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Show Ol mpic He’s Ba-a-a-ck as Hurricane Floyd and the Taiwan earth- a quake—are harder to explain. Those disasters are not only larger and more spectac- Disaster Pins ular than the tornado, but are also rela- Bhe SLOC recently released not one but B two limited-edition Olympic pins com- tively easy to draw. Yet nowhere does -~SLOC commemorate them. Perhaps wrecking Utah is a requirement for commemoration. Yet the I-15 Reconstruction Project, which arguably has caused more human suffering over a wider swath than the tornado ever did, is not honored. Nor is the first car/trolley colli- memorating the Aug. 11 tornado in Salt Lake City. One pin shows a twister, the date it hit, the SLOC logo, and a tiny banner that says “Spirit of Recovery;” the other one, we haven't seen. The pins are for a good cause: Some of the proceeds go _ to the Salt Lake City tree fund. SLOC also that the storm uprooted on Capitol Hill. Though the gesture seéms noble, it does raise questions as to which disasters merit commemorative Olympic pins, and - what criteria are used for selecting them. Some disasters, such as slip-and-falls, may be too small and personal to be preserved on pins. Others, such as nebulous bribery scandals, may not lend themselves well to nequin Oct. 4. Summit County Sheriff’s ment received a call over the weekend. A Rock 99 listener spotted the figure sitting on a board behind a house at 6300 S. Redwood Road. 3 dence room last week, to return him to his _ rightful owners. At press time, Berry was also arranging to talk to the occupants of the home—none of whom were around when the clown was found. Still missing, however, is a concrete bench that the molded seated mannequin originally perched on. | Nas Spinit_OF RECOVERY) - inn gs : ab Signs Make bes NiUGA i Nw Political Point © ry, ) Conte's Qiicci pen The original SLOC disaster pin Downtown Someone on Main Street has a political ~ point to make—and is creating the signs to Mountain Times Olympian disaster pins Better Than Cats Jeanne Soutas meant well. A few years back, the animal lover from Murray saved a few bummed-out bunnies from bad situa- tions in nearby pet stores. She bought a rabbit who was suffering from diarrhea, then five others who were in poor health, then a few more who were close to being constricted by snakes. Other rescues fol-. further it. ed help. Really fast. | | Soutas’s burgeoning herd came to the The signs exhort voters to support “Anyone But Incumbents.” David Schaffner, attention of Karen VanBuskirk of Park City, who has been active for years in the House © Rabbit Society, an all-volunteer, non-profit organization devoted to rescuing rabbits and educating the public on their care. VanBuskirk promptly visited Soutas house. © “There are bunnies galore,” she said after- wards. . She organized a publicity campaign For months, Soutas happily cared for 18 | aimed at helping Soutas humanely reduce her population. After a press release was rescued rabbits in pens near her home. All mailed, a TV news crew showed up to film _ was well in the warren until one of the the bunnies. Yet most of the hares remain. | hares, um, got a wild hair. He climbed a VanBuskirk points out that rabbits can fence, then plopped down in a pen full of be trained to be “lovely, lovely house pets” females, where he begat other hares, each that use litter boxes and can even be of which had wild hairs of its-own. Suddenly walked on leash. “They don’t heel and they the rabbits were reproducing faster than... ~ don’t stay,” she explains. “It’s more like if well, pretty much alf mammalian species. you were walking a cat.” Within a month she had 90 bunnies. | 6661 ‘vl YIGOLDO|P lowed. ee See Though she has since found homes for 30 of them, the remaining 60, living in cages in her yard, still trouble her suburban neighbors. Rabbits can’t bark, but the police were called anyway. Issues were dis_ cussed, the message was clarified: Soutas _ should find new homes for the rabbits or else take them to the shelter, where they’d most likely be put down. With her neighbors irate and her bills for rabbit food approaching $100 per month and a few of the bunnies seemingly in the family way, she need- “There’s so many people adopting kitties . and dogs,” laments VanBuskirk, who regularly house-breaks, then finds homes for, rabbits with troubled pasts. “There’s no owner of the Flat Rabbet and La Niche stores on Main Street, is disgusted with the direction city politics have taken. He feels _ to be the tax savings PRI receives because of the property’s “greenbelt” status. Christensen said the amount of tax money saved is worth the $2 per linear foot cost of the barbed wire fence. Trail users might not be pleased by the change, however. Without an opening for foot traffic, the fence will block a dirt road that runs from Silver Summit through the PRI parcel. “It has historically gone through PRI,” said Troy Duffin, Snyderville Recreation District trails manager. “But they have the right to fence across it if they want to.” Duffin added any trails that might be cut off by the fence are “illegal trails made by ATV drivers.” City trails coordinator Matt Twombly, who has visited the site, says part of the _ Round Valley Trail might have to be moved about five feet. The trail connects the cor‘ners of two pieces of city-owned property. “It seems. like we should have access between them ... we built the trail to connect them,” he said. | ae Christensen explained PRI had the property surveyed before the posts started going in. “It follows our property line,” he said. ~ Cornelia de Bruin that the only influence voters have on the city council is to effect a change in its make-up. “Thursday meetings don’t work,” he said, referring to the council’s weekly sessions. Schaffner, in past conversations, has expressed his annoyance with what he refers to as “pre-formed conclusions” and a lack of listening ability among council members. Paid parking, Schaffner says, is but one example of his point. “The council’s lost its focus with just about anything but seven-figure items,” he says. “| hope we can get some people with the courage to stand up to city administration.” Schaffner’s points were stressed almost unanimously by primary election candidates. If the primary results—with incumbents placing fourth and sixth—are any indication, Schaffner may get his wish. one helping the bunnies.” VanBuskirk is now seeking good homes “Undesirables”= Barbed Wire for some of Soutas’s herd. If you’re interested in adopting a rabbit, call her at 435/ 615-6831. Do not call, however, if you’re considering eating bunny. “That goes totally against our grain.” ; _— Alex Wells | _ Berry arranged to bail the life-sized figure out of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's evi- pins, which are shown below and will not be soldin stores. ~ . The bottom line for PRI seems, however, honor of retrieving Ronald, said the depart- _ edition commemorative Olympian disaster eS _ was night-time illegal activity. Deputy Rob Berry, who had the dubious Utah’s best disasters go un-comemmorated, we’ve commissioned a local artist, John Helton, to design a few more limited- TC a _ Christensen explained that problems with garbage dumping and abandoned cars, and target shooting in the area, initially inspired ‘ment was not amused when a human standthe epiphany to fence the property. Then, in for Ronald McDonald showed up at the . reports of “undesirables” possibly trafficking restaurant, offering to take Ronald's place. drugs, dispelled lingering doubts. Christensen Although the station’s offer of help was explained that PRI leases the land to a tenant not welcome, publicity generated by the - who has been grazing livestock. The tenant Rock 99 stunt led police to the missing manreported several instances of what he thought These omissions concern Mountain Times. So, in order to ensure that none of ARIT OF RECOVEe RY Christensen, PRI’s land manager. | Thieves had taken the restaurant's plastic Ronald McDonald mannequin. But manage- Salt Lake City, just a stone’s throw from where the first 2002 Olympic manhole covers have been placed. It’s hard to figure. pin-sized artwork. But other omissions— notably, calamities such | Kimball Junction franchise of McDonald’s fast-food restaurant. sion, which took place right in the heart of donated 100 saplings to replace 93 trees Last week, we reported on an ill-received offer of help extended by a Salt Lake City radio station to the management of the parcel of land—Property Reserve Inc., the church’s development arm—is pounding fence posts along the perimeter of its property. “We hope to finish stringing a barbed wire fence by next spring,” said Elliott | A “four-pronged” threat to the LDS Church’s Round Valley property is inspiring prongs of its own—barbed wire prongs. The owner of the several hundred-acre Point Made! e |