OCR Text |
Show tliic Page A8 Iimfs-3lnbfpeuf- Thursday, April 26, 2001 nt OUR, TOWU To Community Comments &WS by Sam Taylor to''! tne earC 1960s to become totally burned out applaud those who continue tneir work w.th events can also hKe tne Ha f Marathon and Jeep Safari understand - e.r growing frustration Its time tr.is Moab community City, County, Travel Council and others with semi-deepockets got its act together Local leaders shouldnt banish me thought of going back to the drawing board and completely overhauling the way promotional boards are formed funded and ope ate The functions of visitor services special events, travel, economic development and romotion are integral to one another and should ,,e operated under an umbrella , The- di Council City ,gue mesdays meeting was healthy Let s hope it begins to bring about some results Co od job, Hertha S- td'Shke seeing good money thrown after bad, but fully support Utah s decision to appeal a Federal District Court decision on the recent census count to the Supreme Court The premise of Utah's case is that if census counters can include all federal employees living overseas in their home states, it should also count some ,000 LDS missionaries living That is only fair, and can t believe that a federal three judge panel threw oui all of Utahs claims. At stake here is a fourth congressional seat for Utah, which lost it to North Carolina by just mote than 800 counted people Many of those m North Carolina counted were military personnel living over- rrierr Lb' Moafj O 'i.T Lb' Of Con'll fttr.fi to tr,e Moar, r,a WiK-f.o-idCity piev. r.caVjn Council T.jfsOjy vi;r,r'g rr.O'fos Vj m good potifa li rrif J;rrttrs to prowre $50 000, j(- j r.oubc vv frorri Grod County to to Eft cotTirf'.rig'ofj $00 I. toeGrand Cour.fy Travel rib' a Mi amount from Council to ft ire an everts coordinator, and to pay for oteppea ,,p promof.Ofuji efforts for exist.ng spe-- r The ; oord outor AOuid a'so create re M to .pf'-uovisitors it r ,jdi fW(:i T ho rnrliff mo' of ;nce in this corner The heady Si , of f e .jr.; 1 Wis Ahcri ee could haejiy handle ocrea ,eo a'e long gone D e high price of oit,ii ? ,el fr if, o economy stock 'Pirripened riat'Or .o ,,r-arc a very strong J G donor have iriKa: r d to a point that 'S a little disco.aging to in no-f-f I t- - . rj p - 1 I inur'ty 'ha has Pecorne eco' a c i deper.-den- t a- on tourism The mo-- t notapie mange locally t,e past year or two has teen the- dreg, in foreign visi'afion brought about by the strong U S currency I - 1 I I lO' get a !rt of prorriotiorial material from a lot of very successful arid jxs pular communn.ts m the west ev j week The must successful are those who never doit promo, ng epeoal everts r'ou ve jot to spend money to mai'r money We ve to jrid mat out m our small busmens in our most recent acquisition of printing and comf uter technolog We have just brushed our best year ever and are b miy ir volved m a new one We- ve also spent more on capital investment the past two years than we did ifi the lust twenty We feel that those investments were wise, arid our increased business is 1 1 I - Mormon missionaries are certainly not expatriates. They are United States citizens spending a specified time in foreign countries serving their church. Having so many levels of government involved m facets of a promotional effort is riot only complicated it s downright inefficient Depending on vol unteer organizations to handle special events on a piecemeal basis is great, but tough on those volunteers Turning away thousands of runners from our season opening Half Marathon tros year was disappointing But you can only expect so much from volunteer event organizers. It only took me three years on the two community board of directors of the now almost forgotten Friendship Cruise Why is that so different than soldiers, sailors and airmen serving their country overseas? So far, Utah has spent some $400,000 on this legal action. Carrying it on to the U S. Supreme Court will cost an estimated additional $200,000. That's a lot of money. I'm more concerned, though, over the principles involved here than another congressman or congresswoman favor spending the extra bucks I Many Trails F. Taylor First corr.es lambing season, and then comes shearing season Or sometimes vice versa Or both at the same time In tne case of me six ewes in the flock at No Terigo Rancho, they were finished lambing six weeks ago, and some are now weaning Tfiey all have great appetites, so I will Sam and Merv still have a good many ewes still to lamb and shearing may spur some of them into labor It will be an interesting day, at any rate, and hopefully without serious incident. aft This week s issue carries the story of the appointment of a new president for the College of Eastern Utah, to assume duties on July 1. Dr. Ryan L, Thomas is an attorney who found a stronger calling in higher education. He has been vice president of administration and acting dean of computer science and engineering technology at Utah Valley Stats College for some time He is a most impressive young man (age is relative), and am anxious for him to become acquainted with Moab. should say reacquainted, actually He takes the helm from Dr, Grace S Jones, who has been president at CEU for the last five years. Utah State University also has a new president. Dr Kermit Hall will be m Moab June 12, and will milk a cow on the courthouse lawn during the morning and meet with local leaders on a schedule to be announced soon from USU Commencement in Moab for CEU and USU will be next Thursday, May 3 at 7 p.m. Six stuoents will receive their associates degrees from CEU, and a seven will receive bachelor's degrees from USU at that time One master's degree will be awarded. The last year or so have been times of growth and program development for CEU and USU here in Moab The Higher Education Advisory Council will be working to assure continued cooperation in the months and years ahead. be supplementing the hay arid lamb creep feed with lamb finisher soon, and most will become locker lamb in the fall In the case of Gunmrigton Farms, they are rethinking their original plan to lamb n stages This has kept them pretty much confined to the home place f n a couple of months no w with a couple more months to go The little lambs are great fun, but its not all sweetness and light This year we had one lamb up arid d'e ori us, and another became a bummer for warn of a third feat on her mom Then we had one ewe start to drop her wool, which is an indication of having had an illness, and we didn't know what or when Now we have another ewe with mastitis, and were just hoping to save that udder for lambs to come m the future But it s iffy according to the books My mother wrote a note with a list of suggested lamb names, after the tact, so I'm sa ving that up for another year This year the lambs received names of nieces and nephews, with the exception of Lyon, who was born on March arid Tail End Charlie, the lot of last the Shearing day is April 25, so I'll be helping in the shearing shed instead of doing newspaperly duties as this issue goes to press As mentioned earlier, I I 1 , c niimcs-lnbcpmbc- nt (LTS) Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act of March 3, 1897, Second class postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 East Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 6309-20TX- ail Postmaster: Send changes of address to: The Member A P.O. Box 129, Moab, UT Times-lndepende- Of FAX 84532 1 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Sena T. Flandets, Editor Tom Taylor. Zane Taylor Ron Flanders Franklin Seal., Usa Church,. Kari Gibb... Sadie Warner, Dorothy Anderson V. Circulation Manager, T-- l Maps Press, Production Manager Systems Manager News Writer ...News Writer SportsAdvertising Rep. Office ManagerSatesDesign Mail Room Supervisor Kelly Encson, Taylor. Layne Miller Jed Bobbie Domenick, Backshop Regional Correspondent Green River Correspondent Betty Bailey. Ron Drake Castle Valley columnist Ron George Columnist Oliver Harris Columnist Distribution Jose Churampi, Stan Zook Cliches A good cliche, or a series of them provides the social lubricant that makes interaction with another Unfortunately, just because its easy doesnt make it good. Suppose you have a surprise encounter with a friend you havent seen in years, one you have often thought about, one who is important to you The meeting of necessity must be brief, five minutes at most. What can you possibly say in such a short time that will have any meaning? The natural thing to do in such an unanticipated encounter is to fill the precious moments with cliches, those meaningless, stereotypical phrases that, through excessive overuse, have lost all sense of importance. Well, hello. How ya' doin? Not bad. Hows yourself?" Im doin pretty good." What have you been up to?" Oh, nothin much. You?" Bout the same." What a waste of a perfectly good opportunity to express some real feelings. One of my old mentors explained that the use of such cliches is a barrier that we erect against intimacy. Rather than risk rejection, we take refuge in cliches. When the brief encounter is ended and the friends have gone their separate ways, it is likely that each will regret the missed opportunity. Still, it takes courage to skip the cliches and go right for the heart. Well, hello! Look at you, you look great!" Oh, my goodness, is that really you? Gosh, its been a long time. Ive thought about ea-.- y you often." J Ive wondered about you, too." You know, Ive missed you all these years." Who among us has that kind of courage? Who dares risk being thought some kind of weirdo? Of course, there are other kinds of cliches. I was approaching Monument Valley pass early one recent morning. With all of the great rock formations splendidly arrayed before me, the stereotypical coyote trotted across the road. My first thought was, How much of a cliche is that? I am not much of a musician, but I recognize a musical cliche when I hear it. I have a nice CD of church music. The CD was put together by a Hollywood company. They did a pretty good job with most of it but they just couldnt resist taking the lazy route and adding some worn, stereotypical, Hollywood-type- , music to tie things together. Ive heard it in a dozen old movies. Ive pretty much given up on watching any of the TV sitcoms. There are several reasons for my disenchantment. Foremost among them is the dialog written for most of the characters. I would be embarrassed if, as a screenwriter, I couldnt come up with some other expression of surprise than the tired cliche, Oh, my god!" Their keyboards must have a single key that they hit whenever a character must express surprise, disbelief, joy, disappointment, embarrassment, or a host of other emotions. Just hit the OMG" key and get on with the script. Cliches are for the guarded, the lazy, the disinterested, the hurried. Maybe thats why I occasionally fall into their use. string-orchestr- High Country News Writers on the Range Pacific Northwest must save salmon and power by Rocky Barker Let's face it. For most us higher electric rates are only a minor inconvenience. As the price goes up we look for ways to red u re our power use, or we just fork it over. Here in the Pac ific Northwest, where we pay the lowest rates in the country, even a 50 percent rate hike will only set me back the cost of a night out with my wife. But for the farmers who irrigate potatoes and sugar beets on the plateau above Bell Rapids on the Snake River near Buhl, Idaho, this power crisis is the moment of truth. These farmers pump Snake River water up 600-focanyon walls before distributing it over 19,000 acres. Even at low electric rates farming there is expensive. With the current rate increases, combined with potato prices so low farmers are dumping spuds on the ground, the Bell Rapids fanners face ruin. So do workers in the regions aluminum industry and others dependent on the regions cheap power. Its a sobenng turn of events for a power system that once seemed limitless. Beginning in 1937, the federal government built a series of 30 dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers to provide the economic engine that would lead to the development of this once isolated region. Grand Coulee produced the power that smelted the aluminum. Boeing used to build 9 bombers that dropped the atom bombs that ended World War II. The dams powered the nuclear reactors that created the plutonium in the nations nuclear arsenal. The Bonneville Power Administration, the agency Franklin Delano Roosevelt created, sold cheap power from the dams to rural cooperatives. These public utilities gave farmers electricity to light their homes and pump water from de;p in the earth or high above rivers to irrigate potatoes and apple orchards. Private utilities and municipalities built more dams and created even more opportunity for food processors and metal, offsetting the regions high transportation costs with low electric rates. Thats about to end, thanks to the one-tw- o punch of soaring power prices and drought. Low waters and rising demand have forced Bonneville and private utilities like Idaho Power Co. to buy power on the expensive open market. Supply is so tight that they are buying back electricity from farmers, aluminum companies and phosphate plants. The BPA B-2- address: editormoabtimes.com 5 by Ollie Harris seas proving that point by Adrien Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas has told the aluminum industry to look elsewhere for power after 2006. It is jettisoning the very customers it once depended on so that the remaining high technology industries and residential customers dont have to suffer rolling blackouts like California. BPA also is jettisoning the salmon recovery projects it offered only a few months ago as an alternative to breaching four dams on the Snake River. There simply is not enough water in the Snake and Columbia rivers to flush the endangered salmon through the dams this spring and summer. Unless the region finds other power sources, salmon will always get short changed in dry years. Letting the icon species of the region go down the tubes would be a big mistake, and not just for moral reasons. When electricity supplies once again stabilize, the hydroelectric system will still produce billions of dollars in revenue from power sales. The rest of the country knows this, and some players, especially California, would love to gain access to the hydroelectric system's power at cost just like the regions public utilities get. All it takes is a vote of Congress and the regions sweetheart deal is gone. To avoid this, the regions political leaders must prove to the nation that they will protect the national interests for which they are stewards. The most obvious interest is the salmon, a national and even international resource. If th region wants to blunt the effects of its economic transition, then it better find a way to save salmon and produce power even in a drought year. With the power revenues still in hand, the region can afford to buy land from the Bell Rapids farmers, return it to desert and use the water to produce electricity and help migrating salmon. Bonneville can invest in new irrigation systems that use less electricity and less water. Rural areas can continue to use their preferred rates to attract new industry and help existing businesses like food processors. If it can hold on to the federal hydrosygtem, the Pacific Northwest can ride out the current power crisis without too much sacrifice, just like the average consumer. Rrxky Barker in a contributor to Viri tern on the Range, a service of High Country News. He covers the environment for the Idaho Statesman in Boise. |