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Show (letters to the editor J Carnival is safe, contributing enterprise Editor: I read the letter in your paper from Marion Allen, concerning the Sizzler. He didn't mention how old he is. I'm 58, a grandfather and already I see many things hazardous hazar-dous to my health that I didn't when I was younger - going down a water slide for one, touch football for another. I could go on and on. Out of 260 Sizzlers operating in the U.S.A. this is the first time I've heard of this kind of injury. The Sizzler we have owned since 1972 and before that a similar ride, the Merry Mixer. We play Springville, Pleasant Grove, Provo, Nephi, American Fork, Spanish Fork and Heber in this area. We play a total of 44 places in all during the year. We occasionally have accidents, thank goodness nothing serious so far. People are always yelling to stop the ride - all for different reasons. Some wet their pants from excitement, ex-citement, some empty their stomachs from the whirling, and some yell just to be yelling - they yell to go faster or yell to say hello to a friend they see. One thing about it, we try our best to do what's right. If something goes wrong we do try to correct it and hope everyone is fine. One other thought, Mr. Allen, "that carnival" as you called it is locally owned. We pay property tax to the Alpine School District on 60 vehicles, 17 acres of property on 1st South and 1st West, which includes our warehouse and three houses, plus my home at 532 East 1100 North. Our rent to Strawberry Days . which helps considerably to help ; pay for the celebration expenses is $5500. We pay all our own costs. When we park at the rodeo grounds we donate $200 for the time we are here in the summer, to use the lot and rest rooms, even though we do have them at our warehouse. We also give out 4000 free tickets to the kid's parade. We also price our entire carnival rides at 50 cents each. The Flying Bobs and such rides at most shows are $1.50 to $2 a ride and the rest are at 75 cents to $1.50. We have been holding our price down to 50 cents, but with the constant rise in costs, I'm sure that will soon be a day of the past, but we're still trying. Every year at least one float is stored free of cost in our warehouse, all summer, to keep it clean and dry so when the time comes, you, Mr. Allen, can see that beautiful parade. On Saturday we work all day operating until midnight and then we dismantle the entire show so you can have the streets for parking and the park to use. We hand-pick the garbage from the park and either broom sweep the street or have a sweeper clean it. At any rate by 8 a.m. Sunday you have a clean area and we're gone. I know we have a good organization, one of the best, and I know for sure we have good hard workers, most of them from Utah County, we are proud of them, including in-cluding Grant Ellis. I no longer own the carnival, my son Brad does, and he does a better job than I ever could. However, I still like to think I'm part of it, but when he says it's too hazardous for me to keep working out here I'll quit. ", ' ' --Lou Melendez |