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Show Page Two - The Pyramid - August 25, 1993 A Penny's-wort- h by Penny Hamilton Attend hearings Now n Members of the Spring City Planning Commission should be commended for volunteering to take on a totally thankless task. Theyve spent many hours conscientiously devising a zoning ordinance for presentation to the city council. Theres no question that criteria must be established now to prevent future industry from compromising the health and tranquility of local residents. Proposed lot size requirements will prevent overcrowding and haphazard development before it gets out of hand. The sign ordinance will ensure no clutter of unsightly billboard type advertising; however... The rights of individual property owners may be cause for concern in the commissions proposal. The present owner of a Main Street structure wouldnt be allowed to change the exterior of his own building without approval of the Historical Planning Subcommittee appointed by the city council. Owners of mobile homes must meet occupancy requirements different from those of a "home" owner. Mayor Christenson and the commission gave assurances that abiding by any one of the criteria establishes occupancy; yet the wording of the proposal says just the opposite. Some will be upset at the proposed $10 annual fee to store a private, unlicensed vehicle at least 20 years old in their own back yard. Such vehicles must be stored in a roofed structure or tarped which, in any form, can cause more deterioration from trapped moisture than exposure to the elements. Nothing else in town has to be tarped!! Permission of neighbors to store the vehicle may appear equally ridiculous. One persons treasure may be someone elses junk. No one is advocating a junk yard, but some sanity in this issue is my "Hero Elder Wayne R. Nunley, son of Ronald and Camille Nunley, has returned home from serving in the Canada Halifax LDS Mission. He will speak in the Moroni LDS Third Ward in Wales on Aug. 29, at 9:30 a.m. Grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Bennett Madsen, Mt. Pleasant and Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Nunley, Moroni. accident-waiting-to-happ- en Death of local woman touches former principal Dear Editor: When I received word that Dixie Bench had been killed in an automobile my heart was heavy with sorrow for her dear family and for the community of which she was such a part. The absence of such a noble soul will leave a great void in the world. Out of this sorrow I feel a deep sense of joy for having shared lifes journey with Dixie. During the time that I had the of serving as the Principal of North Sanpete High, it was my great privilege to associate with Dixie and other high honor outstanding young people. Dixies sterling qualities made her stand out. Like a true Hawk she celebrated all our victories. One time we were going into the playoffs and Dixie knew there would be a lanpttt'i Landing Newspaper THE PyRflmiD (USPS 365-58- 0) at Mt. Pleasant Published Weekly Utah, 84647 49 West Main Street Telephone: FAX: 462-21- 462-24- 34 59 Publisher Craig Conwer Penny Hamilton Managing Editor Lynda Grover Associate Editor Shirley Christensen Office Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES (In Advance) $18 per $21 year-S- X coin toss to determine our standing. Dixie told me that there was a higher probability of the coin landing on a certain side. With that knowledge we won the toss, not only on that occasion but in other key situations. Those were great days never to be forgotten. Were all the students at North Sanpete like Dixie, NSH would have no peers. The competition would tremble at the very thought of facing such an awesome foe. She displayed great courage in the face of adversity. She stood for the truth. She was never satisfied with less than the best. I hope that Dixies memory will live forever in the hearts and minds of every young person in North Sanpete, as a reminder for all generations of what it means to be a true Hawk. It was Philip James Bailey who reminded us of an important truth: "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels noblest, and acts the best." By this standard Dixie lived a great and full life. God bless her memory and from her life may all of us take increased devotion to that cause for which she gave her last full measure of devotion. That cause was to build a better, a kinder, and a more beautiful world. E. Mark Bezzant Director School, College and University Partnership Utah Valley State College per copy per year outside Sanpete Court Senior Citizens ! CORRESPONDENTS Fairview, Shirley Christensen 462-2S- Moroni, Barbara Gordon 462-21- Ftn. Green, Jessie Oldroyd 445-34- Woles, Colleen Lamb Snow College 436-88- Dean O'Driscoll Photographer, Hollee Anderson 462-31- POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Pyramid 49 West Main Street, Mt Pleasant, UT 84647. Second dass postage paid at Mt Pleasant, UT raid additional moiling offices. MORONI The Senior Citi- zens will have a catered western barbecue dinner Aug. 27, weather permitting, at the city park at 6 p.m. (It will be moved to the center if its stormy.) The "Driftwood Drifters" will provide entertainment and there will be a drawing for a quilt. The center requests you bring your own dishes and RSVP by Aug. A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Great Basin Education Center dedication last Thursday. Ive borlead rowed that from whomever said it first because I dont know of any better way to illustrate just how "halos and hot seats" can shift. What funny thing happened, you say? Well, to begin with, my car overheated and I just about missed the dedication, Senator Orrin Hatch, and all the other dignitaries assembled at that famous landmark eight miles up Ephraim Canyon. "Can my car climb a mountain?" was the last thing I said to Hubby before I took off for my weekly pilgrimage to the south end of the county (and the dedication). The car had just been overhauled after having blown a head gasket. "No problem, have a good day," he assured me. "Have a good day?" How about "Have an adventure (which could have only happened to me or someone in a Robert Redford film) or "Take a little salt, youre going to eat crow today." So what is so funny about breaking down in Ephraim Canyon? Nothing really, unless you are a newspaper editor who has just published some negative remarks about the Sheriffs Sanpete County Office the day before and youre rescued by Sanpete County Sheriff Wallace Buchanan himself. Am I making this up? No way. And if our readers think so, they can talk to any law enforcement officer within radio transmission of Sanpete County. If theyve stopped laughing yet, they will Confirm the truthfulness of the story. Imagine the scene. A tranquil mountain setting. A time-prov- en needed!! What if neighbors painted their house an obnoxious color? Is there a difference between an unlicensed old car stored neatly in the back yard and a licensed parked in the driveway? The trailer ordinance wording appears to preclude prefabricated homes (especially those with aluminum siding). Additionally, once mobile home is affixed to a permanent foundation a double-wid- e with its axles and wheels removed, doesnt it become a house? Dont people pay property tax as opposed to trailer licenses? The citizens of Spring City must read this proposal and see how it will affect them. The commission members are not professional ordinance writers and have no legal experience, but they did the best job they could under the circumstances. In some instances, though, verbal explanations just dont appear to coincide with what is written. Citizens should also insist that once this proposal is submitted for legal scrutiny, the attorneys written comments should be available for public examination to ensure that the council makes whatever changes are necessary to avoid litigation. Above all, ATTEND THE HEARINGS!! The intentions of those involved in the process are noble, but there may be enough holes in this thing that it could be served with ham on rye. hes Rosemary (Turpin) Johnson was named Employee of the Month at Gull Laboratories in Salt Lake City. She, her husband and their children live in West Valley City. Her parents are Rodaleen and Maurice Turpin of Fairview. Taxpayers will bear cost of increased grazing fees Dear Editor: A recent conversation highlighted the fact that some folks might mistakenly think that ranchers and farmers only buy equipment and supplies for farming. My farming friend made a list with much variety of over 50 local townspeople she had subsidized. I began to think and make my own list which is at 60, just lone woman with car trouble. The hood is up. The scene says, "Help me, I have a little problem, here (I had the problem well under control, but I was concerned about missing my story up the canyon)." Sheriff Buchanan was the second car to stop. The first was a small blue compact headed down the canyon. "Do you have any water?" I asked the man inside. He said "No" and I walked back to the white Ford Crown Victoria parked behind him. I didnt notice at first the two additional Sheriffs Deputy cars pulling up behind or that the man driving the Victoria was wearing a uniform. In other words I walked right into the most embarrassing situation Ive had in a long time. I wonder if Wally could read the expression on my face when I recognized him. I was thinking, "I dont believe this. What are the odds of this happening?" He was. a gentleman and as tactful as the situation allowed. And he had me... he had me good. "Can I help you?" was all he said. After I had determined that he didnt have any water either, he offered to turn around and personally chauffeur me to the dedication. Since it was a good idea to let the car cool completely before trying to drive it farther (this was the fourth time I had stopped to let it cool). I knew I needed more fluid in the radiator, so I locked it up and became the sheriff s passenger. The two" deputies continued down the mountain which was a relief. 1 was with the sheriff in his car; I didnt need an entourage especially one equipped with lights and fecb-to-fa- ce sirens. Thank you, Wally, for We had a nice visit while riding up the mountain. We settled a lot of differences, at least as far as I was concerned. It wasnt a long drive and some of the conversation was interspersed with radio instructions to officers who were contacting my husband for more assistance. One officer asked the sheriff if he should tell Paul that I was "overheated." "No," Wally replied, "Its her car thats overheated, shes fine." Can you imagine how many radios across the valley were "tuned in" to that conversation. Its a miracle there werent any accidents as listeners tried to control their laughter and wipe the tears from their eyes. Thats OK, fellas, I probably deserved every bit of it, and Im a good sport. After all, if Im going to dish it out, I should also be able to take it, right? At one point I told the sheriff he was making this really hard for me. "What do you mean," he innocently asked (Im sure there was a twinkle in his eye even though he didnt crack a smile). "Rescuing me," I answered. "Its my job," he said and the tone of his voice let me know he knew that I had been doing my job, too. The ice was broken and we were communicating about real issues and concerns. It couldnt have been planned better. And the Jbest part is that our readers will benefit with more news items from the Sheriffs De- partment. Sometimes communications problems are so difficult that it literally takes an act of God to intervene. I appreciate Him and all the rest of the players in my most recent adventure, especially "my hero." matter-of-factl- y, jj I f f i Street plan is confusing Ephraim reader reports of which come from of livestock. If permittees are forced off Federal land, many will either go bankrupt or find other places to feed. Then instead of the permittees sharing the costs and doing much of the maintenance, guess who will pay?? Yes, you, the taxpayer, will pay ALL of it with probably nothing in return. Are picnickers willing to pay $10 in Sanpete. When one of us singly or as a a time to go up in the mountains group suffers economically it will to eat lunch? Or if the roads are then affect a wider group because closed to vehicles, are you willof the snowball effect, i.e., stores ing to hike up the mountain for a may drop employees as sales picnic? Besides, what good are drop, and so on. As more people better grazing conditions if only are negatively impacted, then a the burgeoning wildlife populamuch wider group is affected. I tion can use them? They come think thats called a "depression." down in the valley and eat the At the Woolgrowers Convencrops anyway. As far as predator control tion in Castle Dale an alarming circumstance was heard. When a goes, the story has not been BLM permittee was asked to hire presented either: did you know a cattle harder and do various there were 1,500 cougars in Utah in 1990 and now there are nearly expensive projects by BLM offiHunters: is that manage5,000? found he cials, cheaper private ment or and went to neglect? Five thousand land, packed up Colorado with his cows and, yes, cougars can eat 200,000 deer. I know they kill sheep; we just lost his DOLLARS too. Exiting cattleman spending less dollars in a bunch. But do you want them to come down into the towns and Utah equals our loss. What truly bothers me is kill your pets, attack or scare shortsighted leaders and, yes, your kids? What will the predaenvironmentalists (NOTE: some tors eat if there are no lambs or ranchers and farmers were taking calves to attack? NO vegetables, care of the environment before MORE wildlife. and these folks were born) who cant bears are also on theCoyotes increase for see or dont care what the ecowhat purpose? So you can pay nomic impact of the loss of a for maintaining the mountain, pay billion dollar industry will do, $10 to picnic and be run out not just to farmers and their your of the mountains by bears, etc.. families but many other people. Makes lots of sense, doesnt it? What will manufacturers do if I sure hope President Clinton they cannot find the raw materiincludes lots of als to make their products, many treatments in his health care plan because the next four years is going to bring a lot of need for them for ALL of us. P.S. Will the CountySchool MT. PLEASAN- T- Wallace lambs in Board take cougar-kille- d and Lisa Frandsen announce the tax rates or for higher payment birth of a daughter, Dayna Kay, write-of- f tax a for the do just Aug. 6, 1993 at Sanpete Valley uncontrolled cougar Hospital. Grandparents are Sam who did the damage? and Maxine Dye, Moroni, and Kaye C. Watson Russell and Maybelle Frandsen, Spring City Mt. Pleasant. Crib corner state-owne- your consideration. d, i Dear Editor: I have attended two meetings with the street committee. I attended one mass meeting. I have read in the paper how and what the plans are for the street project and the more I read and the more meetings I attend, I get more confused. I do support the concept of better streets in Ephraim. To prove my point, 20 or 30 years ago many of us put our own curb in with the cooperation of the city and, in my specific case, we had to move two irrigation ditches. The irrigation company cooperated with this. We had to move power lines and water meters, which was all done on a cooperative effort of. the property owner, the city and the irrigation company. This was the case with many areas within ' our town, so dont think any of us are against improving the streets and making Ephraim a better place to live; but do it right. By this I mean dont penalize us for being 20 to 30 years ahead of our time. Dont narrow the streets at a time when every area in the nation is trying to widen their roads, especially if we are looking to the future. Dont put a curb in the middle of the road. Put it where it belongs because people are not going to park on the asphalt anyway; theyre going to park just where they always have (as close to their house as possible). Dont have another situation like the recent curb and gutter project where it cost the people almost double what they were told it would cost them. That project was a prime example of what happens when people make decisions that are not well thought out and proceed out of control with apparently no one knowing they are out of control until after it is too late. I gave some monetary figures of what I believed this project would cost and I again give this - figure with a slight revision, so here they go again. These are only my figures but I do ask you, the people, to take a few minutes and determine yourseif if they are correct or not. I might point out that they are based on 4 percent interest and this is open for debate because no one knows for sure what the interest rate will be or the service will cost until the final ring of the bell. A $3 million loan to pay for the project at 4 percent interest would total $4,117,000. If this is spread over 1,100 hookups, this equals $37,400 per hookup over 21 years, or $1,782 per year per hookup. Now, if we are going to get a $1 million grant to pay for of the cost, why is there a need to bond for die full $3 million. Why not $2 million. Unless my third grade teacher failed to teach me properly, one plus two equals three. one-thi- rd Yes, Im confused; therefore, I ask the mayor and council and the street committee to slow down and get all the ducks in line. Only after this happens can we, the citizens, make an intelli- gent decision. Only after the confusion among yourself is resolved (the mayor and council and the street committee), can I or anyone make a responsible decision at the polls. In closing, may I again express my appreciation to the mayor and council and the street committee for the efforts theyve made. But please dont ask the people to vote on this until everyone knows all the answers to all the problems associated with it. I believe the concept is good. I think it will come to completion and I believe it will be a tremendous asset to the city, but lets not have another project out of control like the recent curb and gutter project. Keith Keisel Ephraim |