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Show TheSalt LakeTribune UTAH @ STATE OF THE STATE, B-3 ROLLY & WELLS MANN LANDERS, B-5 WCOMICS, B-6 Pet Shop Needs ScooperforIts Return Policy Eversince 3-year-old Max Sullivan of Magnacouldtalk, he has been asking his parents, Brian andShan,for a puppy. In December, the couple moved into their first home, and this month,they boughttheir son a purebred beagle puppy from Village Pets in Sandy. Within three days, they discovered that Max wasallergic to the dog. Shan soughtto return it, but the store has a “no return”policy on purebreddogs. (You canreturn a $14.99 parakeet within 7 days and get a 50 percentreturn), Nonetheless, owner John Stevenssaid he would take the dog back, but would reimburse Shan only $175 — the price Stevens paid for the dog. She was told to dropit off at anotherofhis stores, Fins-Feathers-N-Fur in Murray. She did that last Monday, The employee who took the dog told Shan she could pick up her check Tuesday. Shan asked that she also be given a'receipt for dropping the dogoff. Shegotneither, Shedid get a telephone message Tuesdayfrom Stevenstelling her she neededto pick up the dog or he was turningit over to Murray Animal Services because Shanhad abandonedit. “It becameapparentat 10 a.m. Tuesdaythat the customer was not going to go through with the sale of her dog, that it was her intention to abandonthedog there,” hesaid.“I called,left two messages, and when shecalled my stores but madenoeffort to contact me,I called animalcontrol.” Three hourslater the dog was picked up and Shan got a call from officers requesting she sign the necessary papersso it could be adopted. When Shansigned the papers Wednesday,officers told us that no abandonmentcharges wouldbe filed because “she did absolutely nothing wrong.” The $530 dogis available for adoptionatthe shelter for $50, $20 of which will be refunded if the ownerhasthe dog neutered, vaccinated for rabies and licensed within 30 days. Qa KnowYourClients Salt Lake City resident Chet Gregory,80, bowls three nights a week and recently bowled a 298, Obviouslyactive, but admittedly a bit bored, he applied at the Salt Lake County Aging Services for employment. His intention was to find a part-timejob he could handle, Aging Services got him a job at a gift shop at the Salt Lake City International Airport. When he reported to work,he learned he would be working eight-hour shifts and would be standing the entire time.If he needed to use the restroom,he hadto call for a supervisor to spell him. Heleft 30 minuteslater. When he returned his uniform to the county, he told Aging Services that eight hours standing is a stretch even for a young person. Q Ask an Expert Allan M. Siegal of The New York Times sent an e-mail to the Deseret News on Tuesday concerning the LDS Church's recentrequestthat news media refrain from using the traditional nicknames for the church andcall it “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”in thefirst reference and “The Churchof Jesus Christ” in subsequent references, “Theletter (from the church]is painstakingly courteous, andit makes suggestions rather than demands, Nevertheless, by discouraging all of the short forms that would fit into a narrow line,it poses somedifficult questions for us,” Siegal wrote, “Could I ask you to have someone send me — by mail, fax or email — whatever style guidelines you now employin referring to the church, ny, those that apply to one-column headlines?” > MM WEATHER, B-8 © MAY 21,2001 Budget Woes Roil Salt Lake City Mayor complains while council cuts PAUL ROLLYand JOANN JACOBSEN-WELLS ‘©2001, The Sat Lake Tribune TELEVISION, B-7 BY REBECCA WALSH THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Salt Lake City leaders always expected the year before the 2002 Winter Games to be lean. Butnotthis lean. Mayor Rocky Anderson andCity Council members are picking through spreadsheetsofthecity’s first biennial budget to find $6.4 million to cut. Anderson insists the cuts are unnecessary; he andhisstaffare doing the forensic accounting reluctantly. Council members say they are sticking by policies set — and, they acknowledge, sometimesforgotten — in previousyears. Nothing is sacred. Some City Council members are eyeing Olympic niceties such as $240,000 to buy blue coats for 2,400 city employees and elected leaders. Others: figure the PlanningDivision should not get any more moneyfor masterplansuntil the S-year-old cent city draft plan is adopted, And Anderson'spet projects may be most vulnerable:in particular, $300,000 to expand after-school and summeryouth programs and$2.4 million to landscape the eastern half of Library Square. "S Sydney leaders had taken this approach, there would have been no Olympic rings on the HarbourBridge and the Opera House would have been dark during the Summer Olympics,” Anderson says. “Policy for policy’:'s sake sounds fine in a vacuum,” he adds. “But the council members are digging themselvesinto a big hole where the consequences are enormousandall ofit is completely unnecessary. I don’t see that as fiscal conservatism.It’s bad priorities,” Butcouncil members are resolute. Three years ago,faced with a 20-year, $630 million backlog of crumbling roads, sidewalks, streetlights and parks — or capital improvement projects — they decided to apply 9 percentof city general fund revenue each year to thelist. Their commitment to deferred infrastructure has set up a series of budgeting problemsthis year. To meet the council’s goal of the $535 million budgeted for 2001-2002 and the $535 million planned for 2002-2003, See BUDGET CUTS,Page B-3 Schools Dumping The PTA Conservatives unhappy with national agenda BY MARTA MURVOSH ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The newest national organization drawing the ire of some Utahns: the PTA. Its national agenda, concern over how dues moneyis divided and a desire for autonomy are driving some uae parents’ defections from the Pas week,parents at Wasatch Elementary in Provo voted to leave the Leah Hogsten/TheSalt Lake Tribune Elizabeth Buckmiller, or Buzz, as she likes to be called, shows herfavorite place to read: a sycamoretreein the Holladay family's yard. The exceptional 12-year-old.will begin classes at the University of Utahthis fall. College Studentat 12 “We want to become a small government at Vista Elementary. Right for our children. Right for our teach- Despite social concerns, parents sendgifted girl to U. BY KIRSTEN STEWART ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Meet Elizabeth Buckmiller, who goes by “Buzz” — not “Lizzy,” not a — as she is quick to remind ple. Like most12-year-old girls, Buzz’s bedroom is cluttered with stuffed animals, magazines and compactdiscs. She likes surfing the Internet, mountain biking and watchingherfavorite TV show,“Star Trek: Voyager.” But most of the time, you will find her slight, boyish frame dangling from an old sycamore tree in her Holladay back yard, where she likes to escape with a book. Atfirst glance,thereis no sign that Buzz is special — that she has been blessed with a rare intelligence and can boastof being the youngest person ever admitted to the University of That's how Buzz, her parents and her counselors wouldlike to keepit. “We wanthertostart this fall at the university like any other student and not be singled out,” said Buzz's mom,Kelly Buckmiller. But Buckmiller, and her husband, Dan, aren’t kidding themselves. There will be no helping the stares Buzzis likely to encounter when she walksinto a classroom full of 18- to 24-year-olds. “It’s going to be hard,” said Kelly Buckmiller. The Buckmillers will haveto drive their daughterto school daily. And because Buzz doesn’t have her high schooldiplomaandis under 18 years of age, she is ineligible for scholarships orfinancial aid. “The irony is Buzz will graduate from college before she’s 17 years old and eligible to take her GED,” said her mom. Buzz, too, knowsthe risks associated with her comingcollege adventure — interrupted emotional development, social isolation and depression, She has had theserisks drilled into her by teachers, counselors and college admissionsofficers, who may have herbestinterests in mind, but “just don’t understand,” she says. “There are bound to be bumpy spots,” Buzz acknowledged.“But I'm notscared.I'm just happy.” “Buzz hasbeen pleadingwith us to let her go to college for more than a year and half,” said Kelly Buckmiller, who jokes that her oldest daughter wasborn 30, PTA — in part because they were unhappywith its national agenda — and form an as-yet-to-be-named, independent organization. On Thursday night, parents at Vista Elementary in Taylorsville also will decide if they should abandon theiraffiliation with the PTAin favor of an independent parent-teacherorganization, commonly known as a PTO. ers,” said Sheila Zolman, Vista Ele- “People ask when she spoke her first word and whatshesaid. But her first word wasa sentence, andI don’t remember whenit was,” shesaid. Today, Buzz uses words like “superfluous” and “expound.” She chats aboutstuff like why Helium is “such a rare isotope.” When she grows up, she wants to work as a missionspecialist for NASA. And her insatiable appetite for books, especially historical fiction, and classical music carries her to the public library almost daily, where she knows the librarians by name. Shehasonefriend her age, but mostly hangs out with her teachers. The Buckmillers recognized Buzz’s uncanny intelligence early and pushed the administration at Challenger Elementary, a private school with an accelerated curriculum in Salt Lake City, to let her skip first grade. “It's kind of eerie,” said Kelly Buckmiller. “She can see something once and commit it to memory.” The school agreed and Buzz ex- mentary PTApresident. The vote could end the elementary school's 35-year association with the largest and oldest parent group in the nation, makingit the 10th schoolin the state to break ranks with the 104-yearold PTA. Knownfor sponsoring such school programs as Ribbon Week,the Reflections arts contest, reading programs andteacher appreciation lunches, a growing numberof parents of school- aged children in Utah see a more ominous agenda driving the national PTA. That agenda includes opposition to vouchers,tuition tax credits and guns in schools. The national PTA also is seen as supportive of Democratic candidates, teachers unions and gays and lesbians, “So many parents at our schoolreally feel they can't support the PTA because it supports a PTA national agenda that they can’t support,” said Dawn Frandsen, Wasatch’s outgoing PTApresident. Wasatch Elementary parents who complained of voted to leave didn’t want their dues or statistics kept on their volunteer hours used to lobby liberal causes, See GIFTED,Page B-3 See PTA, Page B-2 celled, but soon Living’Traditions Festival Strives to Link Past, Present BY HEATHER MAY ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Earl Denet learned from his father how to turn the roots of cottonwood trees into kachina dolls with a pocket knife, sandpaper and a file when he was 15 and lived on a reservation in Arizona, Now, the Riverton resident hopes his own children will pick up the HopiIndian art. But sometimes it seems Denet's four children would rather listen to rap music than create a kachina doll — a gift traditionally made by Hopi men and given to girls to teach them about nature. “I'm still trying to talk them into it,” Denet said Sunday at Salt Lake City’s Living Traditions Festival, while displaying the kachinas he and his father have made.“It’s just part of being a Hopi person.I want them to try to do this,” This connecting of contemporary life to traditional ways was evident throughout Living Traditions,a festival meant to celebrate the city’s diversity. Organizers estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people attended, eating ethnic food, listening to music from gospel singers and American Indian drummers, among others, and ‘watching traditional dances, Near Denet sat 20-year old Emily Chappell and her mother, Linda, braiding rags into rugs, The two picked up the handicraft when Emily was in fourth grade and needed to make something for a pioneer project. Now,their home wouldn't be the same withoutthe colorful throws. “I don’t like being without the rugs,” said Linda Chappell, who has taught her daughters, daughters-inlaw and strangers how to make them. “If I take them out to wash them, my house feels naked.” Linda Chappell’s motherperfected the art of braiding rugs while living in ~~ Leah Hogsten/The SaltLake Tribune Cambodian dancer Sokleng Lach, along with other members of her troupe, entertains the crowd at Salt Lake City’s Living Traditions Festival on Sunday. Idaho during the Depression. Maintaining thatera's sparing ways, Chappell was ready to weave a rug using 1 old, gray socks, Emily Chappell said she likes weaving “for my mom.” |
