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Sunday, November 20, 2016

Cisco's Sonar

South Eden Canyon
By Bryce Nielsen, Cisco Sonar

It is interesting to observe things you never had the time to do before. My brother Dale, called me the other day and said that he had found a patch of phragmites about four miles' up South Eden Canyon. Dale lives in River Heights and retired from the Federal Agricultural Research Station at USU. He is ten years younger than me and has a keen interest in a variety of subjects. When he gets on something,he becomes obsessed with it to the very, minute detail. His obsession leads him to research all of his questions. They have been many and varied over the years. He is a true collector and has extensive collections of shot shells, insulators, and train lights, etc. He is an expert on butterflies, frequently raising and crossing individual butterflies to the delight the Lepidoptera society in Utah. He is also a specialist in mushrooms, frequently taking family vacations to hunt for them. Suffice to say, Dale is an interesting person that knows a lot about many different things.
South Eden


He and I have been researching native, phragmites around Bear Lake, in addition to mussels. Extensive efforts have been made to eradicate the "invasive" (?) species along the shoreline. We believe that most of it is native and should be left alone, even if others don't want it.

So back to the story. We headed up South Eden to get samples of the phragmites. Dale had found it near South Eden Reservoir when he was looking for viable seeds from the Utah juniper trees. There are plenty of seeds from the Rocky Mountain juniper, but viable Utah juniper seeds are extremely difficult to find and germinate. Scientists from the west has asked him to collect samples of seeds in the area. Limbs inside junipers were typically cut for fence posts. It was fun to see where the old timers had cut "cedar posts" years ago for many of the barbed wire fences around the area. He was also looking for potential bonsai trees. Apparently there is a market for juniper "bonsai" trees.

Along the north side of the canyon he had located an area where water was flowing out underneath the Nugget Sandstone formation. There were a number of them, like oasis's in the desert. The phragmites was there, along with wetlands, ancient willows and huge hawthorne trees that were slowing slipping down the slope due to land movements below the water source. We collected some specimens and compared them to specimens we collected around the lake. They appeared similar, suggesting native phragmites is in the lake. So how did they get there? This reed cannot reproduce by seeds due to the short length of the growing season here. They expand their "clones" by sending out rhizomes which can create new plants at each joint. Animals could have carried them up the canyon but I prefer to believe that a Shoshoni Indian had made a basket at the Lake out of green reeds and carried it to the site. We will never know but it is fun to speculate.

As I left South Eden Canyon I thought about the hundreds of times I had been there. The phragmites was the reason I went up but I had seen so much more that I had never observed before. Usually I am looking for animals. It is just like Logan Canyon. Every once in awhile I will see something new, even though I have driven it thousands of time. The power of observation is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, we're losing it in our new society.

Late Fall Motor Biking

Photo by Mike Moldenhaur

To The Editor - Beach Access

Let's be clear about the beach access issue. The residents of Shore Lodge Estates have no issue with getting access to the beach. We do have an issue with seizing private property to do it. Those lanes, as the court affirmed, were private property that the city attempted to seize through extra legal means. Now the city is threatening the use of Eminent Domain to seize them, at a significant cost to the taxpayers of Garden City. Sen. Lyle Hillyard has repeatedly stated the State will not financially support these efforts UNTIL a comprehensive plan is developed to provide access in a reasonable, and coordinated fashion.

James Hanzelka


November Rich School District Meeting

Chris S. Coray, reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. November 16, 2016.  The Rich School District Board met with all members present.

The meeting started with 3 testimonials about the FFA (Future Farmers of America) program. The board listened to these individuals about the possible benefits of having a FFA program in the high school.

It was reported that the SAGE testing program will continue another year.  Utah is the only state with a contract with SAGE and to make a change would be in the 40-50 million dollar range.  During this discussion it was reported that 8 of the 9 members of the state school board have been changed.

The auditing firm of Gilbert and Stewart presented the results of the annual audit and gave what is called a “clean” opinion, which is a highest recommendation in such an audit.  The finances of the district are well managed, but Richard Clark, business manager who is retiring, noted that no qualified applicants have yet expressed interest in the job.

There was discussion about the completion requirements for those in the adult education option, which has a different and smaller number of required credits than regular high school students.  Adult education  is a very small program in the county.

The board announced the unexpected an early retirement of Mrs. B. Weston, and the need to begin to search for a replacement.

The board members were given a tour of the elementary school science room and introduced to some of the new digitized software program.  It was observed that the science scores in the high school were lower in the district than comparable districts and the science requirement is now a 3 trimester course, as opposed to the previous two.  It is hoped by the principal that this change will positively affect the measurement metric applied statewide.


The board then went into a work session involving the ongoing accreditation process and the next meeting will be in December.

Last Week's Incredible Sunrise

Photo by Tavis Buys
Photo by Darin Pugmire
Photo by Gary McKee


Cisco Disco Is Coming Sooner Than You Think



Make sure you have the right date on your calendars! 
The Cisco Disco will be JANUARY 28th 2017.


Make your plans now to be a part of this fun event at Bear Lake!

We hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. 


Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,

November Fire Board Meeting

Chris S. Coray, reporter
Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  November 17, 2016.  The governing board of the Garden City Fire District held its regular monthly meeting.  All members were present except Jenny England.

The main work done during the meeting was to construct a draft budget for the district for 2017.  A public hearing on the draft budget will be held in December prior to final approval.
 
Main points in the new draft budget proposal are, that in raw dollars, it is not substantially different from the budget of 2016.  No new tax increases are proposed.  However, the board did approve the new expense of $1200 in 2017 to be used a payment for board members attendance at monthly meeting.  It is the first time that any fire board has proposed paying itself for services.
To date in 2016 there has been no grant income and none is anticipated for 2017.  In 2015 there was grant revenue in the amount of $13,173.

The Peterson Hollow Fire produced revenue of $24,467 for the department, which after paying the individual firefighters for their time, will produce a net $16,000-18,000 for the department, which will be used for wild land fire equipment in the capital improvement fund.

During the month the department put out a garage fire in Round Valley.  There was substantial damage to the structure and its contents.

The equipment for the department is in good shape.

The annual Christmas party was scheduled for December.


Tiffany Wahlberg told members that the fire board must be very careful to comply with the open meetings law as they meet with each other.  The law states that no more than two people can meet together about board business without being open to the press or citizens.

Annual Turkey Trot


Pizza On Thanksgiving Eve

Summit Inn Pizza in Garden City, Utah would like to help simplify your meal plans this week. If you'll be busy getting things prepared for your big Thanksgiving meal and don't want to have to worry about preparing anything for dinner on Wednesday, let Summit Inn Pizza take care of it!

Since we won't be open Thursday like normal because of the holiday, we will be open from 4-8 this Wednesday, aka "Thanksgiving Eve". Come grab some pizza and get back to making your pie!

We also have some exciting deals and events coming up. Check out our Facebook page for more info. Make sure you like our Facebook page so that you can stay informed.