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Show C M C M Y K Y K Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Top 10 Continued #6 - School bond (Continued from A1) #2 - Snow College layoffs This story had a boomboom-boom quality. On Sept. 26, with tax revenues falling, the Utah Legislature directed state colleges to cut their base budgets, the starting numbers they use in preparing budget requests, by 4 percent. On Sept. 29 and 30, Snow College President Scott Wyatt told faculty and staff in meetings in Ephraim and Richfield that he was pretty certain the 4 percent base cut was just the beginning. He predicted that once the Legislature convened in regular session after the first of the year, it would order more cuts. And so, the president said, Snow College would immediately cut its base budget 8 percent, a cut that would almost certainly translate to layoffs. How many jobs would be Not even the highest offices in Snow College’s Noyes Administration Building were immune to state-mandated budget cuts. A vice-president/provost position was among more than 20 that were cut from faculty and staff. cut and who would be laid off? “I’ll know in a month,” Wyatt told Snow employees. On Nov. 10, Wyatt gave specifics, announcing that 21-23 positions would be eliminated, including one vice president, seven faculty members, two assistant athletic directors, four to five student services professionals, and support staff jobs ranging from an administrative assistant to a custodian. Some employees urged the president to keep everybody on and cut pay by an equal percentage across the board. Wyatt responded that some areas within the college were dwindling while other “pockets of quality” were fueling enrollment growth. “I’m not willing to let these cuts hurt that [growth],” he said. “We’ll have to reduce other areas disproportionately.” #3 - Double murder KEN HANSEN / MESSENGER PHOTO Donald Bert Richardson was convicted of the murder of two people in Sanpete earlier this year. Richardson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Violent crime is rare in Sanpete County. So two murders on a single night within about a half hour of each other were big news. The victims were Annette Young, 46, of Fairview and Martin Cannon, 39, of Mt. Pleasant. They had a common acquaintance, Donald Richardson, 48, who, after being released from prison in Arizona for a non-violent property crime had come to Mt. Pleasant to live with an aunt. He became active in First Presbyterian Church and even lived at the church for a time. Within 48 hours after the murders, with Sanpete County and Oregon officers on his trail, Richardson turned himself in to sheriff’s deputies in Roseberg, Ore. In mid-November, the Sanpete County attorney and Richardson’s attorney settled the case, with the state agreeing to drop the death penalty and some lesser felonies if Richardson pleaded guilty to the two murders and accepted a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. On Dec. 19, the sentence was imposed. Richardson made a brief apology to the victims’ families. But, the Messenger reported, the terrible acts had fomented trauma in dozens of lives in Young’s, Cannon’s and even Richardson’s family. In February, the South Sanpete School District announced that it would ask voters to approve a $30 million general obligation bond to replace elementary schools in Ephraim and Gunnison and build an addition onto Manti Elementary. Administrators and school board members said the bond could be paid off without a tax increase because the district would be paying off existing debt about the time the first bond payments came due. Money going to the old debt could be redirected to the new bond. But Ken Bench, county assessor, was quick to point out that even if the district didn’t raise the tax rate, property taxes for schools would almost certainly go up as property values rose. Apparently concerned that a promise of no tax increase overstated the case, the county commission held off on passing a resolution in support for the bond. On June 24, voters got the final say and passed the bond by a 75-25 percent margin. During the Miss Utah Pageant in July, a judge gave Kayla Barclay of Manti a note that said, “Live your dreams and walk a step ahead of even yourself.” Barclay, who was the 2007 Miss Sanpete, did just that, winning the evening gown and swimsuit competitions, dazzling the audience with her piano performance, and walking away with the Miss Utah crown. Her coach, former Miss Sanpete Desiree Ball Jones, said, “She was very fresh, very modern, very sincere. She just relates to everyone, and the judges saw that.” Miss Sanpete Kayla Barclay, from Manti, At year-end, the community was planning a became Miss Utah in July. She will begin send-off celebration before Barclay left for the Miss competing for Miss America in about three America competition in Las Vegas. weeks. #8 - Elections Steve Frischknecht Spencer Cox PHOTO COURTESY NATE PALMER $18 million worth of marijuana plants in an illegal drug operation were discovered by deer hunters in Sanpete last October. was called in to bombard the site with herbicides. Two Mexican nationals #5 - House explosion who were apparently living on the site were arrested and now face federal charges. tional healing for the Jensens and their family. Both were flown to the Burn-Trauma Unit at the University of Utah Medical Center. Karen Bud and Karen Jensen had moved into their was released two weeks later. But Bud was in new home in the hilly Whispering Pines subdivia coma for more than a month and nearly died sion just two months earlier. several times. They were using propane to generate power, Over the next nine months, Karen followed and apparently, some of the fuel leaked and her husband as he was moved to Gunnison Valley pooled inside or underneath the home. Hospital and Nobody then to a vetknows whetheran’s facility. er it was the Though trying wood stove, to recover herthe water self, she was heater or the determined to furnace that visit him virtuignited the ally every day. propane, but Their orthe results of deal led an the Feb. 12 exestranged plosion were daughter who devastating. had been using “All that methamphetLLOYD CALL / MESSENGER PHOTO remained … amines for 22 was a crater,” A propane explosion obliterated the home of Bud and Karen years to stop the Messen- Jensen in northern Sanpete County last February. The couple using drugs. ger reported. survived, returning to live in Manti in November after nine In Novem“ Wa l l s a n d months of hospitalization. ber, Bud was debris were released from strewn around treatment, and the couple moved to a new home for 50-100 yards. Trees near the home had been in Manti. A few days after they spent Thanksgivblown over. There was no roof to speak of.” ing with a daughter, son-in-law and five grandThe Jensens themselves were hurled into children in Ephraim, a Messenger reporter asked the snow. Both were badly burned. When Bud Karen how it felt to be home. Jensen rolled over, a neighbor saw steam coming “Now that you ask that, I can’t even talk,” up from the snow. she said. “It feels so good. Just to think about it, But as the Messenger reported in a follow-up we get a little teary. I’m sure glad that we can in December, the explosion began a remarkable say that it’s in the past now.” story of courage, love, and physical and emo- South Sanpete Superintendent displays worn-out equipment to illustrate the need to rebuild two of the district’s elementary schools. Voters approved a $30-million bond in June to do just that. #7 - Miss Utah #4 - Pot farm In October, hunters poking around the Manti-LaSal National Forest northeast of Ephraim encountered hillsides covered with neat rows of plants. They observed a network of PVC pipes that drew water out of a natural spring and distributed it to the crops. Authorities later reported the remote site contained 30,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $18 million. The cultivators had cleared tons of brush and trees to create eight planting areas, and apparently had brought the plants in on flats like those used in nurseries. It took dozens of sheriff’s deputies and search and rescue members to destroy the plants. Ultimately, a UHP helicopter A3 Sanpete Messenger/Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition Via a lot of Republican Party maneuvering, the Sanpete County Commission will have two new faces in 2009. And a longstanding “gentlemen’s agreement,” under which certain commission seats have been reserved for certain regions of the county, may have gone to the graveyard. The changes started in late 2007 when Bruce Blackham of Gunnison resigned his seat and Dwight Inouye, also of Gunnison, was appointed to replace him. The next spring, Inouye filed for election to the seat, which, under the gentlemen’s agreement, traditionally went to a Gunnison Valley resident. But Spencer Cox of Fairview, also filed. At a gathering in Gunnison, Cox joked, “I’ve learned there are a couple of things people care about: nuclear holocaust and the gentlemen’s agreement.” He quickly added that he was tired of the regional divides in the county and thought voters should elect the best person for the job. On primary election night, the race between Cox and Inouye was too close to call. But ultimately, Cox was declared the winner by 37 votes. Meanwhile, incumbent Mark Anderson dropped out of the commission race after an informal survey suggested he might lose to Steve Frischknecht in the Republican convention. Frischknecht was associated with the Concerned Citizens of Sanpete County, the group that had fought a new courthouse during 2007. Apparently, many Concerned Citizen members packed precinct meetings, were elected as delegates and stood ready to support Frischknecht over Anderson. With no opposition, Frischknecht won the Republican nomination at the convention and went on to defeat Democrat Claude Pickett in the November election by a 70-30 percent margin. # 9 - 145th Field Artillery returns One of the biggest stories of 2007 was the departure of about 80 Utah National Guard members from Sanpete County for the war in Iraq. Likewise, the return of the soldiers, members of the 145th Field Artillery, was a big story in 2008. During the last couple of weeks in May, groups of soldiers arrived every day or two at the Utah Air National Guard terminal in Salt Lake City to motorcycle honor guards, welcome signs and hugs from family members. The last Friday in May, 24 soldiers from the Gunnison Valley paraded down Gunnison’s Main Street, which was KAREN PRISBREY / MESSENGER PHOTO The 145th Field Artillery Unit of the Utah National Guard returned home in May after nine months of duty in Iraq. bedecked with signs, yellow ribbons, and red, white and blue balloons. In late August, 145th members statewide were honored at a Freedom Salute at Abravanel Hall. And Sanpete people received two of three nonmilitary awards given at the event. May- or Natasha Madsen accepted an award in behalf of Manti City for community support. And Rachel Dettinger was honored for raising more than $20,000 in cash and in-kind donations to give local troops a special recreation weekend in Salt Lake City. #10 - Gunnison gasoline leak The 20,000-gallon leak, one of the biggest stories of 2007, continued in the headlines in 2008. A firm hired by Wind River, owner of the Top Stop station where the leak occurred, reported regularly on cleanup efforts. By March, cleanup costs had exceeded the $1 million limit covered under a state insurance program, leaving Wind River to pick up the rest of the tab. But the big story was all the lawsuits filed against Wind River. By June, 13 such suits involving Gunnison City, four KAREN PRISBREY / MESSENGER PHOTO Gunnison’s Top Stop gas-leak saga continued with lawsuits being filed against the oil company by businesses, residents and the city itself, and by Top Stop against one city resident. businesses and 77 individuals had been filed in 6th District Court. In an ironic twist, Wind River filed suit against a resident who had been evacuated from her house because of the leak. Before leaving, Carissa Kuhni put up a no-trespassing (See “Top 10” on A4) C M C M Y K Y K |
