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Show 2 THE GREEN SHEET Thursday, Nov. 24, 1988 OUR READERS WRITE council voted 2 against the proposed zone change. This should have put this matter to rest. But the developer has now challenged the vote and the city the matter. has agreed to Our group is being told by city council members that we need to get a new petition signed and present our viewpoint all over again. I find this entire situation appalling. The main reason West Valley was incorporated was to bring the government closer to the people. This has reinforced the fact that someone other than the residents are controlling government. As concerned citizens, my neighbors and I have followed the procedures that make up a democratic system. Unfortunately, none of us is getting paid to present our point of view, we are not being paid to get names on a petition, we are not polished sales people or public speakers, and we do not have a staff of lawyers at our finger tips to ploy any and all legal tactics available. This is happening time and again. We are being inundated with commercial development in our residential areas. The end result of this type of carelessness will be a city that is undesirable to live in. 5-- Not Being Heard Happy Thanksgiving Im Sure There Is A Santa the first rules a journalist learns is that theres rarely room for One of Say Thank You everything she (he) wants to put in the paper. Such was the case for our Milestones editor, Ethel Bradford, who was responsible for todays Holiday Memories section. To make sure she would have sufficient (translate: too much) copy, Ethel asked several staff members to write down one of their fond holiday memories to augment those she had gleaned from other sources. Mine was one of those for which room could simply not be found. "Fll get it in before Christmas," Ethel promised. "Ive got a better idea," I said. "Its deadline time and I have nothing for my column." So thanks to Ethel, Im saved for another week and heres my Holiday Memory. All parents like their kids to believe in Santa Claus. I firmly believe thats one of the reasons mothers ciy on that very first day of school. They know they can no longer shield their offspring from those smarty-pant- s kids who delight in popping the first of those many bubbles that will be burst in our lives. As sure as Halloween signals the onset of the Christmas season (I know, the signal used to be there tire hunThanksgiving), dreds of sweet kindergarten kids out there who are being told by a snotty little classmate that believing in Santa is dumb. That was certainly the case in the Fifties although I was in first grade because I didnt attend kindergarten. First it was a whisper here and there that there really wasnt a Santa Claus. "Its really your dad," theyd announce, bolder in their growing proclamations as the magical day drew ever nearer. - I flat our refused to believe them. We lived in a mobile home and even though there was no chimney, Id wake up every Christmas morning and discover that Santa had indeed paid a visit. It was no different that year. By the time I was in second grade, the rumors became more persistent. I discussed it with my mother, but she assured me that those kids didnt know what they BONDED INSURED CALL 566-989- 8 FOE INSTALLED Home Improvement, We Stand Behind Our Products. The week of Thanksgiving is National Family Caregivers Week. This week presents us with a splendid opportunity to say 'Thank You" to these special people who give their time, love and assistance to frail, elderly relatives or friends in need of loving care and understanding. Caregiving is an act of compassion; caregiving is often physically and emotionally exhausting. Often it becomes a job and an added to the caregivers usual living routine; responsibility most likely their lives are interrupted with unforeseen problems. Families, not governmental agencies, provide the majority of care to relatives or friends who were, at one time, independent, proud people and now are fearful and feeling helpless, angry, and confused. Caregivers are there to alleviate these fears; to assure the frail ones that they will be cared for. A national survey of caregivers was conducted in 1987 for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Travelers Companies Foundation. They came up with some interesting statistics. Seven million U.S. households have a family member or friend involved with the daily living of an older, frail person. Caregivers are women (75) and men (25) whose average age is 46 with 28 percent under 35 and 15 percent over 65 years of age. Of these 65 percent are married, yet only 37 percent share a household with the disabled person. One third of these became caregivers because they have a close relationship or friendship with the one in need; and the 16 percent . . . "because no one else would do it. One half of the caregivers spend at least 12 hours per week on caregiving, 11 percent give constant care, and 28 percent give eight hours or less a week. Six in ten caregivers incur additional expenses for travel, telephone bills, and special diets and full-tim- e were talking about. Back then we believed what mom said. My brother had joined our family by the time I was in the third grade. When the yuletide season rolled around, he was only nine months old - and scared to death of Santa Claus. I was really beginning to doubt the Santa story by then. How many times can you hear that its your dad without beginning to wonder? playing cards with the evenii seeming to drag on forever. "What do you care, you're going to stay awake all night," I was told when I suggested it might be ' . time to go home. we went home lo and Finally, and behold, upon arriving we discovered that our family had been on Santas early route. He delivered the goods, including a new sled for me and a big truck for Jimmy. Thats when they outsmartWell it simply never occurred to ed me. me that a neighbor could be enlisted to assist in keeping the I was never one to keep my magic alive at least for another thoughts to myself, so of course I year. I really dont recall when I announced that I was going to find out one way or another. Id finally was let in on the big secret and became part of the fun of simply stay awake all night. Christmas Eve arrived and the "helping" Jim believe as long as family went off to visit some possible. Actually, I dont think friends on the other side of town. Ive every really stopped believing The parents got to visiting and in Santa. -- . You and Your Child: Success in School Ck by JIM CAMPBELL Utah Education Association President Most parents know that too much stress on a child can be harmful, but too little stress can also hurt school achievement. Drs. William and Susan Stainback discuss that point in their "How new paperback entitled to Help Your Child Succeed in School." They state that if parents constantly protect their child from all stress, that child will never reap the benefits of healthy levels of stress or learn how to deal safely with too much reasonable amount of stress will actually help your child succeed in school," (UB(muB(7SDam) LICENSED Residents of West Valley were under the impression that incorporation would bring government closer to the people. We thought our voice would be heard and our opinions given consideration in decisions concerning our welfare. ,We now question this form of government. Our experiences with the city have proven that residents are not being heard. Decisions are being made on land development helter skelter. Commercial development is being approved in residential areas. Convenience stores are being approved on the comers at all major intersections. Not only are we getting a glut of convenience stores in this area, we now have a glut of starter homes. West Valley City has large areas of land to be developed and so far it is being done in disarray. It is our understanding " that this is the responsibility of the City Council West Valley has an image problem to begin with and city services need improvement. Dead carp and other dead animals along the road because of a poorly managed water drainage system is ridiculous. Unsightly conditions that should be handled by ordinance enforcement are not because of insufficient number of enforcement officers or apathy. This department is also responsible for animal control and we all remember the incident involving the dog beating. This list goes on and on, and includes every major department within West Valley City. It is our understanding that this is the city managers responsibility. Helter skelter? You bet it is! By rights, the people should be running the city. Minutes from city council meetings indicate that some members of the council are taking direction from the city manager. This situation should be in the reverse, with the city council giving direction the city manager. The city council should be taking direction from the people who elected them. There are some members of the city council who truly are interested in the welfare of the city. Who is running West Valley City? Allen Kennedy Beth A. Kennedy THIS ON THESE WEEK L SAVE SPECIALS SIDING ROOF CONVERSIONS DICKS ROOM ADDITIONS ALWAYS WINDOWS ROOF FENCING GARAGES FREE, FRIENDLY ESTIMAYES THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME. IN they assert, explaining that this will motivate the youngster to achieve and be more creative and productive. Theres a lot to what they say. The student who is shielded from work may not develop a will to work. On the other hand, the student who works too much may fall asleep in class or lack the energy to do school work. Somewhere, theres a "happy medium," and wise parents will look for ways to expect as much from their child as the kid can handle, but not so much that it produces an ulcer. The Stainbacks maintain that kids probably will handle stresses that increase gradually, but that problems occur when the young person is faced with a sharp increase in stress and hasnt developed the ability to deal with it. This can happen when theres a death in the family, when parents decide to get a divorce and when the family moves to a new neighborhood or another city. Good luck helping your child find the healthy medium. medicines. The caregiver provides unpaid assistance to a homebound person who is at least 50 years of age and needs help with the activities of daily living. Generally, the frail person is a mother who is 77 years old and 50 percent who lives in her own home or apartment. Of these frail people, 58 percent are homebound with 28 percent being bedridden and 24 percent using wheelchairs. Usually these folks are suffering from a chronic illness (70) with 16 percent having an acute illness; five percent are afflicted with both chronic and acute illnesses. Prognosis is long term care. Caregivers are an increasingly significant resource meeting the needs of the growing number of chronically ill and disabled older people in our community. Let us keep these caregivers in mind and express our appreciation to them as we celebrate this special time of Thanksgiving. D. Michael Stewart S.L. County Commissioner Concerned Being a citizen of West Valley, I am concerned with the over building of convenience stores and An area of other commercial development. particular concern to me is the northwest comer of 4000 W. 4100 South. A meeting was scheduled by the City Council in December, 1987 for proposed changes to the master plan, one of which was to change the corners of this intersection to commercial. Two petitions had been presented previously to the council in opposition to commercial development at this intersection but it was obvious another would be needed. So, I helped to get another petition signed in opposition to commercial development. This petition was the at meeting. In addition to presenting presented the ' petition, several neighbors, including myself, voiced opposition to changing the master plan, the proposal to change the master plan was passed by the council even though we showed support to the contrary. The area surrounding the northwest comer is now being subdivided for residential use. The developer of this property wants a zone change for a gas stationconvenience store with a car wash. The streets of West Valley are congested enough. Lines From LaRee The addition of convenience stores on the corners are In America today there adds to the congestion. And the inclusion of a car people who know the price of wash increases the congestion and promotes everything, and the value of unsafeonly conditions. - Lewis H. Lapham, nothing. Once again the petition was presented to the city author council and opinions were voiced in opposition. The -- re-he- ar Jill Thompson Mayors Thanks Thank you for the fine coverage you have given our local arts institution on the occasion of Utah Arts Week. . Your paper has been most generous in bringing out the positive elements the arts bring to our community. In addition to highlighting the new within the Murray Symphony developments organization and its first concert of the new season, you have also been very supportive of the activities associated with Arts Appreciation Day. I want you all to know that I appreciate all that our hometown newspaper does, to make the community aware of what happens here. On behalf of Murray City, thank you very much. Lavar C. McMillan Mayor Stage Crew Slighted First off, I would like to say that the Green Sheet is an excellent source for community news. I would also like to speak on behalf of all the schools for the great articles you write about our schools. We need that because it gives us the school spirit we need to try harder at what were doing so we can be considered one of the best schools (in general) by Utahns that read your publication. The first thing I do when I get the Green Sheet is go right to the school articles and see if three is anything about Granger high since Im a sophomore there. But what I came across disturbed me a great deal. Your review of Granger highs musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum stood out quite large and it looked like it had something to say. But as I read it, it told me what 1 already knew. The article was small and lacked excitement. I think Mark. Cartwright should have written on this musical because he has a sense of judgement and makes his articles fun to read. I mean no offense to Olga Milius who wrote the article, but she made the musical sound like any other play or musical - which it wasnt. Thats not the only thing that disturbed me. If you read the title to that article it reads: "Colorful Show at GHS." It cant be colorful and it cant be a show if you leave out exactly what you left out in that article. You left out the people that make the show "colorful" with lights and sound. Otherwise known as a stage crew. You gave us no credit or even a mention! You also dont seem to understand that our jobs arent just flicking a bunch of switches. We have to work just as hard as the musical cast and get to school just as early as they do. We have to get up all the sound equipment, light equipment, and set all the props in the proper places. And after all that, go sit up in the balcony (where we work the equipment) where all the hot air rises and do our jobs while hot lights on the balcony rail add to the intense heat thats already up there. Some people think we are just a group of kids that run the lights and sound. But answer this for me do you think you could sit in a theater for two hours and watch a play or musical with hardly any lights and no sound but the people shouting their lines? I think not. So thats why we are there. To make it fun and worth watching. Say you helped make a big hit movie like E.T. and in the closing credits they list Steven Spielbergs name in big bold letters and then the actors but no mention of you or what you did. It would make you feel totally bad and worthless. I understand that the people in the musical are the ones that make it possible should have all the credit but I do consider our stage crew in the help make it possible category! You gave most of that credit to the costumes and set designs and how great they were. I agree totally to that remark but you, the people that saw the play, would not be able to get the full impact of those props if we were not there. For example, the happy and sad drama faces. If were not there, you the audience would not get to see those greatly designed faces come down slowly behind the cast as they are singing comedy tonight. I think that is one of the best parts in that whole number. It brings out an effect that makes you think, Wow, thats neat." And thats the reaction we want. We all work hard to entertain the people at Granger and the crowds of people that come to see our special performances. But when you read about that performance the next day and see your group wasnt included in that article you feel as if you did all that work for nothing. Some of my friends say, "I wish I was on stage crew so I could get out of class early for an ' assembly, or this: "Stage crew is a easy A class, a piece of cake!" Yes, you do get out of class but you also lose your free time as well. By by the time you have free time you have to make up your school time. Stage crew is not an easy A class because you have to talk theater talk, work around hot lights, lift heavy objects, make out inventory sheets, make out cue sheets, and on top of that, get yelled at by the directors for something that shouldnt be where it is when you didnt put it there. Sure stage is fun but its not a piece of cake as they say. So Im sure some people agree when I say you should give more credit and larger articl is to such excellent performances by any school and the people that made it all possible including the schools technical crew. -- -- - Mike Millen Granger High School |