Esplin 756 7669 Office Manager Julia Fullmer 344 2570 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Megan Carieton 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Jeremy Harmon 344 2585 Photographer Issue 87 INFORMED AND to create incentives to better retain small businesses which in turn can help keep high property taxes in check. Sitake can be contacted at tomsitakef" hot mail.com. Brent Sumner Sumner graduated from Orem High School, served in the Utah Army National Guard and then attended at-tended Snow College and Brigham Young where he earned a bachelor's degree de-gree in com-municatioas. com-municatioas. For 30 years, Sumner was the owner of the Orem-Geneva Times newspaper, news-paper, during which time he developed a strong relationship with the city and the Orem City Council. Currently, the student media director at Utah Valley State College, Sumner has been involved in the Orem community for decades with the Jaycees, Kiwanis, Serto-mas, Serto-mas, and Provo-Orem Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce. With the city itself, Sumner has headed up the leadership of Orem's annual Summerfest since its beginnings, and has served on the city's recreation committee for six years including includ-ing one as chairman. Over the years, he said, many friends and acquaintances acquain-tances have encouraged him to run for City Council, yet he felt it would conflict with his newspaper news-paper ownership. He no longer has that restraint. "I'm going in with no agenda, agen-da, no ax to grind, and to see if I can keep Orem one of the best communities in the United States to live in," he said. Sumner believes the city needs to carefully plan and have a vision for how it will use Orem's limited undeveloped undevel-oped public spaces, provide more support to its police and fire divisions, and strengthen the city's ties with soon-to-be Utah Valley University and the Alpine School District. Sumner's Web site is www. brentsumner.com. Derek Whetten Whetten grew up in Orem and Laie, Hawaii. He attended BYU-Hawaii and Brigham Young University Uni-versity and earned a bachelor's degree in An extra f , The hardest part was putting put-ting on the pants. I spent part of a day recently "working" as an extra at the LDS Church's motion picture studio in Provo. It was a period movie, depicting depict-ing events that took place during the early days of the LDS Church. I was there to learn something about being a movie "extra." One thing I learned was that they don't call you extras on the set they call you "background." As in, "We're sending the background back-ground home now." But when it came to putting on the clothes that they wore before zippers had been invented, the hardest part was putting on the pants. Because without zippers, everything was all flaps and buttons, lots of buttons. Buttons on the left, and on the right and in the middle. Buttons, but not flies. I had no problem with the shirts or coats or socks, but it took three attempts and one visit to the costume lady to get all the buttons but-tons in the right place. The boots were problematical, but only because be-cause they were too tight. Still, it was such a feat to get them on, I wasn't taking them off again until I was done. With the correct clothes in place, it was on to hair and makeup. Or at least hair. When you are background, no one is going to notice your makeup, but hair was why 1 was here. Mine is on the kxigish side, and so could be styled to fit the time period The women required some effort to get their hair looking appropriate for the times, but for the men, it was more a matter of messing mess-ing it up and making it look dirty. Then we sat around, waiting. We were prepared for this, having been warned that extra work was mostly sitting around ready and waiting. When we were needed, we were to be ready and in place, so no time would be wasted. wast-ed. Nobody would be waiting for us. Some of us talked, some of us read, some of us slept. I brought along a good book. Finally, after waiting for a couple of hours, we meandered mean-dered over to where our scene would be shot INVOLVED business administration and a master's degree in public administration. ad-ministration. He is currently employed as a commercial real estate broker with Alliance Realtors in Orem. Whetten currently serves on Orem's Community Development Devel-opment Block Grant citizens advisory board, the Orem transportation advisory board, and with the Boy Scouts as a Venture crew advisor. "I love Orem and I want to help," he said of City Council campaign. Part of his City Council election elec-tion platform is to bring more businesses to Orem through tax incentives and other programs. Though Orem has historically been the business seat of the county, he said more and more companies are locating to Provo, Pleasant Grove, Lehi and other Utah County communities. communi-ties. "Orem is in danger of losing its role at the economic heart of Utah Valley," he said. Whetten is also concerned about the out-migration of families fam-ilies from Orem to other valley communities due to a lack of affordable housing. The city needs to work with developers to get better work force housing hous-ing in good neighborhoods and create incentives for f irst-time home buyers, he said. "The future of Orem is on these young families that we stand to lose," he said. Whetten's Web site is www. votederek.org. Michael J. Whimpey Whimpey is a lifelong resident resi-dent of Orem. After a two-year LDS service mission to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Bra-zil, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in civil and environmental en-vironmental engineering engineer-ing from Brigham Young University. Uni-versity. The candidate candi-date is a licensed professional engineer and currently serves as a project manager for the Central Utah Water Conservancy Conser-vancy District, where he oversees over-sees large capital improvement projects, engineering studies, and the planning and design of dams, storage tanks, and water wa-ter delivery systems. He is actively ac-tively involved in professional organizations related to his field, and is a member of the Southwest Alliance, an Orem group comprised of residents of that quadrant of the city. Three key issues for Whimpey Whim-pey are: 1. Providing open and accessi experience Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN I ble representation Whimpey said he is committed to seeking out the opinions of residents concerning important issues "that have the potential to affect each and every one of us." 2. Preserving and protecting protect-ing the quality of life of our neighborhoods Whimpey would use his professional background as a civil engineer to evaluate and assess the potential impacts of newly proposed pro-posed developments on neighborhoods, neigh-borhoods, transportation, and utility systems. 3. Ensuring stable and responsible re-sponsible government for the future City leaders need to be "prudent and lean" in spending spend-ing in order to prepare for future fu-ture downturns in the economy, and to lessen the tax burden on residents, Whimpey said. Whimpey's Web site is at www.nukewhimpey.com. Dan L. Wright Wright is a 12-year resident of Orem who loves the city and plans to be a lifetime resident. He holds bachelor's degrees in the behavior- al and social sciences and a master's of business administration ad-ministration degree. He is a certified public manager. man-ager. "I know people, busi Photo not available ness, and local government," Wright said. "I feel my educational .background, training', and experience make me a strong candidate for Orem City Council. Coun-cil. It would be an honor for me to serve ..." Top Orem issues for Wright include: 1. Enhancing and preserving preserv-ing quality of life He would do this by "focusing on good economic and community planning." plan-ning." 2. Assuring a stronger and sustainable economy This would be done by attracting more businesses and jobs, and by lowering property taxes. 3. Alleviating traffic problems prob-lems by promoting better streets and transit alternatives. Wright would also like to see more and better programs for the senior citizen population, popula-tion, and said he would like to "make our community beautiful beauti-ful and safe for our children." To promote education, he ' would support the local schools and Utah Valley University. "Most importantly," Wright said, "I want to listen to the concerns of the people." Wright's Web site is www. danhvright.com. in movies when it was finally shot. This part was interesting. The backlot was fun, with lots of buildings build-ings of various types there for exterior shots. When we got there,-everyone there,-everyone was waiting, while they prepared for a shot. We were there for about an hour and they were only filming for a few minutes. At one point, they had to stop while the helicopter passed overhead. over-head. No one could move during the filming because the sound mics were sensitive enough to pick up footsteps on the gravel outside the building. Still, there was a lot of stuff happening. Outside lighting was set up to augment the sun for the indoor scene. Cameras were moved. Electrical lines were moved. There were a ton of people there, more than one would think necessary but who all seemed to have a definite purpose. No wonder film credits take so long. It takes a lot of people to make this magic hap-pea hap-pea The scene, which we couldn't see, was shot several times and then the camera crew prepared to move on. That's when the director direc-tor came over to tell us that because of the weather and other issues, they had decided not to shoot the scene we had waited for all afternoon. They would probably be doing it another way on a different day, he told us, but he was very gracious and thanked us for being there. "This happens all the time," he said. "It's just part of the business. But I appreciate you being be-ing here." And with that, we meandered back to the costume building, where I worked up a sweat getting those boots off. By this time I had mastered the pants. But I was sorry to see this shot at cinematic immortality slip out of my hands. I would not be able to come back for another opportunity, at feast not during the fuming of this movie. Still, I learned a lot. And I gained a great deal of appreciation for modern conveniences. Especially for zippers. Graffiti Continued from Page 1 surpass last year's total," he said. "This is due to a dramatic dramat-ic increase in gang-related graffiti." What explains the hike in spray-painted words and messages sprawled on buildings, build-ings, signs, and telephone poles? Edwards said it's a combination of more gang members moving into Utah County and Orem, and increased in-creased recruiting of members, mem-bers, some as young as 12 to 13 years old Orem police Sgt. Bill Young, a gang and graffiti enforcement detective, said in just this past week, Mountain Moun-tain View High School was tagged, and gang-related graffiti has been found recently re-cently at Orem High School. The purpose of the graffiti is "to mark territory, intimidate other gangs," Young said "It's kind of like it'stheir newspaper," he said. "They'll cross out rival gangs' names, ' like an insult, and other gangs feel they have to retaliate." re-taliate." Some of the graffiti is done by gangs, while other markings are "thrown up" by what Young calls loners or tagging crews. These taggers tag-gers simply want to make a statement, using their artistic skills to "bomb" or write their messages. "They're just putting messages mes-sages up for the purpose of tagging," he said. Edwards said it's not just school property being tagged, but Orem parks, businesses and personal property. In response, Orem police are coordinating stepped up efforts to combat com-bat graffiti with patrol and school resource officers, gathering intelligence, and monitoring locations where gangs hang out. Graffiti doesn't just deface property. Its perpetrators can be charged with anywhere from a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge to felony counts, depending on the amount of damage done, he said. "Someone's got to be seeing see-ing this happen, or at least notice suspicious individuals individu-als loitering about," he said. "People are often reluctant to call the police because they fear officers will find nothing and think them foolish for having called That is certainly cer-tainly not the case and we're asking the public to call." Orem police have solved more than a few cases simply sim-ply because residents were observant and made a call, Edwards said. Young said educators and parents can help by watching for warning signs: if kids are practicing gang-related graffiti graf-fiti on notebooks, observing who they are spending time with, and even taking note of how they're dressing. Blue and red are common gang colors used in clothing including shoe laces, belts, handkerchiefs, and baseball caps. Some members sport gang tattoos. "It's mostly the association ... hanging out whh kids they normally wouldn't ... unex-cused unex-cused absences from school, and noticeable changes in appearance," Young said. "If you want to join (the gangs), they're here." J The public can help stop graffiti proliferation in Orem with the three Rs Recognize Recog-nize when graffiti appears in your neighborhood, Report incidents to police (229-7070), and Remove graffiti promptly, prompt-ly, Edwards said. Motorists also can assist police by reporting suspicious suspi-cious persons hanging out near potential graffiti targets including fences, buildings, and signs, Edwards said, while store clerks can help by calling in questionable spray paint purchases. Orem uses the juvenile courts system's Teens Against Graffiti program to clean up tagged buildings and property that, in turn, prevents gangs from sending messages or claiming new territory, he said "The quicker we clean this up, the less impact it has," Young said. " ... We want to send a message we won't tolerate this." Mikelle Ostler, a deputy probation officer with the juvenile courts and Teens Against Graffiti supervisor, said TAG is contracted with Orem and other cities to have youth crews clean up graffiti as part of their restitution service when incidents are reported to the police. "Hopefully they'll pass the word on to their buddies it's a pain to clean up," she said |