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Show THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 2 Volume VIII Issue VIII August 1, 2003 Letters to the Editor The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 745-2688 Fax: 745-0062 Cell: 791-4387 E-Mail: slfrancis@att.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 745-2879 Fax: 745-2879 E-Mail: crwendell@att.net crwendell@msn.com Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The O GDEN VALLEY NEWS. Guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or less. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The O GDEN VALLEY NEWS reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions. Announcements Sought As a community service, The O GDEN VALLEY NEWS will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell & homecoming and Eagle Scout announcements free of charge. 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Note: The contents of The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS are copyrighted. To protect this publication and its contributors from unlawful copying, written permission is required before any individual or company engages in the reproduction or distribution of its contents, by any means, without first obtaining written permission from the owners of this publication. I’m Glad I knew CPR! A near death incident in our family recently brought home the importance of knowing basic life-saving skills. Our entire family, including my husband Gary; our two sons Michael and Marc; and their wives Nicco and Miranda, was recently vacationing in Maui, Hawaii. We were on a scuba diving/snorkeling trip to the island of Molokini a few miles off the coast. The men were completing their first tank at about 60 feet, and Gary was in the process of ascending to the surface with a novice diver running low on air, while the others were still below. They did a final decompression check at about 15 feet, but after that the story gets vague relative to who saw what and when. At the surface, the other diver noticed that Gary’s regulator was out of his mouth and his mask was on top of his head. The dive boat, which was some distance away with the snorkelers, began to return to pick up the surfaced divers. Charley Neal, the captain, noticed Gary’s head in the water and directed, several times, for him and the dive buddy to raise his head. The dive master, Will Copeland, was down below with the other divers when he looked up and noticed Gary without any movement and knew something was wrong. He quickly returned to the surface and immediately started rescue breathing, and towed him to the boat. They were still beside the boat when we arrived after hearing the captain call for everyone to get in the boat. Four of the six guys were still diving, so we did not have the manpower to pull him aboard. Several boats in the area came to the rescue and some men swam over to assist. Charley and I started CPR immediately, as Gary had a definite dark gray to almost black color to his skin, and his pupils were dilated. All the other divers and snorkelers were hurried onto the boat so we could return to the marina as soon as possible. The Coast Guard was contacted, but they were too far away and would have to meet us at the dock. I still remember the expressions and comments from the boys when they came aboard and saw that it was their Dad. We had done CPR for at least eight minutes. We still did not know at that time how long Gary had been unconscious. I thought Gary was brought from the bottom while diving. Both sons (also trained in basic CPR) took their turns at the effort to revive him. Every breath caused him to expel more water/vomitus fluid, which forced us to modify the technique continually between abdominal thrusts back to compression. His color became better, and I felt some air was getting to the lungs. We went through two to three towels to try and keep his airway clean. Eventually, we were able to get a pulse and respiration after about 25 minutes of frantic but apparently effective compressions, breaths, and thrusts. We obtained a pulse five minutes from shore, and decided to roll him on his side since the water drainage continued. He went critical again, with color changing, so we started rescue breathing again. By the time we got back to the marina, we had a pulse and fair, gurgling respiration. I remember yelling to the paramedics that Gary’s airway was still unstable, so please hurry! He continued to expel fluid, which now had become somewhat pinkish tinged. After three days in ICU and a week in Maui’s hospital, he was transferred to Honolulu for additional tests, which came out good. We were able to make a flight Inspirational Thought Generosity is giving more than you can; pride is taking less than you need. —Kahlil Gibran Deadline for material for the August 15 OVN issue is August 6. back to Utah where he further recovered in familiar surroundings. Gary has almost fully recovered from this near-death event as a result of his family’s knowledge and application of basic CPR techniques. We never expected to have to apply these skills to save a family member, but when we did, we realized how difficult it is on a loved one. Two cardiologists said that most people would not have continued the effort as long as we did, and he would not have survived at all if we hadn’t of. Of course, they also agreed it was a true miracle, since less than 5% survive at all, and most have severe brain damage, or at least some trauma. We do give all credit to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will help you use your skills when needed. We are so thankful to the specialists that were brought to us, and who fought to save his life. We want to express our thanks to everyone that gave comfort and support, and all the prayers that helped Gary through this incredible ordeal. Most of all, I want to thank Charley Neal, Will Copeland, and our two boys, Mic and Marc Allen, for doing such a great job, and not giving up. If a life or death situation happened suddenly with one of your family members, would you have the knowledge, skill, and focus to save your loved one? Make sure you know CPR. For your family’s sake— call the American Red Cross for CPR training. Please! Kathy Allen, Liberty Eden Boundaries ManipulatedCommittee bent on incorporation On July 17, at Snowcrest Jr. High, Steve Clarke and his steering committee laid out the progress of their efforts to “investigate the feasibility of incorporating Eden.” They have invested a lot of energy conducting a “Preliminary” feasibility study that showed that it was not financially feasible to incorporate given the entire geographical boundaries assumed at that time. Now probably no one expects that the boundaries for incorporated Eden extend from mountain ridge at Snow Basin to mountain ridge at Powder Mountain. But if given the opportunity, I wonder if residents might agree that community integrity is an important thing. That is to say, the boundaries ought, at minimum, to include Eden residents with addresses that have historically been acknowledged as Eden, residents who have Eden property tax ID #’s, residents who pay taxes and live within the Eden fire protection area, and Eden residents who obligate a portion of their property tax to the Eden Park Service District, and/or the Eden Cemetery District. Sounds fair and reasonable. Trouble is, Steve and committee found that even boundaries such as these, that fairly included the entire community, would not pass the test of “financial feasibility.” So they began “slicing and dicing” the proposed boundaries, fracturing any sense of community continuity by chopping out large sections of real-estate because it represented high cost/low tax revenue. They retained only areas containing businesses that produce sales tax revenue, and areas that have few roads to plow and maintain. The ration- ale? To force the feasibility study to give the answer needed in order to eventually incorporate. Some examples of the boundary cuts are: Snowcrest Jr. High is “key holed” out of the boundary since it produces no tax revenue and represents a large expense for security services. Wolf Star, on the east side of Powder Mountain Road is cut away. Too much maintenance; too little revenue. String Town is sliced off the map entirely; no businesses, too much roadway. It occurred to a block of residents attending the briefing, that boundaries might be much more important to citizens than any of the committee or Steve Clark had imagined. Consider the following: 1. If you are an Eden resident and you are left out of the boundaries by a stone’s throw or even a mile, everything about your quality of life will be affected by the zoning, lighting, signage, development etc, that the incorporated Eden imposes because you are either enveloped by it or adjacent to it. Yet you will have no vote or voice in any of it. 2. Consider future taxation. If an incorporated Eden is successful in capturing and claiming only the prime (tax revenue rich) real estate, then Weber County is forced to go looking for other means of revenue with which to continue providing services and maintaining roads in the remaining unincorporated areas. I guess they will have no choice but to increase taxes for those still outside the incorporated zone. 3. “Having local control over future development” was given as an important reason for pursuing incorporation. Sacrificing large tracts of open space East of Wolf Star, and abandoning control of developable ground in String Town would seem to nullify one of the biggest reasons for incorporating in the first place. We strongly suggested to Steve in the meeting that more research was in order to determine if this matter of “boarder manipulation” and “key holing” was acceptable to the general citizenry of Eden. There were quite a few people who felt that if these compromises had to be suffered just to attain incorporation, then it called into question if the value of incorporating would still be viewed the same by residents. Steve flatly refused to research and incorporate public input, and doggedly vowed to march forward to the next step, which is collecting signatures on a petition that will ask Weber County to conduct a feasibility study. This “study” will cost taxpayers more than $40 thousand, and its result will hardly be a surprise. The boundaries have been conscribed so that the finances will show black. By its refusal, the committee has stepped aside from its original charter to be an “unbiased investigator” into the feasibility of incorporation. The committee appears now to be fully bent in favor of promoting Eden incorporation, no matter the compromises, no matter the cost, and void of public input. Mike Gillespie, Jay Bachman, Haynes Fuller, Eden Anyone wanting to be part of a pilot program to test humanitarian aid garden kits. Please come to Square Foot Gardening display Saturday, August 2. 9:00 a.m. - Volunteers 10:00 a.m. - FREE Workshop 11:00 a.m. - Pick-up kits www.squarefootgardening.com ~ Dine ~ Shop ~ Relax The Yukon Grille 745-9690 745-9690 745-9293 235 South 7400 East Huntsville, Utah V ISIT US AT: www.trappersvillage.com |