New Flag Pole At Randolph Cemetery

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  August 20, 2014. George Peart from the Randolph Cemetery Board informed the School Board that the Cemetery would like to install a 50’ flag pole that could fly a 10’ x 15’ U. S. flag.  They would like to install a light so that the flag can be flown 24 hours a day.  The closest connection to the electricity is the school pole on the north side of the school lot.

The school also owns part of the land that the electric line would have to go across in order to reach the ground owned by the cemetery.  Peart requested that the cemetery be allowed to connect to the electricity at the school pole and put a meter at that location so that they can pay for the electricity they use.  They would also need an easement across some of the school’s property in order to place the flag pole in the selected location.  They would like to be able to get the flag pole in place before the end of September.

The School Board made and passed a motion to allow the Cemetery Board to connect to the electricity and put an electric meter on the school pole.  They also will give them an easement across their property for maintenance if and when needed.

School Summer Maintenance Unfinished

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  August 20, 2014. Some of the summer work projects did not get completed before school started.  The gym floor is not done—the sanding was just finished the other day.  It was a problem with the company hired to do the job, not the local maintenance individual.  There should be a crew at the school on Thursday to get the job done.  Not all the painting is finished and some smart boards have not been hung yet.

Mr. Limb has gotten the fields in much better shape for athletics than they have been in for several years.  The cement work was completed just this week.  The special education room is completed and really looks great.  Not all the bleachers are in because the floors need to be finished first. 

The Superintendent noted that next year, more of the larger jobs should probably be let out to bid freeing up Mr. Limb to take care of the smaller projects.  Also Superintendent Dale Lamborn noted that the bidding for the projects needs to done at least a month or two earlier in the spring to allow for more time to get all details taken care before the school year ends.

Fall Bounties At Bear Lake

 

 

Elvira and Jan Luzack gathered these edible mushrooms from the forests around Bear Lake and grew the apples and peaches from their garden.   They are famous for wonderful meals and beautiful gardens.  We live in such a bounteous place.

 

 

 

Photos by Elvira Luzack

State Testing Requirements

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  August 20, 2014. Policy 607 needs to be amended to allow the District to use the best evaluation program available.  The State Board of Education requires two types of evaluations for teachers.  The District participated in the State Pilot Program but felt that instrument they were using was cumbersome.  There is another program that covers all the state requirements and is much easier to administer. 

Principal Kip Motta demonstrated how the commercial program worked and noted that not only is it easier to use and does a good job of evaluation, but it assists those doing the evaluation to do a much better job as well.  The results of the evaluation instrument become immediately available to those being evaluated which gives good feedback to the teachers and helps them write their growth plans.  Summary information can also be collected and used for comparisons among teachers in the district as well as teachers in other schools. This program can also be used by the Superintendent to evaluate the principals.  Results can be used for in-service to assist teachers and administrators to become better at their jobs.  The Board made the motion to accept the suggested changes to the policy.

The Dibels Testing program is required by the State.  It is given three times a year, once in the fall—usually fairly early.  It is given again in January and in the spring, generally near the end of April.  There are bench marks that are set and comparisons made among grades, teachers, districts, and the entire state. There are also composite scores given to teachers determined by the results of all that teacher’s students.  It was noted that it is more difficult to improve testing scores as students get older.

Another testing program was carried out last year.  It was called Sage testing and was conducted last October.  The results, however, from this test cannot be compared to the Dibels Testing because they are different tests.  Some comparisons might be made among different schools, but the results must be from the same exam—not mixing the two.

The Sage test has a set of standards and learning outcomes tied to it.  There is a lot of misinformation being circulated among the public concerning this exam.  Parents need to know that this exam tests for specifics as well as generalities and provides especially good information that can help students and teachers alike.  The standards are rigorous and include the minimum information that students really should know.  Every question on the exam has been looked over by parents as well as educators and researchers.  It needs to be taken by every student.  However, the state has made it possible for parents to allow their children to opt out.  When parents allow their child to opt out of the test, those students are not as encouraged to learn, to work as hard to meet requirements, or as enthused to move forward, or even to make as good of career plans for the future as perhaps they otherwise might.  The Board encourages parents to have their children taken this test..

Another State requirement requires surveys to be taken by both parents and students.  There is a software package that has been written that expedites this requirement.  It can be taken in 10 minutes or less.  It is designed so that students’ perspectives of their learning can be taken about once a week or more frequently as desired.  The survey for the parents needs to be taken at least once a year.  There is also a staff survey included that can also be taken and is helpful in making some decisions.  The commercial package will cost about $1 per student.  The reports that are generated by these surveys are available immediately after the surveys have been taken. 

The company that has written the program has gotten really good feedback from the pilot testing that has been done.   Both principals recommended that the Board go along with this survey instrument.  The requested was granted.

New Teachers Introduced To Rich School Board

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. August 20, 2014. All five new teachers and their families were invited to the School Board Meeting so that members of the Board could become acquainted with them. 

Principal Kip Motta introduced the two new teachers that will be working in the North Rich Elementary and Rich Middle School.  Jessie Calder will be the special education teacher for the middle and elementary.  His wife and small baby daughter were also present.  Jamie Owen, her husband, and three children were introduced next.  Jamie will be teaching in the fourth grade.   She and her husband have three children, a year-old baby and the two other children who will be attending the elementary school.

Principal Rick Larsen introduced the three teachers who will be working in South Rich High School.  Trisha Turley is a graduate of Utah State University.  She will be teaching social studies.  Her husband was also present and introduced.  Matt Lockquist will be teaching English.  He graduated from Weber State University and has been taking classes at Utah State University.  His wife is expecting a baby very soon and is staying with her parents in Salt Lake City.  Logan Staylee will be in charge of the math program, business classes, and computer education.  He is a graduate from Western Governor’s University.  He, his wife, and their three children were presented to the Board.

Rachel's Challenge For Rich Schools.

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  August 20, 2014. Rachel’s Challenge is a program to create and improve peer interaction.  It is a way show individuals how to reach out to other students and help them. 

The program will be presented at the North Rich Elementary, Middle School, and parents on September 3.  The Elementary presentation will be in the morning, the Middle School in the afternoon, and parents and other individuals who would like to participate in the evening.

The program will be given at the South Rich Elementary in the morning of September 4, to the High School in the afternoon of that day, and to parents and other interested individuals in the evening.

It is a very powerful and moving program.  It will touch everyone who watches it emotionally.  Rachael was a 15-year old girl who was sitting outside Columbine High School when the shooting occurred.  She was the first student whose life was taken.  She had lots of hopes and dreams.  She wanted to change the world by being kind and respectful. 

The program will help students to improve their interactions with not only their peers but everyone with whom they come in contact.  It will help students become more respectful and involved.  If you are interested in knowing more about this presentation before attending the program, you can go to Google and type in Rachel’s Challenge.  It will give more information about this program.

All students, parents, and members of the communities in the County are invited and encouraged to attend.

Herald Journal Story: Sumo Wrestler Swims Across Lake And Back

Borderline insanity': Sumo champ completes Bear Lake swim

By Lis Stewart | Posted: Monday, August 25, 2014 9:00 pm Herald Journal, Logan, Utah

Reprinted with Permission.

BEAR LAKE — Wind, rain and choppy water Monday didn’t stop a U.S. sumo champion from becoming the fourth person to officially swim the width of Bear Lake twice.

However, 44-year-old Kelly Gneiting said afterward that swimming 14 miles in open water was an endeavor he would not again undertake so lightly.

“Overwhelming,” he said when asked how it felt. “This was borderline insanity.”

With a storm front hanging over the area most of the day, Gneiting started his trip at 12:45 a.m., ending just after 5 p.m. With the short rest break he was allowed midway through on the east shore before going back to Cisco Beach on the west side, the entire trip took 16 hours, 13 minutes.

Gneiting set the Guinness World Record for the heaviest person to complete a marathon in the 2011 Los Angeles Marathon, weighing 400 pounds at the time. The Idaho native said while the world often views being big as a negative thing, he is out to prove that you can still be big and do what others do.

“To me, even though I’m 430 pounds, the fact of no one believing or even attempting to believe I can do something like this is really a motivation for me to prove it,” Gneiting said in a phone call from his Arizona home last week.

Sitting in the back seat of a pickup truck an hour after the swim was complete, still in his swim trunks and looking exhausted, Gneiting repeated the reason behind his endeavors like a mantra.

“This is not just about glorifying, for me,” he said. “This is about showing everybody that their weakness, or perceived weakness, doesn’t have to stop them from reaching their goals or doing what they’re supposed to do on planet Earth.”

A five -time U.S. sumo champion and native of Rigby, Idaho, who has competed in the World Sumo Championships 10 times, Gneiting is retired professionally. He says he competes about once a year and will coach his 16-year-old daughter and 14 other wrestlers at the World Sumo Championships in Taiwan this weekend.

He got into swimming two years ago with encouragement from a friend and spent time training for the Bear Lake swim by swimming laps across Bowl Lake in New Mexico, which is about 0.5 mile across.

He also says he spent plenty of time talking with Gordon Gridley, president of the Bear Lake Swimming Association, which offered support during the trip.

Gridley is the only Utahn so far to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, meaning he swam three famous marathon swims: the English Channel, Catalina Channel in Southern California and around Manhattan Island in New York.

The Unmuddled Mathematician

My Life as a Wife

By Chris Coray, The Unmuddled Mathematician

It’s been an interesting month.  Four weeks ago today my wife got a total hip replacement.  Medicine has come a long way in making this kind of stuff better, but all the attention has been on the patient, not the significant other.

 

At first I was concerned, worried, solicitous, aware and responsive to her every need.  The trouble is I am a man.  The sex that says, “Walk it off.”  For a month besides being the nurse I have done all the laundry, the dishes, the housework, the cleaning, cooking (other than the meals brought to us) in fact pretty much of what she has done for me every day for 48 years.   I want a raise.  Oops, that would fairly mean some back pay owed to her by me.  More money than I have. 

A big problem is standards.  Hers v.s. mine.  Well, she has some.   I figured it may be time to straighten and vacuum the front room when I could no longer see the carpet because of the clothes (clean or dirty), paper, cooties, tools, shoes, and empty pizza boxes.  Fortunately things never got to that state because she did not need an eye replacement and her voice remained clear.  For a while Sherlock Holmes would have observed a dual track in our house, first the prints of a male (with or without shoes), followed by the strange track made by a walker, a device she used to help her be ambulatory.  At this stage I am only glad that these trackers did not come in a military model with Hellfire missiles.  If they did, this article wouldn’t exist and neither would I. 

At first I would hear the phrase, “You might want to sweep there.”   Me, want?  A shorter, more effective sentence would have been “Sweep here” where her still functional arm and hand could and would point.  Although I am a decent operator with a vacuum, the wife of the Muddled Male would never give me a passing grade (probably not to him, either).  But I have persevered and we are getting along.  She has moved on from the walker to a cane to occasionally no extra support.  This is both good and bad.  It means she is getting better but that cane may secretly hold a James Bond-like blade and with one whack I’m toast.  No, “Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up!”, rather, “Help, I’m now 4 feet tall and bleeding to death!” 

My biggest issue is the chocolate.  She told her friends, don’t bring food, bring chocolate.  Her latest stash is the Hershey candy kisses.  These darn things have a small aluminum foil cover, for some reason a two inch long paper part that I guess is supposed to help unwrap, and the chocolate itself.  But when you have a cane in one hand the foil in the other, what do you do with the paper, as you have no third hand?  The answer is spelled, floor, and I must constantly be on the lookout for these scoundrels as if she sees one she will blame me, the innocent and guileless, for its presence.  Somehow I must have Hershey kiss wrapping sonar running at all times.

And now for the topper.  I am not making this up.   Last night she wouldn’t let me go to bed at the same time as she.  Her line was, “Wait a while, I need to get my arm in the right place and comfortable”.   Nothing about her hip.  The content of her instruction so confused me that for 15 minutes I became the Muddled Mathematician, unable to respond.   My axiom system was spun off into hyperspace.  I could be heard whispering, “Spock, Spock, I need help.” 

Whatever else this experience has taught me it confirms what I have blithely tossed off as a truth, namely, that on our best days men are worth about 10% of women.  That was a sterile comment, as living the reality instead of just the abstraction has brought it home (which I will clean up again in a minute).

My Life As A Husband

The Unmuddled Male's Wife

The best part is having my meals brought to me in the recliner and having the plates taken away, washed and put in the dishwasher.  I always thank him for a good meal just as a good husband should.

From The Deck

Photo by Bruce Warner

Kiosk Map Developed

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  August 14, 2014. Gary Cox, city administrator, reported that a city map needs to be placed in the kiosk.  Danny White has drawn a map that shows all the trails and roads that individuals can use in and around Garden City.  It will be hung in the kiosk.  There were hundreds of fliers distributed over Raspberry Days because of the kiosk which was an ideal spot for placement of these types of materials.  That is great justification for having such a structure in the City.

Ordinance enforcement is very time consuming, especially during Raspberry Days.  Cox said that it would be good if additional enforcement individuals could be available in the future.  He noted that he dealt with numerous transient businesses that tried to set up illegal sales locations within the City during Raspberry Days.  There were also numerous sign and camping ordinance violations along with a public nudity incident where the local deputies were very helpful during that very busy weekend.

The cost to complete Heritage Park has gone up.  Because of the high costs, the City will need to decide what can be worked on and completed this fall.

The shuttle service has done well so far this summer.  It has even operated at capacity a few times.  It was full on July 26 and August 1.  There were a total of 160 individuals who took the shuttle on August 2.  Garden City is pleased with the shuttle and has decided it can become an integral part of the way individuals get to the lake and around the town.

Because of the deer flies and other problems, the long term management of the beach has become an issue.  The City is exploring several possibilities including destroying deer fly habitat, restoring old drainage ditches based on the National Army Corp. permit for maintaining existing drainage, and cultivating the beaches to bring back the sandy areas.  Discussion even touched on bring in or moving sand from some areas to others thereby helping both locations.

Both Utah State University and Bridgerland Applied Technology Centers are interested in a testing center at Garden City’s library for concurrent enrollment and other classes that they offer.  BATC is interested in having classes taught here in Garden City based on the needs and wants of the local citizens.  Mayor Spuhler noted that they were certainly welcome to use the City’s facilities, but would need to pay the costs for cleaning, setting up arrangements, lighting, heating, and so forth that would result of using City buildings.

The ATM machine placed in the kiosk for Raspberry Days should be returned to the bank which owns it.

Garden City Fire District Report

Chris Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  August 21, 2014. The Garden City Fire District board held its regular monthly meeting.  Present were members Wakefield, Pope, Gracey, and House.  Absent was Randall Knight.

The board is still hunting legal representation for advice on the under construction district regulations.  The board also wants to develop a set of standard operating procedures for the fire boat.

At the direction of the board Chief Wahlberg will seek local bids for a storage shed to be placed near the fire station.  Discussion centered on a shed between 150 and 200 square feet, mostly for emergency operation material.

Chief Wahlberg indicated that the fire department has floated discussion about being the point agency for the 24^th of July barbecue at the city park, as fireworks are often used there.

The annual Raspberry Days breakfast was completed successfully.  Numbers were slightly down with a net profit of $2700.  Historically the fire department, with the approval of the firefighters, has often donated the profit to one or more families under financial stress for medical or other unforeseen issues and that was the case this year.

While not part of the official duties of the fire department, Chief Wahlberg talked to Garden City about supporting the training of new Basic EMT’s.  Garden City said that they would provide $3,000 for the training of 3 new persons under the condition that the ambulance association would repay the entire amount after one year of service from the newly trained EMT.

Purchase requisitions were approved for 4 new helmets and 8 articulating helmet lights.  All existing departmental equipment was reported to be in good shape.

Due to the very unusual wet weather of the past month there were no serious fire issues.  Brett England put out a very small fire accidentally started in a field by young persons and witnessed by Brett.  He put the fire out by stomping, using no equipment.

Tiffany Wahlberg, the district CPA, thinks that a financial statement would be a good addition to the current check of “Agreed Upon Procedures” required by the state.