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Saturday, October 20, 2018

Cisco’s Sonar


Trucks
By Bryce Nielson

Well, the Bear Lake Valley has experienced another overly hot and dry summer.  The rain never came so few experiences were washed out.  Visitors to Bear Lake continued to arrive at record numbers enjoying themselves with good weather and minimal wind.  It seemed like the side by sides (UTV) were everywhere.  These trends are becoming common place, like it or not. 

To me, what I will remember the summer of 2018 will be TRUCKS.  Because we live on the big curve in Bridgerland.  We have seen countless trucks, most with two, yellow trailers, come and go to the Valley this summer.  It started with the repaving of SR 30 from the Rest Area to the Wyoming line.  Between hauling hot asphalt on the way down and grindings on the way back, these trucks made the round trip between Brigham City and here countless times.  I often wondered how bored the drivers must have been seeing the same thing over and over.  The only fun they had was kicking in the Jake brake as the made the curve rattling all the windows in my house and disrupting our mornings on the deck. You could expect to see them in Logan Canyon slowing us down on the way up.  As that project wound down, the rebuild of the east side Cisco Beach road got underway.  Tons of material were hauled from Logan to Bear Lake.  As fall arrived, the asphalt hauling started in earnest, many times, long before daylight.  As I write this piece, they continue to pass wearing out the highway.

All of us who live here remember the long waits on SR 30 and the impassable road on the east side.  We also remember the lines of vehicles following yellow double trailer trucks in Logan Canyon.  Luckily, our memories are short when it comes to highway construction.  Who can remember all to the delays and stop lights when they rebuilt the upper Logan Canyon road?  What did the old road look like from the rest stop to Garden City.  In fact, who can remember what SR 30 looked like a year ago?  The inconvenience of construction is well worth the improved and safer roads we all travel.

Recently the community was completely shocked when the semi plowed into Pugstones resulting in a death and the destruction of the store.  I watched as Darin and Keri have put their lives into building a quality, sporting goods store.   It was a great addition to the community not only with merchandise, a blog and contests and a place to learn about Bear Lake.  Shaylyn was always smiling making the customers feel at home.  There wasn’t a store like it around Bear Lake.  Now to have it gone in seconds is incomprehensible. I know they will survive and rebuild their lives.  They are strong individuals and the have the support of everyone.  What can be done to prevent this in the future is unclear.  After the dust settles and the investigations are complete, only then can actions be taken to try to avoid this in the future.    

Friday, October 19, 2018

Pugstone's Demolished After Tragic Crash


Photo by Carol Ann Dyer






Support Pugstone's

Pugmire Benefit Dinner & Auction
Saturday, October 27
6 PM Dinner    7 PM Auction
Sunrise Room in the Harbor Village Conference Center


Linda M. Bently 1951 -2018

Linda M. Bentley, 67, passed away Oct. 17, 2018 six days after her birthday, in Garden City, Utah, surrounded by her family.   Linda was a long time resident of Garden City and she will be missed.  Her warm infectious laugh  and welcoming personality was a joy to all who  knew her. She fought a courageous battle with cancer. 

Funeral arrangements provided by Sunset Valley Mortuary in Logan, Utah.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

School Bond Public Hearing

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  October 15, 2018.   The proposal for an $8 million school bond drew over thirty people to a public hearing in Garden City. The meeting lasted two hours as the participants had many questions.

There are two building improvements proposed.  One is a breezeway connecting two buildings at the Randolph School and adding additional space for the theater.
“One of the things we wanted was a single entrance for security purposes,” said Dale Lamborn, Superintendent of Rich County School District. The breezeway addition can be used as back stage storage for the existing theater and give direct access to the music room instead of going outside to get to the music room which provides for more security and is energy efficient in the winter.

Rich High Principal Rick Larson said that the security breezeway is needed.  Currently the doors are open for twelve minutes per hour which means that it is not secure.  Secondly, the wind blows in Randolph making the buildings cold and the outdoor area gets icy.  They have to put on ice melt and it is tracked into classrooms.  And the school will finally will have ADA access.  The kids in the plays have to be outside in the dark.  Props get discarded because of no storage.  There will be stage storage in the proposed breezeway.

The larger addition is planned on the west side of the Rich Middle School.  There will be a gym with 490 seats along the side and a stage for performances. The gym will have nice dressing rooms that will be accessible for both basketball and football.  This year for the first volleyball and football games the visiting teams changed in the shop and band rooms and the next team had to go to the special ed space on the stage.  It would be nice to have multiple locker rooms for visiting teams.  There are not lot of home games here because the other teams don’t want to come because they have to commit 5 to 6 hours waiting to play since there is only one gym.   The gym floor can be used for seating for theater and music performances.  The new music room will be adjacent to the stage. 

They will build a good science room so that students can do experiments.  The science room is very important.  The last time an experiment was done the fire alarm went off because of improper ventilation.

Another need is additional special needs classrooms, now both high school and elementary special need students share the same facility.  Small group instruction is being done in the hallway.  With the addition the middle school special needs can be moved into the old music room. 

Principal Kip Motta, Rich Middle School, said that the special needs classes are being held on the stage in lunchroom which is not ADA.  These students need to have a focused area; now they are distracted by other students going in and out of the lunchroom.

Room for music and fine arts is critical, at the present time middle school students are taken by bus from Laketown to Randolph for those classes which takes up time and money.   It will affect the elementary school too, because the children can practice their programs on the new stage.  It also allows the gym to be used for recess in bad weather.
 
A participant asked if there has been a study of student growth and is the district planning for more growth not just present needs.  Motta said that these plans will suffice with our projected growth.  This will last us for twenty or thirty years. 
Duane Gifford, citizen, said that the elementary students have PE every day. Middle school has staggered PE because of a lack of personnel.  “Sixty to seventy percent of our kids are in team sports.  It is tough for middle school and high school to share.”

Joey Stocking asked if the gym and stage could be used for community events. The existing gym is booked every night now for school events, but there should be time for community use.

Cindy Caldwell noted that there needs to be a common gathering space for the students, and the architect said that it could be incorporated.

Scott Tollentino, Board Member, projected growth was done by consultants from Envision Utah, Bryce Huefner, Board Member, researched projected growth, so there was a lot of thought into how big and how expansive we need to be. 
Monty Weston, Board Member, said that the storage areas could be used as classrooms if there is more growth than we expect.  “If we have to bring in modulars for classrooms that is not secure, but if we use the storage areas for classrooms later the modular would be good for storage.”

The Board hopes to be bidding this next spring.  There is a comfortable budget and doing both buildings at the same time might save some costs. 

Jennie Johnson, Business Administrator, said that the average primary home is assessed at $156,000.  The annual tax impact will be $35.77 a year. A $300,000 home is $68.66.  For a secondary home or business, a $200,000 home will be taxed $82.23.

Over 70% of this bond is paid for by the secondary home owners. The debt service for the district will be over $660,000 a year for 20 years.  This minimizes the tax impact.  If more people move in then per-capita taxes will go down. 

The tax exempt bonds will sell on the open market.  The sale of bond timing is good this year.

“After we pass the bond, we can go after grants and use the money from the bond as a match.  Then perhaps we could pay it down.  We are one of the lowest taxed districts in the state,” said Lamborn.


Winter And Fall


Photo by Carol Ann Dyer

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Letter To The Editor RE: School Board Compensation

ATTENTION RICH COUNTY VOTERS!

PLEASE Read this before casting your ballots!
The following is an open letter to the voters in Rich County regarding the open school board seats (Districts 3 & 4. District 3 covers Laketown and part of county and part of Randolph and District 4 which is basically everything north of Laketown to 350 South Street in Garden City).
Duties of the  Rich County School Board (RCSB) member include attending graduation ceremonies, speaking at meetings, overseeing the annual budget, review and approve/disapprove staffing requests, training (travel and registration costs are paid by the Rich County School District ), attending other meetings (BATC, UHSAA, USSBA), etc. On average over the course of a year RCSB members spend approximately 15-20 hours/month on duties related to their elected positions, based on my experiences the last 3 years. Some months could be more and some months significantly less. 

First, I will provide some publicly available information regarding the compensation of the Rich County School Board (RCSB) members that many voters may not be aware of. All RCSB members are compensated at the rate of $250.00/month for their service. In addition, RCSB members also receive mileage reimbursements for attending each school board meeting. 

Finally, by state code, the Rich County School District (RCSD) must offer health insurance to each elected RCSB member and their family. This health insurance benefit costs the RCSD on average $17,000/year/RCSB member. Therefore, IF the RCSB member chooses to accept the health insurance in addition to their monthly stipend, it results in a compensation of approximately $20,000/year. If you figure this out on an hourly basis, some RCSB members are making $83.00-$133.00/hour! 

I don’t know about you, but I feel this is excessive compensation for a RCSB position. I feel that a RCSB member should be considered a public servant that works for all the people in the RCSD and specifically represents those people in their voting district. I also feel that the only “right” thing to do as a RCSB member is to choose to DECLINE the health insurance benefit. If a RCSB member declines the health insurance, the money that is saved remains in the RCSD and does not go to the “state” or “federal” government coffers. This is important because the money can be re-budgeted to other “needs” in the RCSD. Finally, if a RCSB member declines the health insurance, they can still choose to receive a cash pay-out of $6,000! Currently there are only three RCSB members who decline the health insurance or cash pay-out: Monty Weston (District 3), Bryce Huefner (District 4), and myself, Scott Tolentino (District 5). 

So, before you decide who to vote for as a RCSB member in your district this fall, ask the people who are running in the election (Districts 3 and 4), whether they will accept the health insurance benefit or choose to decline it? Also, ask them if they decline the health insurance benefit, whether they will accept the cash pay-out? Considering there are five RCSB members, if all the members decline the health insurance this could result in an $85,000 shift in spending to improve your children’s education instead of paying for full health insurance for the RCSB members and their families for what is honestly a part-time job. 

Another way to look at this is, to ask yourself if do you feel good about electing a RCSB member and paying them $83.00-$133.00/hour (those who accept health insurance) to represent you; or would you feel better electing someone who is paid $12.50-$16.50/hour (those who decline health insurance and the cash pay out) to do the same job? It’s your choice. Whatever you decide, PLEASE get out to vote in November! Remember Monty Weston, Bryce Huefner, and myself are the only RCSB members who do the right thing and DECLINE the insurance benefit!

Scott Tolentino
Rich County School Board Member, District #5

Special Bond Election, Second Notice

Notice of Special Bond Election
Board of Education of Rich County School District, Utah
Public Notice Is Hereby Given that a special bond election will be held in Rich County School District, Utah (the “District”), on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, at which bond election there shall be submitted to the qualified, registered voters residing within the District the following question:

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RICH COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT,
RICH COUNTY, UTAH
BOND ELECTION
November 6, 2018

(Facsimile Signature)
Business Administrator
RICH COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOND
Shall the Board of Education of Rich County School District, Utah, be authorized to issue General Obligation Bonds in a principal amount not to exceed Eight Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($8,500,000) for the purpose of paying all or a portion of the costs to acquire land; acquiring, constructing, furnishing and equipping new school facilities; improving or rebuilding existing facilities; and the authorization and issuance of the Bonds due and payable with a term not to exceed twenty-one (21) years from the date or dates of issuance of the Bonds?
PROPERTY TAX COST OF THE BONDS
If the Bonds are issued as planned, without regard to the taxes currently levied for outstanding bonds that will reduce over time, an annual property tax to pay debt service on the Bonds will be required over a period of twenty-one (21) years in the estimated amount of $35.77 (for a residence with a $156,000 value) on a residence and in the estimated amount of $79.78 on a business property having the same value. 
If there are other outstanding bonds, an otherwise scheduled tax decrease may not occur if the Bonds are issued.
The foregoing information is only an estimate and is not a limit on the amount of taxes that the District may be required to levy to pay debt service on the Bonds.  The District is obligated to levy taxes to the extent provided by law in order to pay the Bonds. 

FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS



AGAINST THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS

The bond election will be administered entirely by absentee ballot.  The election officer will mail to each registered voter within the District an absentee ballot and a postage paid business reply envelope.  For a voter that registers to vote after the absentee ballots have been mailed, the County Clerk will either give the voter an absentee ballot and envelope to vote in the County Clerk’s office or mail an absentee ballot, postage paid, to the voter.  There will be no polling places in the District for the election.  If a voter fails to follow the instructions included with the absentee ballot, the voter will be unable to vote in the election.  Voters are not required to apply for an absentee ballot for the election.
To vote the mail-in absentee ballot, a voter will need to: (i) complete and sign the affidavit on the envelope; (ii) mark the votes on the absentee ballot; (iii) place the voted absentee ballot in the envelope; (iv) securely seal the envelope; and (v) deposit the self-addressed, prepaid envelope in the mail or deliver it in person to the County Clerk.
There is to be no special registration of voters for the bond election, and the official register of voters last made or revised shall constitute the register for the bond election.  The County Clerk will make registration lists or copies of such lists available for use by registered voters.
For information on registering to vote, voters may contact the office of the (a) Rich County Clerk at 20 South Main, Randolph, Utah  84064, telephone: (435) 793-2415 or visit the County’s website at richcountyut.org, or (b) Utah Lieutenant Governor, State Capitol, 350 N. State Street, Suite 220, Salt Lake City, Utah  84114, (801) 538-1041 or visit the Lieutenant Governor’s website at election.utah.gov.

Pursuant to applicable provisions of Sections 11-14-208 and 20A-4-403 of the Utah Code, the period allowed for any contest of the bond election shall end 40 days after the Canvass Meeting.  No such contest shall be maintained unless a complaint is filed with the Clerk of the Judicial District Court in and for Rich County, within the prescribed 40-day period.
In Witness Whereof, the Board of Education of Rich County School District, Utah has caused this notice to be given.
Dated:  October 5, 2018.

Board of Education of Rich County School District, Utah

Monday, October 15, 2018

Fatal Crash At Garden City Intersection

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. October 10, 2018. A refrigerated semi trailer weighing over 80,000 pounds carrying frozen boxes of butter careened down the Logan Road into Pugstone's at the intersection, killing the driver and critically injuring the passenger.  The damage was so extensive to the building that it will have to be demolished.

The large boxes of hard frozen butter flew into the store through the walls and were like cannon balls. Darin Pugmire, the owner of the store had just left the building a few moments before the  accident according to his wife Keri Pugmire.
Photo by Nadine Sprouse, Garden City

Utah Highway Patrol troopers say the semi truck, driven by Ahmed M. Abdelgader, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, was driving erratically as it entered an intersection with state Route 30 in Garden City about 6:30 p.m., Wednesday. It ran a stop sign as it attempted to turn onto SR-30, before it rolled and jackknifed into the sporting goods store.

Other witnesses said that the brakes were smoking as the semi came down the hill to Garden City.

Over the weekend,  Pugmire and family moved what inventory that could be salvaged.  He estimates it will take at least one year to  rebuild and re open the popular sporting goods store which has been in the city for over twenty years. Garden City business owners have started a Go Fund Me site to help defray some of the initial costs. (https://www.gofundme.com/p9m5d-rebuild-pugstones-pugmires)

The semi and the building seem melted together, emergency crews and passers by worked tirelessly to extricate the two men.  "There was so  much blood, that everyone who helped was covered with it, said one EMT."

"This is the fifth semi rollover in the nine years I have been here," said Andrew Stokes, a local resident.  "There have also been numerous fire calls for brake fires."  He suggested that brake test sites or runaway truck zones be incorporated into the design of the city entry.

"If this had happened during the summer when that intersection is filled with  pedestrians, cars and tourist buses the carnage would have been unimaginable," said another citizen.

Photos by Andy Stokes, Garden City



Photo by Keri Pugmire, Garden City



No One Should Be Cold Here

Garden City Library Coat Exchange 

Bring your winter wear (coats, mittens, scarfs and boots) that are no longer needed to the Garden City Library breezeway. 


Those in need of winter clothes are can stop by and see if there if something they can use.  The breezeway is open 24-7 so you won't need to wait until the library is open. 

All clothes not taken by anyone will be donated to DI on Jan 1.  


Sunday, October 14, 2018

View From Bear Lake West

Photo by Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Garden City

Garden City Fire District

Leonard O’Reilly, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

Garden City, Utah. October 3, 2018. Garden City Fire District Board Chair, Randall Knight, presided and all other board members were present except Gary Points.

Fire Chief, Mike Wahlberg, reported on the progress of the station addition and noted the difficulty in getting trade workers on the job because of all the construction going on in the valley. He also reported on the responses for the month:
4 - Alarms
6 - Medical Calls
1 - Hazmat call
1 - Marine call - Surveyed the hazard of a sinking boat (oil & fuel). It was pulled from the water the following day by a reclamation service.
1 - Carbon monoxide call

Knight noted his concern in seeing open fires in Ogden Canyon which was reported to the governor’s office after what he felt was no adequate response from the Forest Service. No further business was discussed.

Dracula For Halloween



Cache Valley Civic Ballet
presents

Dracula



A ballet to please the brave heart. Lovely dancing, spine-chilling special effects, with costumes and sets to transport you to another time and place. An experience to make your blood run cold.

Fri. Oct. 26 & Sat. Oct. 27
7:30 pm
Ellen Eccles Theater 

Tickets from $16
(students get 25% off!)