OCR Text |
Show Local Tuesday, May 8, 1990 The Daily Herald, Provo, L'tah A, Governor addresses UVCC crowd By KAYLENE NELSEN Bangerter commended teachers and administration of the school "who made this building a reality and those who will make education a reality for many in the future." Herald Senior Reporter Learning that will occur in the new science building at Utah Valley Community College will help address a serious lack in science education in the United States, Gov. Norm Bangerter said Monday. Bangerter told those attending the dedication ceremony that in comparisons with students from other countries, The governor then discussed the role of the community college in the Utah, noting that he backs the master plan for higher education in Utah which encourages community colleges to develop and students to attend them first. American "students bound for college, rank near the bottom of a list of 13 countires in chemistry and in physics. In biology, our students finish dead last." He said fewer than half the juniors in high schools "appear to know enough about science to perform jobs that require technical skills or to benefit substantially from specialized training. Fewer than half seem to be adequately prepared in science for informed participation in the nation's civic affairs." He said the country must prepare for two key changes the technological age is bringing: The workforce will have to have better mathematical, scientific and techincal skills and more women will be in the workforce than ever before. "The blend of these two realities suggests that we must encourage and prepare young women to study and Gov. Norman "This policy shift of the Board of Regents makes sound educational and economic sense, encouraging much of the projected enrollment growth in higher education to enter lower cost community colleges whose primary mission is teaching." Bangerter apply math and science," he said. The classrooms, labs and planetarium "will help to make learning come alive." Hands-o- n experiments are crucial, he said, noting that a power comes through discovery, "power that just cannot be conveyed through lectures and textbooks alone; power that must be witnessed first hand by doing science." As UVCC moves into its in 1991, many changes curred and will continue he said. "This beautiful 50th year have octo occur, new science building is, I believe, symbolic of those changes. Utah Valley Community College is truly helping Utah and its citizens to move productively into the 21st century." Bangerter then helped cut the ribbon stretched over the base of the Focault pendulum and set it in jjjrt II motion. Rock eater completes tunnel By KAYLENE NELSEN rock-eatin- ot the big green pipe that runs through the canyon in order to bypass a slide that has sometimes caused it to break. The pipe, first a wooden structure and then replaced with the present steel in 1948 and 1952, used to carry water to the Olmstead Power Plant. It now sends water to a treatment plant in north Utah County. Morris-Knudse- n is doing the work on the $12 million project. Site manager Lee Renegar said the "mole that dug through the shale took four months to travel nearly 21 feet. Work began Jan. 2 as the hole machine cut a with huge cutters on the front of the head. A laser system kept the machine on track, making it possible to come as close to the mark as it did this time. The mole did not travel a straight path but had to make a couple of turns to bypass the slide above. The project proceeded around the clock with few problems until hitting an aquifer that feeds part of the Thayer springs which supply some of the water for Provo. Rene-ge- r said although it was a problem, it was not unsolveable. On Monday crews finished piping the aquifer over the area where the green pipe will be, and water was turned back into the springs. A few leaks inside the tunnel still needed to be sealed but he said those would be no problem. Merrill Bingham, director of water resources for Provo, said engineers had predicted little or no chance of hitting an aquifer. The flow was a surprise to the workers. 5,000 Herald Senior Reporter g mole digThe huge, tunnel through a ging a 5,000-fomountain in Provo Canyon broke through the end this weekend and only missed the center of the tunnel by about two inches. , Sheldon Talbot, of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District which has commissioned the tunnel digging, said the tunnel will now be ready for a concrete lining before the pipe is put in place inside it. The tunnel will house a portion of But Bingham said the flow only represented 1 percent of the supply 0 when gallons a minute are coming from tne springs at this time of year. The springs are also at half production this year because of the last few winters with little snowpack in the mountains to feed the springs. With the installation of the pipe to carry the spring water over the tunnel "it looks like we'll get every drop back," he said, noting that "300 gallons a minute of spring water is a precious commodity." When crews first hit the aquifer, the city turned off all the water from springs in the Thayer Flats area, Bingham said. After some study it was discovered that only some of the springs were affected. But the city found it necessary to bring one of its nine wells on sooner than it otherwise would have to handle water needs while the aquifer was piped. Bingham said the water conservancy district would be picking up the cost of pumping from the well while the springs were off. 7,000-8,00- LAKE CITY (AP) -School boards in 21 of Utah's 40 school districts have taken advantage of additional taxing authority granted by the 1990 Legislature. Many have done so in ways that will not raise property taxes. The Utah School Superintendents Association met Monday and the officials were polled on whether their boards had approved the board leeway. The leeway allows boards to boost property taxes by up to 2 about $20 a year on a mills on their own au$70,000 house thority to reduce class sizes. It has a recall provision so that if 10 SALT ill property-ta- percent or more of the voters in a school district signed petitions, the tax would be subject to voter approval. Many of the 21 districts approving the controversial levy reduced other property-ta- x levies by similar amounts so no actual tax increase would result. They did so because the board leeway carries a guaranteed state subsidy $19 per student. Approving the board leeway were Alpine, Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Grand, Garfield, Granite, Iron, Jordan, Kane, Morgan, Rich, San Juan, Sevier, South Sanpete, Tintic, Tooele, Wayne, Salt Lake City, Og- - levies x den and Logan school districts. But 13 of the 21 have adjusted other tax levies like capital outlay, debt service or transportation downward to make up for the board leeway. The Utah Taxpayers Association opposes the board leeway and threatened to mount recall drives in districts where school boards impose it. Several school boards approved it, conditioned on plebiscites next November. Among districts where any board leeway will depend on voter ap- proval are Duchesne, Granite, Juab, Nebo, Weber and Murray. Groups want mental health funding before Salt Palace - Gov. had planned a picture-takin- g session while he signed a declaration designating May as Mental Health Awareness month. But advocates took advantage of the session Monday to lobby the governor to put funding for mental health ahead of Salt Palace expanNorm Bangerter five-minu- te sion. The governor, indicating the first conpriority for any special-sessiosideration would be funding Salt Palace expansion, said it was too early to talk about a legislative session "until the revenue picture becomes clearer. "Basketball arenas are great, but n we're talking about human needs here and we believe they should take the first priority," said Norm Nelson, president of the Salt Lake Affiliate of the National Alliance for the Mentally 111. Mental-healt- h advocates cite recent tragedies such as the stabbing death of a kitchen worker at the State Hospital and the suicide of a mental patient denied hospitalization as examples of the need for more funding in the mental-healt- h area. Utah ranks 48th in per capita expenditures for the care of people with mental illnesses, the advocates said. The group's main concern was last week's announcement that the State Hospital will have to eliminate 25 beds to meet required ratios to retain its federal Medicaid funds. During the Legislature's general session in January, State Hospital officials askea for money to hire 36 staffers to meet the required ratios. The Legislature did not appropriate the funds. State budget officers said Monday they were not convinced the hospital would have to cut out the beds to keep the funding and said they planned to meet with hospital officials to discuss the possibility of staff shifting in order to meet the needs. staff-patie- London Bridge is fallinq down Norman Hale of the BYU Civil Engineering Department tests bridge strength on a device designed to push the bridge to its limit, nt Failure By CHRISTI C. EVANS Herald Staff Writer Census counters hit the streets of Utah County Monday in a follow-u- p of residences that have not returned completed Census forms, said LaVoir Merrell, district office manager of the Provo Census Bureau. Merrell said 209 enumerators, workers, will be plus 50 back-u- p visiting homes in Utah County during the next month. "We had a few (enumerators) out last week. But the primary push begins today," Merrell said Monday. Enumerators wear identification tags and carry blue portfolios marked, "U.S. Census Bureau." They will carry Census forms for those who haven't received one and provide help for citizens having trouble completing their forms. Merrell said enumerators were trained to introduce themselves and other protocol matters. "We want to reassure these people that they are in fact representing the Census Bureau," he said. "We don't want them to think these are impersonators getting into the private lives of these people." Training also included how to fill out forms and locating residences that didn't receive forms for future identification on a map. LAYTON boy An by a freight train Monday morning while taking a shortcut to school, police said. Chief Doyle Talbot said the boy, identified as Brandon D. Ferguson, apparently didn't hear the train over music he was listening to on stereo headphones. Talbot said the boy was carrying his bicycle across the railroad tracks about 200 yards south of activated warning devices at an intersection near the Layton Elementary School when he was hit by the southbound train about 7:25 a.m. boy apparent- to taking and that there are no warning devices or crossbars at the point the boy was hit. An engineer saw the boy and tried unsuccessfully to stop the train, which was travelling at about 50 or 60 mph. The train was carrying a load of automobiles. "With the distances involved here, I'd be surprised if a car could have stopped in that amount of time," ne said. Talbot said the cassette player and earphones explain why the boy didn't hear the train's blaring horn. ly school bridges and competed to see who could design the stongest one at UVCC on Monday. to follow up these on residences may cost cities and states thousands of dollars. According to data from the Utah Office of Planning and Budget, Demographics and Economic Analysis, approximately $275 million was distributed by government agencies in Utah based on 1980 Census population statistics. During the next 10 years, a Utah community will lose about $5,500 in government services for each household not counted in the 1990 Census. In addition to Utah County, merators enu- will conduct follow-up- " in Price, Vernal, Richfield, Cedar City and St. George. About 38,000 of the 102,200 residences in these six areas did not return forms and will need to be visited, Merrell said. "non-respon- - Though effort, said he neither endorses nor rejects an agreement signed recently by a Central Utah Project official and key environmentalists. The agreement was mediated by Rep. Wayne Owens, who has characterized the pact as solving environmental issues surrounding CUP. Under the agreement, environmentalists dropped their opposition to the funding of CUP's completion, including an irrigation and drainage (I&D) system for central Utah farmers. In exchange, a CUP official made h, several environmental-relate- d concessions, such as agreeing that water sales contracts for at least 90 percent of the irrigation water must be signed before construction begins on the I&D system. s in Amergroup of 17 ican Fork, who call themselves "The Bike Gang," have recently been arrested for such things as vandalism, business burglaries, curfew violations and drug violations. teen-ager- Their specialty is Dike thefts. Five of the teens were observed by police officers taking five bikes, which were valued as much as $600 each, and stripping one completely withing 15 minutes, said Lt. Terry Fox of the American Fork Police Department. The juveniles, all between the ages of 13 and 19, hang out together in American Fork. They are usually out until about 3 a.m. Two boys have each admitted to police offi cials that within the past 45 days, they were partly responsible tor stealing and stripping 25 bicycles, Fox said. "It's very difficult to find the victims, even though we've recovered quite a few of the bikes, because all the parts have been interchanged, serial numbers have been filed off and the bikes have been repainted," said Fox. "So far, we have made 14 arrests for the various crimes and four of the juveniles are still in youth detention." - A BUSINESS BURGLARY 0 Provo business reported that a Camcorder was stolen during business hours Sunday. $1,-00- Those with questions about the Census can call toll free The Provo office received permission to start follow-u- p early for BYU students living off campus that would likely move when the semester ended. While not all students were counted, the Provo fice did get a high percentage them, Merrell said. of- of "We think we've done a rather commendable job as far as BYU students are concerned," he said. Merrell said he couldn't estimate good. Citizens in the remaining 95,700 rural residences were instructed to keep the Census form until an enumerator could pick it up personally. This process, called list enumerate," is almost complete, Merrell said. "We feel that our district (the Provo Bureau) is producing some of the better results of any district in our (regional) center," Merrell said. The Provo Bureau is part of an eight-stat- e Census region. The United States is broken down into 12 Census regions. ties, Merrell said. how many total questionnaires had been received at the Provo office, but he said he felt the response was Orem High signed by Don A. Christiansen, general manager of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, and three environmentalists, is a step in the process of writing a passable bill that would authorize completion of the $2 billion water project. But Garn said much negotiating remains to be done. Utah's Republican members of Congress must get the Bush administration to support a revised version of a pending CUP completion bill. The Office of Management and Budget and the Interior Department have expressed reservations about a $760 million CUP funding bill. Garn said he is "not satisfied with all aspects" of the agreement signed by Christiansen, Edward R. Osann and David Conrad of the National Wildlife l, Federation and Jeffrey W. who represents a coalition of Utah sportsmen and conservation groups. Ap-pe- Teenagers charged with A.F. bike thefts A Census employees are reviewing returned forms to check for mistakes and calling residents if there is a question that can be handled easily over the phone. Information given over the phone is confidential, he said. The Provo Bureau is responsible for the 20 Utah counties south of Point of the Mountain. Out of the 197,900 housing units in these coun- Garn takes no stand on CUP agreement Garn said the agreement. Student struck, killed by train Talbot said the (AP) was struck and killed was a shortcut Students from around the state built the Census counters hit the streets WASHINGTON (AP) calling it a good-fait- h Sen. Jake Garn. Mental health groups lobby for funding SALT LAKE CITY (AP) S "" ....) Herald Photo David Dahl districts have approved leeway Many districts have reduced other .""" An employee of Radio Shack, 58 N. 500 West, reported that Sunday afternoon, while he was helping a customer in the rear of the store, someone had come in and taken the hi-camcorder from off the showroom floor, said Duane Fraser of fi the Provo Police Department. A tool box valued at THEFT was reportedly stolen late Sunday night from the back of a pickup truck that was parked at a residence in Orem. $500 The tools were in the bed of the truck parked in the area of 600 E. 900 South. There are no suspects at this time, said Gerald Nielsen of the Orem Police Department. students recognized in contest By CHRISTI C. EVANS Herald Staff Writer Orem High School students were recognized for outstanding achievement in the third annual National Bicentennial Competition on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights Monday in Washington, D.C. Twenty-fiv- e Winners from 43 states competed during the weekend by discussing specific constitutional questions in mock congressional hearings. Orem High students won a regional award as the best team in the western United States not placing in the top 10. Students compete locally and stateafter completing a course on the Constitution. State winners travel to Washington, D.C, for the national competition, said Chuck Timanus, deputy communications director for the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constituwide six-we- tion. The contest is funded by the mission. com- "It's a prestigious thing because we're trying to teach kids to be good citizens," Timanus said. Groups of students give presentations to judges on a Constitutional question. Judges then ask questions for six minutes which students must answer with constitutional backing. four-minu- te Orem High students participated in a class called "Constitution, Law and Democratic Problems" taught by Diane Hemond. Also accompanying the group to Washington was Rulon Garfield, Brigham Young University professor of educational leadership and state coordinator of the competition. |