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Show N. Keview - Wednesday, April 10, 1985 - Page 2 p Old townsquare legacy of horse and buggy p.g. hltib The summer band on a Sunday night is still a big thing back in Missouri, even in towns where the town square no longer exists and a park with a bandstand is used in-stead. Now, Pleasant Grove has a lovely park down on Main Street. It does not have a bandstand but it will have the band this summer on a Sunday evening if the Pleasant Grove Arts Council has its way. There have been lots of requests for a summer band concert in the park and with the help of a few musicians it is hoped that the band concert will come to be this summer. Everyone in town can bring their blankets or their folding chairs and sit about on the lawn and listen to good band music. Anyone in town who plays or has played a musical instrument in the past is invited to participate. Please contact Ida Mae Christiansen, Chester Stone, or myself if you would like to have some good musical fun. Perhaps we can start a tradition. Maybe we can bridge the generation gap musically for one night a week. t Maybe we can all draw closer together by sharing talents and listening to those with musical talents. In the future perhaps someone or some group can build a bandstand and we can compete with those homey touches that are so much a part of the midwest. The sound of a rousing march, the whisperings of children, the sigh of the old folks and the smiles of the teenagers are something to look forward to in the summer concert band program. Even if the town square is a part of the past, we can keep the band concert a part of the today and the tomorrow. Hy MAHC KI.LA WALKER Some of the stores on Main Street in Pleasant Grove remind me of those off the old town squares back in the midwest. The stores at the north end of Main Street on the east side of the road and the old Grove Finance building on the corner on the west side, kind of have that flavor. My relatives are all from the midwest, Missouri, in particular and some of the small towns there are very lovely. The idea of a shopping center being built around a town square is rather practical. There is always a drug store, mercantile shop, dress shop, lawyer, doctor, dentist, barbershop, and maybe even a church on one corner or another. In these small towns everyone knows everyone else so if you run down town for a minute you can stop on the sidewalk and gab for a minute. Because the town square was built back in horse and buggy days, there are oftimes a few reminders of the olden days. There is usually steps up from the street and sometimes even more steps from the sidewalk to the shop door. In some locations the old water troughs remain and the hitching posts are sometimes still visible in front of the shops. Of course, most of these old trappings have given way to modern days with parallel parking, wide sidewalks, and curb and gutter. In the center of the town square sits the bandstand. It is usually surrounded by a large piece of lawn, somewhat like a small park in the center of town. In the summer, the park fills with folks who bring blankets and sit on the lawn and listen to a performance by the local band. The band will consist of high school students, oldsters who like to keep their lips and fingers lively with practice, and a few inbetweens thrown in for fun. Years ago they would even show movies on Saturday night at the town square and everyone would come, bring their own popcorn and watch Abbott and Costello make fools of themselves. I spent a summer as a teenager with my grandfather back It was a very neat sum-mer. He lived on a farm outside of a small town that had a town square. I loved that square. In fact it was while standing on one of the raised sidewalks around the square that I was first scrutinized for Mormon horns by a local who recalled that my mother had moved out to Utah and who wondered if I knew any of those Mormons. When she found out I was one, she really gave me the once over but she did not say anything. .. yt y . f. ! : v.. v..- r ! jH' Is 1 v p r i ' ;f ? i 1 - : . . " ' ' ' ' ' M ! ! - I ' ( Scouts, L-I- t, Jason Tatum, Robbie Grose, Jason Boren and Lance Kartchner perform a great community service as they assembly 40-pl- us years of Pleasant Grove Reviews for binding. This project was organized for Eagle candidate, Lance Kartchner. Old newspapers collected for binding A group of scouts are in the midst of a tremendous service project for the Pleasant Grove area. Lance-Kartchne-has organized an Eagle Scout project to compile over 40 years of Pleasant Grove Reviews for binding. The newspapers are located in the basement of the Review office and have been accumulating there since the early 1940's, They must be arranged in chronological order, month by month, year by year. When the project is completed, Publisher Brett Bezzant will arrange to have the newspapers bound. The Pleasant Grove Historical Preservation Committee is highly in favor of the project. A copy of the bound newspapers will be made available to the Pleasant Grove library. The scouts report that they fjjj interesting stories all of the time as they sort through the papers. Tfe, find articles about their familv members, friends, etc. The job is a very dirty one and lis boys are rather grubby when they have completed a session in i basement, but their service is ok that will be of great benefit to People, Politics & Policy people of the community. Tax time reminds us of deficit By E. MARK BEZZANT It is tax time again. That is it is time to settle up with the federal and state government as to just what your tax bill will be for 1984, income tax that is. As you well know there are many more taxes, but the income tax is unique in some ways. This tax is based on how much you earn. Some taxes are based on what you spend. Some are based on what you use. Others are based on what you buy. If there is a way to tax it, it seems that the government has found a way. The income tax according to economic theory stands out as the easiest to extract from people because of how it is extracted. Very simply the government withholds the money and then in many cases gives you a refund at the end of the year, it is not uncommon to hear people bragging about the amount of a refund they got back as though it were some sort of Christmas gift. The facts are that those getting refunds have been over paying the entire year. The government has been using the money during the year at no cost to them and, if their computers are working, they reward you with a refund. Sooner or later. The higher the sum you get back the more you have given up in lost income on the money they held during the past year. The painful part has been eliminated. You never get to see or feel the money. Suppose that the government didn't withhold the tax and simply asked you to write out a check for the total come April 15. With little doubt, the angry citizens would let out a good deal of anger on their elected representatives, much like that that is exhibited when property taxes are due, in a lump sum. It is then that the full impact hits you. The new mortgages have sheilded much of that anger by making the taxes part of the house payment. New tactics on income taxes have been to pass a tax and defer the implimentation of the tax for several years or to phase it in. Thanks to President Reagan we have received an income tax cut of ?5 percent over the last three years, and have a promise to begin in-dexing which will stop inflation from pushing a person into a higher tax bracket just because they received a cost of living increase to keep up with inflation. The news is not all roses, however. The Reagan ad-ministration has run up record deficits. In other words, the government, has borrowed record money to keep things going. Even the Democrats who still control the House of Representatives are complaining. They didn't mind the $40 and $50 billion deficits but are howling about the $200 billion ones. Economists differ as to what the long term effect of this massive borrowing means but both you and I know that we couldn't keep amasing giant debts year in and year out without going belly up. Because the taxes have been so easy to extract the government has just kept on spending. Some argue that business does not pay their fair share and propose new income taxes on them. Others say that the rich are getting away with "mur-der" and should pay more. The fact is that it is people who pay taxes, and America more than ever holds out to all the promise to become rich. The time has come for the American people via their govern-ment to live within its means. Our state does it. Our city does it. It is time that the federal government to balance its budget. Senator Hatch has a good proposed amendment that should at least serve as a starting point toward that end. In the mean time, the citizens of Pleasant Grove and every other city in this country are going to have to bite the bullet and keep paying an increasing portion of their tax bill for the federal debt. The least the Federal government could do is start paying interest from the time they get their bills (refund notices) from us in the form of tax returns. Maybe then things would hurry up a bit. Council learns fire prevention on May 6 at the Pleasant Grove Junior High lunch room. She said that they would like this to be a Family Home Evening ac-tivity as it is on a Monday night. She noted that the ambulance association will be there along with the fire department and information will be given out on first aid, chemical fires, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, adult and child videos will be shown and families will be shown how to set up a fire escape route for the family. The auxiliary is still offering a free smoke detector to those families who do not have one. Forms are available at the city hall for the free detectors. Because of the program which the Auxiliary has set up to teach fire safety and fire prevention, the state has asked them to write up their curriculum to be used statewide. This has bee done, Mrs. Smith said. In addition, the city has been notified that they will receive another grant next year to carry on the fire education program. She encouraged the city council It plan for an fire prevenlios program in the city. She reminded those citizens stk would like to have their home in spected for fire dangers to call ho or any member of the fire depart ment or auxiliary and a free i-nspection will be made. Groups and organizations whi would like to have Pluggy makes visit should contact the auxililaiy also. Mrs. Smith noted that even if ok person can be saved from death injury by fire, this entire campaijs is well worth the effort. She invited the city council li attend any of the sessions that the; have at the schools. Mayor David Holdaway noted to: he attended one of the meetings!: Grovecrest School and was in pressed with the program. He et couraged Mrs. Smith and te auxiliary members to keep up tk good work. By MARCELLA WALKER Pluggy the robot has visited many of the Pleasant Grove area schools teaching fire prevention and fire safety to the children of the com-munity, Carolyn Smith, Firemen's Auxiliary president, told the city council Tuesday. The robot, which is shaped like a fire hydrant, talks to the children, asks them questions about fire safety, and even gives them a little squirt of water on occasion. Pluggy has been purchased by the Fireladies as part of their extensive fire prevention campaign which is presently underway with funds provided though a national grant. Additional funds for Pluggy have been provided by the local Eagles Aerie. The auxiliary said the $25,000 grant is to be used to educate the public about fire safety. Mrs. Smith said that they pretested each school to see how much the children knew about fire prevention. Pluggy, along with members of the auxiliary, a fireman who operates the robot, and one of the Care Bears have visited the children in most of the public schools, a private school, and the senior citizens. Mrs. Smith said she was amazed to learn that many children sleep in rooms without windows. She said that there are serious fire safety problems within the city and for that reason a family seminar will be held DUFF SHELLEY MOWER & CYCLE 756-502- 7 iter than- NOW ON r SALE ! Now you can have a tiller that's also a lo: of other machines: like a snow blower, rotary mower, and sickle-ba- r cutter, to name a few. One unit that does many different job?. That's tl:e BC?- Come in and see for yourself. 5 HP 8 HP ..." 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