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Show Lehi Free Opinion Don't try to teach old dogs any of the old tricks ii 1R Press New Utah! - Wednesday, December 9, 1998 Page 2 Park program is working Timpanogos Cave National Monument and other national parks in Utah may be victims of their own success. The local national attraction is part of an experimental fee collection system that allows some parks to keep most of the money the park brings bring in to pay for maintenance and repairs. According to the General Accounting Office, in some areas the experiment is going too well. Timpanogos Cave has collected more money than expected, along with other popular attractions like Utah's Zions National Park and Arches National Park. The GAO says this will hurt less popular parks and parks not on the experimental system, creating a hierarchy of "haves and "have nots" in the park system. We hope Congress will take a careful look at the numbers and the reasons for the monetary increases before making any changes in the new fee system. There is a good argument for letting these popular attractions keep the added revenue they are producing. The experimental program is designed to give parks an incentive to bring in more visitors. The results are proof that incentives work. It began two years ago, when Congress approved allowing some parks to keep 80 percent of the revenues they collected to put back into the d park system to take care of maintenance needs and park rather than a national, basis Semantics should be a required course for anyone attempting to raise children. keep- ing the money in American Fork Canyon. This use fee for American Fork Canyon has been part of Timpanogos Cave's success. It has also helped fund major improvements in the Forest Service land in the canyon over the last two years, and is a model of intergovernmental cooperation. It is also a clear demonstration that local residents are willing to pay more to use park and forest areas if they know the funds will be used within the system they are visiting. The result has been a windfall of sorts. For example, Timpanogos Cave raised and kept an extra $318,000 in fiscal 1998 47 percent of the Cave's regular operating fund allotted by Congress. Then they used those extra funds to make the Cave available to more people. But the GAO reported with concern that one of the things the Cave management wants to do with the funds is provide additional tours, rather than use it for maintenance and repairs. The accounting firm views with distaste plans to use the funds generated by the incentive program to offer cave tours to more people. But isn't that the point of a National Park to reach as many people as possible? Anyone who has tried to get into a tour during the summer months can attest to the long waits for a tour. Reservations must usually be booked in advance, while the number of peoupkeep. Before that, all the funds paid to ple who want to tour the cave continthe parks became part of the general ues to grow. That's a pretty strong argument to treasury, and from there they were allocated to parks according to peruse the fees collected by people who ceived needs. Under that system, are visiting the cave to provide more tours. popular parks like Timpanogos Cave National Monument suffered because The GAO is encouraging Congress the fees they collected were mostly to take another look at the program allocated to maintain parks that and consider the funds weren't attracting the visitors. generated by the new program. The The experiment meant Timpanofact is, the program is very young and showing good results. This is an gos Cave could keep most of the money it collected in increased fees. argument to continue the program not disband it or It also allowed the National Park it. Service and the U.S. Forest Service Give it a few more years, and if it to set up a fee collection booth at the works well, expand the experiment. entrance of American Fork Ci$)MASO To fiddle with the program now and then to allocate those fun,dsvJjQ because it is a success seems prema-th- e various agencies on a local, ture and unnecessary. back-logge- Holiday shopping sites Ah, the joys of Christmas shopping. What could be more fun than driving on icy roads in freezing weather, tromping half a mile through slushy parking lots, agonizing over your selections, clawing your way to the checkout line, then waiting, waiting, waiting.... All of that can be avoided by shopping online. Be advised that the selection may not be as varied as you'd like, and that prices tend to be a bit higher than you'd find at a chain store, especially if you only buy things on sale. You generally don't have to pay sales tax, but you will have to pay shipping and handling. Most people find the tradeoff between paying for shipping and spending the time and effort to buy the item and haul it in yourself to be well worth it. Start with the little kids. Etoys is a great site, colorful and easy to navigate. If you know exactly what you want, type it into the search box and youH find out if it's available. Otherwise, you can browse different categories and manufacturers, or you can check toys recommended by eToy experts. Three good sites for book lovers are Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Borders. Most bestsellers are at discounted at least 25 per cent. You can search for a book by title, subject or author. www.eToys.com http:barnesandnoble.com www.amazon.com www.borders.com Fortunately, most of us already had a practical course in the field when we were growing up. In our house, for example, "Who ate all the cookies?" is a stupid question to ask. "I While the grownups mean, of course, just paid $3 for that bag of cookies and there is only one left. How many cookies did each of you wolf down?" Without going into detail, the parents actually mean (A) I can't afford to keep you little pigs in food if you're going to eat it that fast, (B) I was going to save those for an upcoming occasion, or (C) you didn't leave any for your fathermother and heshe's going to blame me. But I digress. The point is, that the cookies were consumed by an aggregate group, with each of the players consuming some portion of the goodies. (This is certainly not to say that any of the portions were doled out on any sort of equalized basis.) But each child can truthfully answer that he or she did not eat ALL the cookies because, as anyone can see, there is still one left in the bag. When all of the cookies have been eaten and the empty bag remains in the cupboard, semantics become even more important to a child. "Who left this empty cookie bag in the cupboard?" a parent may ask in a frustrated attempt to find out who the cookie monster is at the same time he or she tries to instill some points of eti- quette in the children. Obviously one child is fairly responsible for this irresponsible act, inasmuch as only one of them could have ZiGLAR 1 997 Creators Syndicate, Inc. All of us occasionally have trouble getting started and making plans. I love what Mamie McCul-loug- h says: "You know, some mornings I stick my left leg out ofbed but my right leg says, 1 aint coming.'" (Get the picture?) To set things in perspective, how many of you have ever tried to work a picture puzzle without the picture to model? Utter confusion results. If you have the picture, you have a game plan, but without the picture, you get frustrated and eventually walk away. Life is pretty much that way. Unless you've got a picture of where you want to go, you get discouraged and confused. You have no specific direction and, as a result, you do not reach your potential and accomplish your objectives. Here are two reasons why you've got to have the picture of where you want to go. First, you've got to plan your time, or somebody else is going to take your time. That's just a fact. How many of you have already noticed that people with nothing to do, as a general rule, want to do it with you? Second, when you have that picture of 2 I?i Wm 55 The Christmas train is back. A few years ago I wrote about the demise of this family heirloom a Lionel model train that is almost as old as I am. The report of its death was premature, however. I just never got back to the subject. But this year the train is happily chugging around Hhe Christpy; mas tree thanks to Bob Trepanier, the owner of Porter's Place in Lehi. The train was a Christmas present for my older brother, James, and included a heavy duty engine, a coal car, a tanker, an open carrier and a caboose. I had played with the train when I was young taking it out and setting it up when the mood struck, and then abandoning it in a box in the basement when I outgrew it. When my son Seth was born, my parents gave me the train to keep for him a family treasure passed on to their first and only grandson. At the time, I was amazed to learn that the train was still in working order after all those years of being packed away. The transformer still powered up the engine. The light in front still lit up, the whistle still whistled, and the smoke stack still puffed tiny white clouds of smoke. A few years ago Sharon decided she wanted to set up the train as part of our Christmas decorations, so we dug it out and set up the tracks, but I had a hard time getting the old transformer to tell the engine to move. I had unplugged the transformer KewUtah! (ISSN No. 1521-685- (U.S.P.S. No. A 309-50- member of NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION & Circulation Publisher Jewtahjews Jroup 59 West Main American Fork, Utah 84003 Managing Editor City Editor Occasionally my mother would awaken when she heard me walk past her door, and she would inquire as to the time of my return. "It's after midnight," I would reply ambiguously, carefully avoiding the fact that it may have been two or three hours past that time. After all, I wanted to grow up an honest person. Another time, I remember not only playing hooky from school, but spending the time with someone I was dating at the time. She was at my house when assignments. After seeing the demonstration Monday at the school, I returned home to show my wife the good and bad news. The good news, of course, being that we could see how our high school age child is doing, the bad news that we actually did see how our high school age child is doing. When confronted with the incontrovertible evidence, he was confused, to say the least. No amount of semantic skill could help alleviate the obvious discomfort he must have felt when he was informed that we had written proof of his slacking. While you can't teach us old dogs we've already any of the old tricks learned and practiced them ourselves you can teach us some new tricks. Thanks to Mr. Worthington and the staff at Lehi High School, the skills we can learn and practice in Internet Parenting 304 win out over the subtleties of Semantics 101 any day. Several weeks later long after Bob delivered the engine Christmas black and shinier than it had been in decades and the transformer. He wouldn't tell me how jnuch it cost. All he wanted was to know if the operation ...756-527- 3 Brett Bezzant Marc Haddock Russ Daly Subscription price $24 per year Periodicals Postage Paid at American Fork, Utah POSTMASTER: send address change to MWost Main, Anwrican Fork, Utah 84003 engine. The memorable incident sparked a column and that's when Bob Trepanier called me and told me to bring the engine and the transformer to his restaurant. Then he took me through a back door and up a stairway to a small upper room in Porter's Place where he had his own train set up and running. It was a fairly elaborate operation. Bob clearly enjoyed his trains. He took my broken engine and transformer and told me he knew some people who could fix these things. I left it in his capable hands. earth-shatterin- Deadlines 9 and was uncertain of what to do.' That's when Jeffrey decided the train just needed a little more juice. Acting without adult supervision, he took an old extension cord, cut off one end, exposed the wires and hooked them up directly to the train tracks. Then he plugged the cord into the wall to see what would happen. (Kids, don't try this at home.) Fortunately the only thing he fried was a small patch of carpet and, we thought, the motor in the train's probably looked when he was out in the wind delivering that final message. Heston's delivery was full of power, conviction, eloquence, talent and skill. It was one of the most delightful, encouraging, amazing experiences of our lives to watch this man change. Heston had anticipated us wanting him to do Moses' farewell address and presented himself with that in mind. Anticipating seeing the Redhead's last big movie-sta- r crush in person, we thought he'd be handsome, dashing and vigorous, and the reality of what we saw certainly did not match our expectations. But the picture Charlton Heston left us with was one of an incredibly commanding performance. He was stronger, bolder and far more energetic than either of us could have imagined. The Redhead and I enjoyed a wonderful time together because we made special plans to do so. No one interfered with the tune we had set aside to see Charlton Heston. We had pictured ourselves sitting in his audience and took the necessary steps to make it happen. Pictures and plans g don't have to be huge or to warrant your interest and time. They just have to be something you truly want to pursue. As a general rule, if you picture it, plan it, and work long and hard at it, chances are good you will make it happen. Telephone Numbers Advertising News re-ent- er le where you want to go, you can begin planning, which is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now. To personalize the "picture" concept with an experience my wife and I had, I share this little vignette: The last movie star my wife (the Redhead) had a crush on was Charlton Heston, so she accompanied me to a seminar where both he and I were on the program. Now, m confess that when I first saw Heston, I was disappointed. He moved slowly and deliberately like some old codger (he was about to have knee surgery), and his hair was so unkempt that I started to loan him a comb but decided against it. We were attending a luncheon where Heston answered some questions and then asked the audience if we'd rather he do a Shakespearean soliloquy or perform Moses' farewell address. Of course, all 200 of us started yelling, "Moses." Charlton Heston made an amazing transformation. He cleared his voice, leaned forward and delivered the most remarkable presentation I have ever heard in my life. His voice deepened and came to life, and then I understood why his hair was unkempt. This was the way Moses Published weekly by works. By either complete trust or complete mdifference, my parents did not question my nocturnal roamings. In fact, it was understood that I was not to call them after they retired to bed. So I would stay out as I saw fit, with the only requirement that I the house quietly. children. Lehi High School has implemented a great new telephone and Internet program that allows parents to call in or visit a web site that will tell them of absences, grade status and missed school-ag- e Resurrected train is personal Polar Express Life is like a picture puzzle ByZIG taken the LAST cookie out of the cellophane wrapper. The children have to become more clever at their response in this case. "I saw Johnny in the cupboard this morning," one may say very truthfully, albeit knowing that he or she did in fact take the last cookie from the bag and then proceed to leave the empty container in the cupboard, perhaps in order to evoke the very question that will provide them with their opportunity to give the Ambiguous Response. The point of all this boils down to one little fact that my children overlook: I was their age once and used the same sorts of tricks on my parents. Surprise, kids, I already know how it the call came from the school inquiring about my attendance, or iacK tnereot in this case. Mv girlfriend answered the phone and told the secretary that she had dialed the wrong number, then accidentally save out her own last name as the name of the residence reached by mistake. Schools have become much more soDhisticated throughout the years. and computers now call parents to let them know of the absences of their Classified Advertising Display Advertising News Missionaries Weddings Sports . . .Tuesday, noon Monday, 5 p.m. Monday, 2 p.m. Monday, 2 p.m. Monday, 2 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. Community Calendar . .Monday, 10 a.m. Letters to the Editor . . .Monday, 10 a.m. Obituaries Tuesday, 11 a.m. was successful. I'm calling to report that it was And still is. Saturday, as we were deco-- r rating the tree, Sharon said she wished we had a train to run around the tree. ( I reminded her that we did, indeed, have a train. After a few minutes of rooting around in the basement, I retrieved the box holding the cars, track and transformer. A few minutes later I had set up a simple track and the engine was racas good as new. The ing around it whistle, located in the coal car, doesn't whistle, but the light shines brightly and little clouds of smoke still puff rhythmically from the engine. It's a loud little train. You can't run it and hold a normal conversation. I love to plug it in and race it around the tree. We've loaded the open car with Christmas candy and I park the train in front of the tree when I finish playing with it. It is a marvel of engineering an electrical "toy" that is almost 50 years old and still as much fun to operate now as it was when I was 8 years old. I challenge anyone to make that claim in 2048 about a toy they purchase for this Christmas. It's been a while, but I wanted to thank Bob for keeping this small part of my past alive. Reader's Forum Vandalism backfired Editor: This is an open letter to thank the person or persons unknown who egged our home late on the night of Saturday, Dec. 5. I know in your heart of hearts that you think you had the most fun in your 30 seconds of mindless vandalism, but I had two hours of quiet reflection as I hand scrubbed frozen egg yolk off the side of my house. I got two hours all to my self during this hectic season to think of the real reason we have the season and to think about forgiveness : and love, and sing Christmas carols in my head. My husband will get some quiet time next week as he repaints the back door where I scrubbed so hard the paint came off. (I'm really grateful for that because the door needed repainting anyway and it probably wouldn't have gotten done until spring otherwise). So too bad, the yolk's on you and Merry Christmas. ; Geri Harmon American Fork We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. HOW TO REACH " By Mail P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003 In Person 59 W. Main, American Fork US By Fax 756-527- 4 By editornewutah.com POC |
