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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black B1 75¢ Girl Scouts Special Section GUNNISON VALLEY EDITION VOL. 84 NUMBER 10 MANTI, UTAH • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2005 Education funding is mixed bag W EA THER EATHER Wednesday 54/29 Sunny but cold Thursday - 50/20 Showers possible Friday - 45/21 Sunny but colder By John Hales Saturday - 56/26 Staff writer Increasing clouds Last Week’s Weather (Courtesy Ted Olson, Snow College) Date Mar. Mar. Mar. Mar. Mar. Mar. Mar. Max. Min. Prec. Snow 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 AT 59 58 61 67 66 66 67 A 26 27 29 30 29 28 30 - - GLANCE Messenger office closed Friday The Messenger office will be closed all day Friday, March 18 so the staff may attend the annual Utah Press Association in St. George. The deadline for all ads and news items will be extended to Monday noon to accommodate the closure. African Arts Night is Thursday Kathy Lin Eggleston Experience Africa! An African Arts Night will begin with a craft display and sale of African instruments, crafts, and art will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the BYU Wilkinson Center Terrace. Live African Singing and Dance Performances featuring singer Alex Boye will follow at 7 p.m. BYU Black Student Union and All One People, a Utah based non-profit organization seeking to empower African orphans through community education, is sponsoring the evening of cultural education. Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door or $10 for two people. Entrance fees will go to the educational fees of Kenyah orphans. Quote of the Week “You can’t drive fast enough to stay in front of the flies...” –Jeff Lyons, commenting on the job of picking up dead deer along roadsides I NSIDE Letters ............... A4 Lifestyle ............. A5 School ................. A8 Sports ................ A10 Classifieds ......... A11 Utah Press Association General Excellence winner 1999 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 BRUCE VAN DER RIET/MESSENGER PHOTO Members of American Legion Post 105 of Centerfield stand at the new memorial at the Centerfield Cemetery. (Left to right) District Vice Commander Dean Malmgoren, Captain Mardell Jensen who is also project chairman, Elwood Sorensen committee member and Reed Roberts post Adjutant. American Legion seeks names of all Centerfield veterans CENTERFIELD— The Centerfield American Legion Post #105 is gathering names of all war veterans (living or deceased) who have served in any war (from the Black Hawk war to the present day war in Iraq.) The Legion is seeking the names of any veterans who served from the Centerfield, Mayfield or Axtell communities by March 31, 2005. The names of these war veterans, along with the branch of their service will be placed on a plaque and displayed in the Centerfield Cemetery Memorial on Memorial Day. Anyone with names or questions can call, mail or email the information to Mardell Jensen, Richard Ahlers or E. Reed Roberts. Names can also be submitted through a link at the Messenger. Go the Messenger website, and click on “News”, then on “Your Community News”, then on the “Centerfield” link. Please include the veteran’s name and branch of service. The Centerfield American Legion Post is also accepting contributions toward the project. You may also submit names by mail or telephone to the following: Mardell Jensen, Box 220286, or phone 528-3382; Richard Ahlers, Box 220076, or phone 528-7414; Reed Roberts, Box 220283, or phone 528-3353. You may also email Roberts at: reed.roberts@ssanpete.k12.ut.us. No funds for uninsured County faces mental health crisis By C. R. Truitt Staff writer MANTI—There’s an “unseen little monster out there,” Commissioner Bruce Blackham said at the county commissioners meeting March 1, referring to a county-wide problem of uninsured mental health patients. Blackham said the problem isn’t an obvious one, such as seeing the need for road maintenance. He said if, for example, the state has 350 mental health cases from uninsured patients, Sanpete County would easily have half of them. Blackham noted that the county has to pay when those patients show up in jail. “We wouldn’t have a problem if the county could find some money,” he said. In the July 20 commissioners meeting, Central Utah Counseling Center (CUCC) representatives Doug Ford and Ferrel Marx reported that the Federal Balanced Budget Act changed the formula that determines how mental health providers are reimbursed with Medicaid dollars. Marx said that in the past, CUCC received a blanket grant of $45 per month for every person who was Medicaid eligible in its designated service area. In return for the funding, CUCC provided any Medicaid patient who sought services with whatever treatment he or she required. The net effect was that the agency received a little more money than it The jury is still out on how education fared in the Utah Legislature’s 2005 general session, according to local education officials who are pleased about some of the ways lawmakers handled education issues, but displeased about others. On one hand, says South Sanpete School District superintendent Jim Petersen, public education funding fared better this year than it has in the recent past. On the other hand, North Sanpete School District superintendent Courtney Syme says, “The most significant thing is that [the Legislature] could have done much more than they did.” Mark Peterson, a spokesman for the Utah State Office of Education (USOE), says, “In essence, both of those statements are right.” He says that education received more funding than it has in previous years—something to be happy about—but that people are also asking about stacks of money that remained unused. During the legislative session, lawmakers approved a 4.5 percent increase in the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU), which Rep. Rick Wheeler (R-Ephraim) defines as “the direct cost of educating a general student for one year.” School districts receive money based on the WPU multiplied by the number of regularly attending students in the district. Mark Peterson says that WPU money is what is needed for the day-to-day operation of the school—teacher and administrator salaries, school buses, classroom materials and facility maintenance, etc.—and accounts for one-half of total per pupil spending. The other half comes from legislative block grants for building construction and special programs. The increase, according to information provided by the USOE, brings the WPU to $2,258. Both Sanpete superintendents, while pleased about the increase, said the details of how the increase will be disbursed remains to be seen. “The WPU increase is still in some question,” says Syme. “We haven’t seen how it’s going to wash out,” Jim Petersen says. For instance, will the money be used for teacher salary increases? Will it provide new textbooks? Or will it have to be used to (See “Commission” on A3) (See “Education” on A2) Huge Sanpete deer kill unsightly, costly By Tery Robertson Staff writer You’re driving along a Sanpete County highway, traveling at the speed limit or maybe a little over. After all, the road is dry and there aren’t a lot of other vehicles. Suddenly, you see a tiny movement in the headlights, and even though you slam on your breaks, the impact is unavoidable. You’ve just hit a deer. “The deer naturally gravitate toward the highways, especially this time of year because they love the salt at the side of the road,” says Lt. Lynn McAfee of the Utah Highway Patrol. “They don’t realize the cars are dangerous, and they get used to them— so they just walk out into the middle of the highway and get hit.” Based on carcass counts, at least 843 deer died on the 111 miles of state highways in Sanpete County over the past 13 months, according to Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) officials. During the winter, it’s almost impossible to travel from Manti to Ephraim along U.S. 89 and not see half a dozen dead deer. PICTURE COURTESY OF LEWIS RASMUSSEN, UDOT This picture represents a morning’s pickup of deer along the highway from Mt. Pleasant to Pigeon Hollow Junction. But the carcass count does not represent the full volume of the deer kill. “Sometimes the deer don’t get picked up, and they’re eaten by animals or they just disintegrate where they lay,” says a UDOT worker. Nobody counts, nor does anyone pick up, deer killed on county roads. Aside from the loss of wildlife, the carcasses represent a significant financial loss. The average deer accident causes $2,000 in auto damage, according to insurance industry estimates. That translates to about $1.7 million annually in Sanpete County. Nationwide, there are more than 1 million deer vehicle accidents annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Less than half are reported. The accidents cause more than $2 billion in damages annually. And the number of incidents is on the rise. Until last month, Jeff Lyons’ West Jordan company Restoration Services, had the state contract to pick up and dispose of deer carcasses in Sanpete County. The con(See “Deer” on A2) |
