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Show GUNNISON±AtLEY Presorted Standard U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 11 Gunnison, UT ECRWSS a.ZC *met Volume 7 • Number 6 ‘601-eteatoft Iteuvizaftex i Thursday, February 10, 2011 Copy Price • 75 cents High rate of illness causes concern by JOHN HALES GVES Picture Day Thur Feb 10 Single Adult Dinner Thur Feb 10 6 am @ Axtell Ward House Senior Citizens Meet with Representatives Feb 10 @ SLC GVES Parent-Teacher Conference Fri Feb 11 No School that day Benefit Auction and Dinner for Fielding Family Mon Feb 14 • 6:30 @ GVES GVHS Parent-Teacher Conference Feb 14 GVHS Drill Team Spring Show Feb 16 • 7 pm @ High School Gym Blood Pressure & Blood Sugar Screening Wed Feb 16 11 am to 12 Noon Senior Citizens Pot Luck Dinner Feb 21 • 6 pm @ Gunnison City Hall Bring your own dishes GUNNISON—School officials are reminding students and parents about the basics when it comes to preventing the spread of disease, and for good reason. Gunnison Valley Elementary School Principal Grant Hansen says his school has seen a real problem with kids missing school because of illness. And just how many absences does it take for sick days to become a problem? "We've had a whole bunch of them," Hansen says. Several days over the last couple weeks, about 20 percent or more of the school's students were out sick. "Last week we ran 100 or more every day. One day it was right around 120," the principal said. Things were better on Monday, when 78 kids were gone. But even that's a pretty high number, even in a year that has been unusually bad. "When we get a real spike, it might get up to 70 or 80. That's a high number. To get 100 or more is really unusual," Hansen said. And it seems to be hitting younger kids the hardest. Attendance numbers are better as the kids get older. That might be because the kids are healthier, or it might be because older kids decide to try to go to school anyway. School and health officials say there's no new disease hitting the area, just some of the same old ones hitting at the same time. Along with the common cold, said Nickie Stewart, an office manager at Gunnison Family Practice, "We have seen a lot of influenza. We have seen a lot of Strep—unreal amounts of Strep throat." Some kids have had flu and colds at the same time. And the problem isn't necessarily because kids didn't get their flu shots this year. Stewart said about half of the flu cases that have come into the office are with people who already had received the shot. There are several strains of the flu virus, and not all of them are covered with the shot she explained. Flu immunizations are made separately each year. When the national Center for Disease Control determines how to concoct each year's immunization, it looks at recent data to see which flu strains are most likely to be a problem Apparently, they missed one this year. That means folks are going to have to remember how to prevent disease the old fashioned way. And that's what Principal Hansen called school nurse Alice Sperry to help him do. Last Friday, Sperry held a special assembly to teach kids how to keep from getting or spreading disease. o I I • en me unnison a ey azene School nurse Alice Perry teaches elementary students how to WHACK the flu. The new buzzword to help kids remember everything is "whack," as in WHACK the flu: W = Wash your hands often; H = Home is where you stay when you are sick; A = Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth; C = Cover your coughs and sneezes; K = Keep your distance from people who are coughing or sneezing. Nothing really differ- ent from what we've all been taught already, right? But there are a couple new twists that older generations might have missed. For example, instead of covering your cough or sneeze with your hand, kids are taught to use the inside of their elbow, an area less likely to come into contact with other people or objects. And, it's not enough to just wash your hands, but to rub them with soap for a full 20 seconds. How's a kid supposed to know when the 20 seconds are up? "She told them to sing the Happy Birthday song through twice," Hansen said. At parent-teacher conferences next week, Hansen said, parents can expect to receive a kit to help their kids stay healthy. The kit will include hand sanitizer, nose tissue, facemasks and an information packet with the same kinds of reminders. New well in Fayette's future President's Day Feb 21 No School Senior Shopping & Dr. Trip to Ephraim Wed Feb 23 The bus will leave the Center at 1 pm. Please call the day before to reserve your spot on the bus. Monthly Hearing Check Wed Feb 23 10 am to 12 Noon @ the Senior Center Junior Prom March 5 Senior Citizen Lunch is served at Gunnison City Hall Email items for What's Happening in Gunnison Valley to gazettegtelco.net fax to 528-5179 or call 528-5178 The Senior Citizens are quilting Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Senior Center. If you need a quilt hand quilted, call Judy 528-5828 or Phyllis 528-5848 Lunch is served at the Senior Center at Gunnison City Hall Monday thru Thursday. Come out and join them! by John Hales FAYETTE—Fayette could be digging a new well to supply the town with water as early this week, if the state grants the permit for the well as expected. But one Fayette Town council member wonders if the project's engineers have chosen the right spot for the well, and may want the town to delay drilling until his concerns are satisfied. "Why are they putting it [the well] so close to the spring," asked Councilman Lamar Bartholomew last week. The plan is to put the new well a few hundred feet east of Fayette Springs, which is in the hills east of Fayette and which supplies the town's culinary and irrigation water. The town already has a well in the same area, but it is old and needs to be replaced, said the town's mayor, Scott Bartholomew. In addition, state law requires towns to have an alternate source of water if there are 100 water hookups or more. Fayette has fewer than that and so is exempt from the requirement. But it's close enough to start worrying about it. "Right now we're at 97," Mayor Bartholomew said. The process to get a new well started over a year ago. Councilman Lamar Bartholomew began talking about the idea a year or two before that, but for a different reason. "I proposed this the year I was elected to the council," he said. "The basic reason was because we needed an alternate source in case something happened to the spring. My concern was to make sure that if something happens, that both of them don't go out." He suggested putting the well in place that would draw from underground water completely separate from the spring or water that feeds it. That, however, may not be possible for a couple of reasons. First, much of the preliminary work for digging the well has already been done. "I think we're way too long with this now," Mayor Bartholomew said. Second, it has been the consensus of the project's engineers, as well as the mayor, to drill the well into the same aquifer that feeds the spring. "We want it in the same source because we know the water is pure," Mayor Bartholomew said, adding that hydrologists have called the spring's water "pristine." "As we went through different sites, they were ruled out for different reasons," he said. One of the main concerns was over pollution now or possibly in the future that could seep into certain underground sources. But at the very least, Councilman Bartholomew said, "I want them to tell me that if there is seismic even bad enough that it caps the spring, that there's at least a chance that the water in the second well will continue to flow." He said, "If they don't take that into consideration, I'm really no happy with it. Maybe no one's talking to the engineers about that. But Mayor Bartholomew said the town indeed had talked to engineers about it. "[They] have met with us several times on this, actually," he said. "They have done several surveys and brought in different geologists." C ouncilman B artholomew did not remember those meetings though, and perhaps was absent from them. Mayor Bartholomew indicated he would try to find minutes of those meetings so Councilman Bartholomew could read them and be reassured, or perhaps he would organize one last meeting between engineers and town council members before digging got underway. 150 Mile Challenge by JOHN HALES FAYETTE—Organizers of Fayette Town's sesquicentennial celebration want the town's residents to take them up on a challenge they hope will keep people's minds on the celebration and the town's history. They are asking Fayetteites—or anyone else with ties to Fayette Town—to walk one mile for each year of the town's existence in time for Fayette's Pioneer Day celebration next July. Yup, 150 miles for 150 years. And if they'll have 150 days to do it after the event's registration deadline of Feb. 23. There are 150 days between then and July 23, when people have to report if they met the challenge or not. More ambitious folks have 304 days—from today until Dec. 11—to walk 1,420 miles, the same distance of the trek Fayette's Mormon ancestor's took from Nauvoo to Utah and then to Fayette. Town residents should have already received a packet with rules, registration forms and a calendar to track progress. Those outside of Fayette wishing to participate can request a registration packet by calling Vickie King at 5283524 or LuAnn Sorenson at 528-3503. Those who accomplish the 150-mile challenged will receive an award and recognition at the town's Pioneer Day celebration on July 23. People who reach the larger 1,420-mile goal will get their award at the town Christmas party in December. |