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Show r (ZD iylTQQlQ'lQ'li 1 Review -- Wednesday, October 8, 1986 -- Page 2 Out-of-ar- ea mail service, mail rates threaten papers A free press is one of our greatest strengths as a free nation. But while a newspaper's right to publish a broad range of views, to air controversy and to provide a forum for public comment is a basic premise of our liberty, the right only extends as far as the advertising dollar will permit. In other words, a free press doesn't come cheaply. Just like every other business, the newspaper publisher has a payroll to meet and bills to pay or the presses will stop rolling. It's especially sad in a close-kni- t community when the presses stop. The local paper is the major source of news about city council actions, school activities, high school football games, club notes and a broad range of news that larger newspapers don't see fit to print. The fact is, community newspapers are facing challenges from all sides right now. And not all are winning. For example, a mail service known as Advo is taking a serious toll in weekly newspaper revenue. Recently the Box Elder News in Brigham City died, a victim of local advertisers who placed their ads in the Florida-base- d Advo. The News was the Saturday edition of the Box Elder News and Journal. Businesses like Smith's Food King, Safeway, Oscc Drugs and others using the mail service were credited with the demise of the Box Elder News. The irony of this is that local advertising dollars, generated by local retail sales, are being shipped out of state by businesses who depend on consumers who shop at home. The very businesses who urge customers' to shop locally take their business elsewhere when it comes to advertising. And this is happening throughout the state - including north Utah County. This would be understandable if the advertisers were getting a better deal, but they're not. In Brigham City, The Box Elder News and Journal offered better rates to the supermarkets than Advo did for the same circulation. Locally, this newspaper also offers lower rates for our circulation area than does Advo -- - and still businesses like Smith's and Kentucky Fried Chicken send their advertising dollars to Florida. For you that means a little less space in the newspaper to print school news, Eagle Scout awards, and all the other news you can only get in these pages. And it means when you shop at these stores, you are supporting businesses that don't support the concept of shopping at home. In addition to the challenges from Advo, community newspapers are being burdened with unprecedented postal rate increases. Just this year, the US p Service increased our rates 75 percent for us to mail th' newspaper to you. Carrier delivery isn't feasible for weekly publicatio and the post office offers the only reliable method! guaranteeing delivery to every home in our circulati area. But that reliance on the post office has mad" community newspapers vulnerable to rate increases Dealing with the postal rate increases while com peting with Advo is a balancing act many weekl' newspapers are struggling to' learn. And oth challenges are coming that will make it even harder J members of our free press to earn their way. Community newspapers like this one are one of th most important resources a city can have. Tl newspaper helps define the community identity J forms its readers and keeps an eye on the public's business as it is conducted by various governing bodies In his National Newspaper' Week message, President Reagan said, "History has confirmed that an in. dependent and responsible press is essential to the maintenance of a truly free society." That's an ideal which can be furthered by support for those businesses that shop locally for advertising, and by encouraging fair postal rates to bring the free press to your door. People expect wise use of tax dollars p.g. blah By JMARCELLA This week's column is going to be a mixture of three things which have been on my mind the last little while. Maybe they have been on your's, too. The first is the response to the Leeway Election by those who pushed for it in the first place. The Leeway lost. I don't know exactly why it did, but it did. People probably are tired of having their taxes go up all the time. There is a raise in the utilities, it seems, every few months. Now they were asked to vote in favor of raising their taxes a little bit., The $40 a year per household does not sound like much but when you add it up with everything else, it does sound like quite a bit. Then, too, the Geneva workers are out of work. They are faced with the possibility of losing their homes, their cars, and other investments and .certainly the, increased .taxes would have been difficult for them. The thing that bothers me is that some people have said "The people have voted. They have shown they are not in favor of education and they obviously do not want the best for their children." , That is ' a bunch of bunk. The questions were not on the ballot of whether the people of Alpine School District were in favor of education or whether they wanted their children to have the best education. If they had been, I honestly believe there would have been 100 per cent in favor of those two questions. From what people are saying to me, they are not convinced that the school district has proved that they are doing the best they possibly can perturbed when it costs well over $100, not counting extracurricular activities, to just get a child enrolled in high school, plus the taxes we pay, - and then have all this effort to make us feel guilty. I am certainly in favor of education. I am in favor of the best education we can give our kids. I was hot even against the Leeway. But I am tired of hearing all the moaning and groaning. Let's pdll ourselves up by the bootstraps and get moving forward. That is what will be best for the kids. Now, the next problem is one I never expected to write about. At the junior varsity football game last Thursday there was a poster which was in extremely bad taste. I am surprised that those in charge ever let the sign be posted. I was even more surprised to learn that every year when Pleasant Grove plays Timpview this . same gort of sign is displayed. At least, that is what I was told. Several parents who were sitting around me commented on how out of place the sign was. I'm sure it was just meant to be humorous and no one meant anything bad by it, but it was in poor taste. I really believe that Pleasant Grove's sport-smanship and education is better than what was displayed. The last thing I want to talk about came about kind of funny. Everyone knows that I am a diehard BYU fan. Because of that, several people have asked me how come, in light of BYU's two losses in football, that I have not lamented the fact in my column. Okay, here is my lament. Actually, I have tried to look at the whole thing philosophically and told myself that you can't be on lop forever. Things change, like o-ffensive lines, quarterbacks, etc. The status quo cannot stay on forever, I tell myself. I rememte back to the days when I was a student at BYU and they never won a football game. They did well in basketball and baseball and track but football was a whole different story. I attended all the home games, listened via radio to all the away games a, pt hoping it would hapcxi. 1. V U hardly ever won, The past several years BYIj has been winning all their games, nearly. We have gotten used lo winning. It is hard to lose. It is hard for the team, too, because the teams before them have won all the time. Well, the year isn't over yet and I'm sure. BYU will rack ug,a bunch .of wins. After, all, we; lost to 17? last year, plus a couple of otta games, and we came back to share in the WAC championship. It is like Dallas. You know, the Cowboys. They have had a hardtirtie this year, and they are usually always in the playoffs. Or what about the Steelers and the Raiders? Things change. However, being the eternal o-ptimist, I believe that the Coogs are getting adjusted. The quarterbackis having to get his experience in his senior year. That has got to be a lot of pressure on a very nice young man. I'm still hoping for the best. His definitely not time to throw in the towel. I only have one comment: Jim McMahon, where are you? with what they have. The people are gunshy about how their tax money is already being spent. It breaks my heart to hear a science teacher say he cannot let the children do experiments because there is no money for the supplies. I am sorry that teachers have to buy supplies out of their own pocket",' but that has been going on since schools began. The price we pay to get our children enrolled in junior high and high school should pretty much cover the cost of the books they need. That is what they tell us a good portion of what we pay goes for. I cannot think of a reason why students in junior high and high school should not have a book for 'every class. If we are paying for the "books, why don't they have them then? . Parents put out a fortune on paper, pencils, pens and notebooks once a child reaches junior high age. There should be no great expense to the schools for those items . I guess, as a parent, I get a little riff happen whsm we ) ( ms. Ate t? listening) " r t ! of cccf&e, tvcw A 1 ;; i Mahogany Mountain I am now making1 preparations ' for a photographic maping of the location of every cave or "hole" on Mahogany that I can locate. Once the locations are recorded, I plan to carefully photographically explore any new caves to their full extent. This project may very well prove to be very long lived, but caving at its best has to be a slow, careful methodical pasttime, and I really don't plan to be going anywhere. In the meantime, whenever I go caving on Mahogany, I can also look for deer and when I deer hunt, I can look for caves. One special note on the caves of Mahogany is that it is absolutely necessary to be careful. The geological structure of many areas of the mountain is very rotten, crumbly, and extremely dangerous. Most of the cave floors are littered with debris that has fallen from the walls and ceilings. Some of the cracks and faults showing on the surface of the mountain move visibly from one year to the next. Entering, or even walking close to these cracks is definitely not ad-visable. No one should attempt to explore any of these cracks or caves unless they have carefully planned their trip and they are properly equipped. When I last entered the Bottomless pit, I found the remains of a four-poi- mule deer buck about 40 feet down on a ledge. A person entering one of these caves could very well end up the same way. All in all, Mahogany offers a great deal to those people ambitious enough (I almost said, crazy enough) to take advantage of it. The brush will still be there, and the mountain willk definitely still be steep and mostly dry, but who knows, with luck, you might even stumble onto one of the small seeps hidden on the hill. If nothing else, everyone can enjoy the beautiful, ever-changi- view that Mahogany mountain provides to all of us. Whoever you are, and whatever your age, appreciate the mountain in your own back yard. P.S. If you just happen to have stumbled on a cave or crack in the mountain, tell me about it. If you're crazy enough to go along, and physically able to handle the trip, I'll supply the equipment and take you along to locate the hole and start the exploration Continued from front page rny intentions of avoiding the brush of Mahogany, I am always quickly reminded that nowhere is there any worse or more impenetrable brush. Despite these unpleasant qualities, Mahogany offers just about everything that I could want - a good population of deer, a large quantity of good looking country, and possibly most important of all, convenience to our home. During one of my first deer hunts on Mahogany, I wandered through the ledged area on the west face ' north of the "Rabbit Ears" out-cropping. I have always remem-bered the creepy feeling I got as I I walked through a large area of sink hcles and a maze of cracks in the ground. I remember one par-ticularly large sink-hol- e about 30 ft. across and 10 feet deep. At the bottom of this funnel-shape- d open-ing was a black, ominous looking crack in the ground about 18 inches wide and 5 feet long. While carefully looking around this opening, I found the remains of what looked like a ladder made of fence wire and oak branches. Despite a definite ' curiosity about this hole, I finally ' left this "spooky" piece of mountain to continue my hunt. Over the following years I frequently heard different people from the old Manila Ward (thro was only one ward then), and 'her people in the area ; talk about various mines, caves, or miscellaneous holes in the ground that were apparently scattered all over Mahogany. A few years ago I finally gave in to a long persistant temptation, and actively took up Caving (Spelunking) as a hobby. After j several trips through Timpanogos . Cave and just over a year of working underground in the old Lark Mine west of Salt Lake, I was already comfortable in dark, damp, dirty, and sometimes constricted spaces. Over about a two year time span, I participated in several caving expeditions to various "holes" around northern Utah while assembling my own caving and climbing equipment. In" between the organized caving expeditions, I began to take a renewed interest in the holes I had found and heard about on Monday. Since then, I've exploded m y "spooky" sink-hol- e to a depth of 200 feet and found that it is officially known by local cavers as the Bot-tomless Pit. I haven't yet reached the bottom. Farther north on the west side of the mountain I have also thoroughly explored the cave known as Onyx Cave - perhaps the most beautiful and highly decorated cave known on Mahogany. Over the years I have located and in-vestigated many lesser cracks and openings on the mountain, but periodically I still hear descriptions and rumors of other caves that I don't recognize and have not yet located. A few rules for the gift grabbers grassroots Copyright ti986 Becky Grass Johnson As we traveled nearly 300 miles to attend Aunt Julia's wedding, our children sang from the back of the station wagon, "Here comes the bride, big, fat and wide. Here comes the groom, skinny as a broom." I used to sing that same song with my friends when I was in grade school and we'd hoot and chortle. Somehow the song wasn't amusing any more. It was scary. I could just imagine one of the kids breaking into their rendition of "Here Comes The Bride" during the evening of the reception. To the delight of many little hearts, Aunt Julia invited all 18 of her nieces and nephews to assist with various tasks at the reception. The older girls were asked to" serve refreshments and help out in the kitchen. The tiny ones toddled around in matching outfits to look adorable. Others just stood around to pick the icing off the side of the wedding cake when no one was looking. But to my children, the most coveted job of all was to be a present snatcher. Anyone who has ever attended a reception knows exactly what a present snatcher is. A present snatcher is a child who runs alongside your car in the parking lot and tries to rip your door off to get to They curtsy or bow after you hand them the gift, then they primly leave to take the gift to the reception hall. As soon as they turn the corner out of sight, you can hear them "duking it out" over who gets to unwrap the gift. I have also found that it never pays to argue with a gift snatcher. No matter how long you stand in the foyer trying to convince the little angels that the set of iron cookware might be too heavy for them to lug, the gift snatchers will insist that they have worked out at the YMCA for three months preparing for this moment. If you are apprehensive about letting them carry in a set of crystal, you may as well hand it over. It is less stressful to take a chance on hearing the crash of tinkling glass than it is to have two small children wrap themselves around your legs, and sob into your shoes. If you want to gain favor with the gift snatchers, be sure to wrap the salt and pepper shakers you bought in a refrigerator box. You can sit back and enjoy the refreshments while they trample each other to get to the BIG present. I recommend that all children who assist at weddings receive a crash course of rules in the fine art of gift snatching: 1. Give the guests a chance to gel out of their car and come througt the doors before you ask to take their present. 2. If you can't see a present, dont ask where one is or say things lfe "We take Mastercharge." 3. If a guest doesn't have present, don't ask them why the; didn't get one. 4. Don't wander around the tables and eat the left over refreshments, 5. Keep the cards with the presents. Otherwise, the bride won know who to thank for the puip crocheted shower curtain. 6. Don't get in line to catch t bridal bouquet. 7. Don't beat up any otherJ" snatchers until after the vtm pictures have been taken. 8. Playing Tarzan in the stag curtains is prohibited. For three hundred miles I dniw-m-kids on the duties and resp sibilities of taking presents at a Julia's wedding receP Everything went well that mg far as I know, nothing was dropg No one was insulted. remembered to say please thank you. m " Now all I have to do is return five Visa cards they collected. by BECKI GRASS JOHNSON the wedding gift. There are other ways to recognize the gift grabbers. They are usually between the ages of 5 and 21 and dress in colors that coordinate with the wedding decorations. Gift grabbers often work in pairs. It is easier to wrestle a present out of the arms of a wedding guest if there are two. You may be risking your life by attending a reception without a gift. I've been fooled before by gift snatchers. They have angelic faces, frills or bow ties. Some even appear to have manners. Sometimes they will say things like, "May I take your present, please?" Ma Bell tells its side of the leasing story Editor: This regards the difficulty Jean Gordon Pullem encountered regarding a telephone that she purchased several years ago at a time when the working parts of such phones remained as a leased item. From her letter in the American Fork Citizen (Aug. 27, 1986), it appears that she purchased the telephone from Mountain Bell before its divestiture from American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Following that divestiture, AT&T continued leasing the working parts of her telephone. Her concern is that she felt she was not sufficiently informed of the lease arrangement and that she is now having difficulty resolving the matter of those leased parts still assigned to her. Due lo the divestiture of the Bell System, Mountain Bell can only speak to the first issue regarding the original sale. Although it is difficult to determine what specifically occurred at the time of this purchase, it was the practice of Mountain Bell employees to inform customers about the lease arrangement. The information was also in-cluded in the bill of sale and on a label attached to the telephone set itself. Lease costs also appeared in the itemized statement Mountain Bell sent out until AT&T assumed that service. In addition, public notice was given prior to the divestiture that customers could purchase the set, continue leasing or return working components as desired. 3! We're very sorry 'or jV misunderstandings 0 conveiences that may na d curred in this proce" v especially for those report Jean Gordon Pullem. 10t ..Sieve Li" Assistant Staff Ma Mountain p pleasant (Sruue iReutem ISSN No. U S P S. No. Published weekly except for Thanksgiving and Christmas by Newlah. Inc. 11 South Main Pleasant Groe. I lah WW: Telephone Number Advertising Circulation News Publisher Breit R Bezzani Editors Marc Haddock Marcella Walker Subscription price $16" per year Second class postage paid at Pleasant Grove Post Office PiBlmjilrr Srno .rtdrrx Lhinrfn tu PO B...7 Affirm n K.rk tuhWOfl |