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Monday, December 12, 2016

Good Stuff!

Savory Thai, Planters Medley, Everest, The Arrival
By John Brown, The Man

In this post: a new restaurant, a snack, and two movies.

I love finding little, non-chain restaurants with excellent, reasonably priced food. And I just found another one this week. It’s called Savory Thai, and it’s on 182 W Center Street in Orem, UT.

Oh, baby. If you decide to go, you are in for a treat. We ate there in celebration of my third daughter’s call to do missionary work in the middle and western Pennsylvania area (go Steelers, Amish, and “yous all”).

I learned to love Thai food because it’s so close to Indonesian food. And I learned to love that because I lived in the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands for five months and in Amersfoort, which is maybe an hour away, for seven. In Nijmegen, I lived in the attic of a row house with a series of missionary companions. In Amersfoort, I lived in a spare bedroom with another series of companions. Both homes were owned by Indonesian grandmothers who cooked one or two Indonesian meals a day for us. Think about that—home cooked Indonesian food every day. It was marvelous. When I came back to the States, Indonesian restaurants were few and far between, but to my delight I found that the Thai cuisine is very close, and so that became my stand in.

If you’ve never had Thai food, it’s kind of like Chinese, but it’s got curries, so it’s a little like Indian as well, but that doesn’t describe it either because it has its own separate taste that’s entirely wonderful.

This place is in a little strip of stores. It’s small enough that you could drive right past and never know it existed. But when you walk in, you’ll see that they know how to make a good first impression. It’s clean, smells good, and the host is friendly, but these guys go farther than that. You’ll notice, of all things, the menu cover. Instead of handing out some flimsy paper or laminated thing, they hand out these thick menus covered in what looks like some kind of leather. It gives a feel of permanence, of solidity, as if the restaurant has been there for years (it's two months old). But of course we weren't there for menus or friendly servers. We were there for the food. And we were not disappointed.

I can happily report that their green curry (spicy), pineapple curry, massaman curry (a lovely peanuty sauce), orange chicken, chicken cashew, fried rice, and pad Thai were all excellent. They use no MSG, cook it fresh, and keep it reasonably priced, $8-$10 per dish. I can promise you that we’ll be back.

If you’re in the area and want some great food, stop at Savory Thai.

*

I love almonds and have been for many years a big fan of the W♥nderful brand bags of roasted and salted almonds you can find in Sam’s Club. However, this last week, I came across something new from Planters called their Almond Lover’s Medley, which is a blend of four different varieties of almonds, dry roasted and unsalted. It includes the Marcona, Nonpareil, Fritz, and Butte-padres, which is the variety used in the W♥nderful bags. I can report that this mix from Planters is delicious. The differences in taste and texture between the varieties is subtle, but real. And I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them unsalted. If you love nuts, you’ll want to give this blend a try.

*

I did not want to watch a movie about climbing Mt. Everest. Everest? Were you kidding me? I couldn’t think of anything more boring, but this is what my daughters wanted, and it was Thanksgiving weekend, and so we watched Everest, the 2015 movie.

I am happy to report that it ended up being a great, disaster thriller, based on a true story, which was captured in the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I cared about the characters, was on pins and needles during great portions, and exclaimed out loud during a number of tense parts. And after all that sweating, the story made me think about the things we do and how to prioritize when life is on the line.

If you like stories about survival, you’ll love this. If you don’t, I still think there’s a good shot you’ll really enjoy it.

*

My wife is a sport. We were in the big city to watch a movie with our youngest daughter who is in high school. Our daughter, with her teenage brain, had the wild idea of a double-feature. My original man brain thought that sounded capital—how long had it been since we’d squandered five or six hours watching movies! The wise man brain didn’t think it was a very practical idea, and suggested it would be much better to do a double-feature next week when we could start at three in the afternoon. But the wise man brain was outnumbered and soon succumbed. And then all of the crazy brains ganged up on my wife, who graciously relented, and so we watch The Arrival and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and got home at like 1:30 am.

As for Fantastic Beasts, if you like Harry Potter stuff, you’ll love it. If you’re not mad for Harry Potter, it’s not going to rock your world (although you still might have a good time). Enough said.

What about The Arrival?

This is a movie about the arrival of aliens, but it’s not a shoot-em-up like Independence Day or War of the Worlds. It’s more like Contact, the one with Jodie Foster. It’s a film that makes you think and is for those who are willing to be a little patient. If you can slow down and just enjoy the film, I think you’ll end up loving it because it’s about far more than meeting mysterious creatures. It ends up being about the choices a woman makes about her family. If you go and give it the space it needs, I guarantee you’ll chat about afterwards.

And I won’t tell you anything more because you’ll only understand what’s going on in the woman’s life when you get to the last fourth of the movie, and I don’t want to spoil the delicious revelation for you. So just know that the alien tech and the alien themselves are strange and mysterious and cool, but that this movie is about so much more.

If you liked Contact or even Inception (without the frustrating non-ending), you’ll love this.

Sage And Snow

Photo by Laura Stocking Cluff

Beaver Mountain Ski Resort To Open December 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BarJS3zVt-U

Teen Survives Crash In Canyon


William Baysinger driving through Logan Canyon hit a patch of black ice and overturned and slid into the icy waters of the Logan River.  Fortunately he was wearing his seatbelt and was rescued unharmed.

Short Term Rentals in Rich County

Anita Weston, reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  December 7. 2016.   Ben Willoughby, County Deputy Attorney, presented an ordinance to the Commissioners concerning short-term rentals.  He noted that he had done a lot of research on short-tern rentals that are currently being used in the State of Utah.  He looked into the ordinances used by Salt Lake City, Summit County, Park City, St. George, and Garden City.  All of theses ordinances require a business license and require that the license be renewed each year.  Also, some kind of oversight to protect neighbors was included that doesn’t overly burden owners.  Ben determined this ordinance is in line with all of these others, and is about 90 percent similar to Garden City’s. 

The definition of the term short-term rental is occupancy for less than 30 days and excludes such businesses as bed and breakfasts, and any other dwellings where the owners live on the premises.

The County would be using the Planning and Zoning Committee to issue the licenses and oversee all short-term rentals.  Emphasis was placed on maximum occupancy and parking that must be off any public roadways.

Occupancy would be determined by looking at two factors—square footage of sleeping area and the parking capacity.  One parking spot needs to be created for every six people.

Great detail went into the application form that will need to be completed by the owner.  It will require plans drawn to scale, liability insurance information, sales tax collection, contact information, inspections by the building inspector and fire chief, and so forth.

A $250 application license fee for the first year and a $150 fee for the second year forward were set.  This will allow the County to break even for expenses incurred in getting the program started.

Updating or any changes in a short-term rental such as remodeling, etc. must be reported to Planning and Zoning.  Posting of rules and needed information for guests should be posted within the short-term rental unit.    Prohibited activities should also be listed. 

Fire inspections and building inspections will be done on an annual basis. Unexpected inspections can also be carried out.  Notice of any violations should be sent to the building inspector, the county sheriff, and Planning and Zoning.

Penalties and how they are carried out was included.  A first violation will incur a warning.  A second violation will incur a $300 fine.  After the second violation, the fine will be increased to $500.  The fines will be paid to the County Clerk.  No licenses will be renewed if there are serious problems that arise. 

There will have to be some kind of increase in sanitation/garbage collection.  Currently, wherever there is a short-term rental, there is a tremendous increase in the amount of garbage that needs to be hauled away.

The Commissioners made a few suggestions to the ordinance and passed it with the corrections made.  A public hearing will be held concerning this issue at the first Commissioners’ meeting in February.



Rich County Commission

Anita Weston, reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  December 7, 2016.  Pat Argyle was on the Commissioners’ agenda.  However, there was confusion over the date, and she was unable to attend.  Nate Smoot with Epic Recreation had some issues with the Sanitation Department and was going to meet with the Commissioners on this issue.  However, he was able to work with the Sanitation Department to solve this problem.

Mitch Poulsen reported to the Commissioners about some grant monies that will be received.  He also asked the Commissioners to ratify the possibility of extending the bike path from Ideal Beach to Lady Bird Park.  The project will cost approximately 1.2 million dollars.  The County will put in $230,000 match in gravel to help build the path.  Mitch will head the project and will submit a letter of intent requesting that this project be moved forward.

There are three areas in the county (Benches, Eagle Spring, and Monte Cristo) that were originally zoned as agriculture. Eagle Spring was changed to be used for a planned community.   It needs to be rezoned back to agriculture.  There will need to be three hearings in order to make the requested changes.  The Commissioners accepted the Planning and Zoning recommendations to change Eagle Spring to an Agriculture 10 zone.  The other two will probably in the future also be changed back to agriculture.

David and Jill Mills appeared before the Commission to ask why they were charged such high taxes on their vacant lot.  Mr. Mills brought a list of several lots in the area that were sold for less than the appraised value of his lot.  He thought maybe the appraisal on his lot was too high, and he needed to know how to get it changed.  It was explained to him that several of the lots on his list were probably bankruptcy situations, repossessions, and/ or quick sales to divest the owners from such expense.  To find out the real market value, the lots must be sold in an arms length deal and not where people are just trying to get rid of their investment. 

The county appeals deadline for changing taxes was in October and the state appeals deadline was the end of November.  However, Mills was told that currently the County is reassessing quite a few areas on the west side of Bear Lake.  They asked  Mills to watch for his appraisal that should arrive around the first part of July.  At that time, if any appraisal changes have been made, they will be shown on that document.  However,  Mills was told that all of the lots in that particular area were all paying the same taxes on the undeveloped lots.

Reed Ernstrom appeared before the Commission.  He is the Director of Bear River Mental Health.  He presented the financial statements for the past year and what to expect for the coming year.  He congratulated the Commissioners for keeping the mental health budget in such good shape.  He noted that having a reserve is really a good thing and shows real responsibility.  The motion was made and passed to approve the Bear River Health Audit.

The Commissioners also held a budget hearing later in the day.