Provo Voice

Villages at Celebration

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:49:00 +0000

As expected, the project (Villages at Celebration - it's funny how not even the developer likes this name, he told us that Provo City gave it that name) is a go. The city council approved all 3 parts (annexation, and changing the zoning twice) last night.

I find it interesting several of the city council members (both from the stand and after it was done) addressed us saying we need to watch this project in the future, to make sure what was agreed upon tonight is really what happens in the future.

The two things I am most worried about is crime and traffic. Crime because they are building out in fields at the edge of town. The traffic, because I'm worried about the kids that walk and ride to school on the main road (the only road for a few years) to get to the development. I am so happy that they changed the size of the homes that will go next to me (they now have bigger lot sizes) and that they took all the town homes off the street with the school. However, the developer's traffic study said that once the whole thing is built, the development will have 25,000 vehicle trips a day, which is the same as 900 East (4 lane road). He told us this was the traffic projection once the whole project is built. I realize not all of this traffic will go on 1390 N., but a lot of it will, not to mention that the high school will be built just south of this development which will bring even more traffic (that wasn't studied) down this street also.

Now that they are moving forward with this, I hope that it is as grand as everyone claims it will be! I'm thrilled to have new neighbors across my street. Hopefully more youth will move in that are my kids ages! My older kids seem to be the oldest by far, in the streets around us.

West Side Development

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Tonight is supposed to be the final city council meeting about the Villages at Celebration development. The city council, all along has been in favor of this development, and I am sure they will pass it tonight.

The developer came up with a revised plan to try and make some of the people happy, which I am grateful that at least we were able to make some difference. I am happy with most of the changes. Please don't get me wrong, I think development is a good thing, as long as you do it right and I don't think that right now is the right time to be spending so much money on a project at the edge of town.

The parts that have irritated me, are how much everyone (the city council and neighborhood chair) seems to think there are so many people, who live here, that are in favor of this development. I have yet to hear more than a handful, but they keep telling me there are soo many out there. Many people have come to me saying they don't want this development at all. A few neighbors went around one night, just in the few streets right next to the development are were able to get 40 + signature to petition the development, 17 people emailed me saying they were opposed to this development right before the last city council meeting. About 16 people addressed the city council in opposition to the development at the city council meeting. Not to mention anyone that emailed their concerns over the development directly to the city council members and the mayor.

I realize that this development is a shoe in (read the following 2 messages).

From Cindy Clark (this was not sent to me, but forwarded on):
Sorry for the delay in contacting you. I understand the feelings that you have--I think I know your concerns--they are the ones that I would have too if my neighborhood was involved with this kind of development. I believe you are right when you say this will probably pass tonight. After discussing it and trying to come to grips with the issues on the westside, it seems that this will be the best opportunity for the right kind of growth that most of you living in the area will want eventually. Yes it will be expensive and the city needs to make sure the infrastructure will be there first. We've been assured it will-without it there could be no project. Hope to see you tonight. Allison, are you still willing to help Steve in your area?
Cindy Clark

-------------------

From Sherrie Hall Everett:

Dear Neighbors,

Many of you have been very involved in the ongoing discussions regarding the large planned development that is being proposed in our neighborhood. These discussions began prior to my being the Neighborhood Chair and prior to being elected to represent this District on the Council. After a long protracted process this issue is finally before the Council for a vote this evening.

Many of you have been very supportive over the years of creating a plan that allows the remaining land to develop in a way that makes sense and creates what I personally believe could be a real gem for our city. However, in recent months we have heard some opposition from a group of neighbors that do not want anything developed and want to preserve open space.

While open space would be great, there is not funding in the city to purchase property and keep the land in open space. The priorities of the city are far greater on essential services.

What you should know is that the majority of land owners support the annexation and planning process. There is no effort to end the opportunity to farm or maintain agricultural lands, only to plan for the future and avoid the kind of piecemeal development that has occurred typically on the West side of the city. This development will build out over the next 15-20 years and is a plan for how that development will occur. It is important to have this vision as part of the General Plan so that transportation, infrastructure and planning needs can be addressed. It is also important to have this plan articulated to help us work on funding for critical future road plans that increase connectivity and safety for our residents west of I-15. The School District is also very interested in this type of planning for them to anticipate the needs for elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in the city. Also without such plans, retailers will not consider providing shopping to the West side. They want to be able to look at demographics and rooftops in the overall plan before they will commit to come.

In an effort to alleviate concerns and help work toward a good outcome, I'm attaching the latest round of adjustments to accommodate the neighbors, closest to the development.

In the neighborhood meetings that I have led and also the ones led by Don Allphin, there has been an ongoing majority of support. It would be important to show the continued support of our neighborhood for this planning and forward-thinking effort. Please come tonight to Council and help represent the entire neighborhood on this important matter.

If for some reason you are unable to attend, please send your thoughts, comments, support via email to me.

Thank you for your interest,

Sherrie

-------------------

Cindy seems a bit patronizing, telling us that eventually we will want this (we just don't know it yet) and Sherrie doesn't seem to remember that the we had a neighborhood meeting where about 100 people were there and overwhelming (I'd guess 95%) were there because they completely disapproved of the project.

Oh well! I guess I'll be living in a construction zone for the next 15-20 years! I will add the new development plan to my google group site.

Yahoo!!!

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:20:00 +0000

The results aren't official yet, but the report for my precinct came in and I'm so happy to report that 219 people voted. Nice Job! Way to Go! I'm so glad that so many were willing to exercise their freedom today, with their right to vote!

:) I think that number will go up because provisional ballots aren't recorded yet. Early ballots might not be in that number either.

Check the Election Results

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:21:00 +0000

As the results come in tonight you will be able to view them at:
http://electionmap.provo.org/

GO VOTE TODAY

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Just a Reminder: Tuesday, September 15th is Provo’s Municipal Primary Elections. Please Go VOTE! Good Luck to all the candidates!

New this year – you must provide identification when you vote (valid ID includes a photo ID issued by the state or federal government, such as a Utah driver license or US passport; or two other forms of ID showing the voter’s name and address, such as a current utility bill or bank statement).

Following is a list of candidates pertaining Precincts Provo 20 & 24 (west of Geneva Road & north of the river) – also Precincts 31 & 23:

*PROVO MAYOR CANDIDATES*
* Don Allphin — www.donallphin.org
* Steve Clark – www.stephendclark.com
* Ammon S. Cunningham — provomayor2009.blogspot.com
* John Curtis — johncurtis.org
* Neil Mitchell — neilmitchellforprovomayor.com
* Andrew P. Thompson — 801-373-4834 (*WITHDRAWN*)

*PROVO CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES (CITYWIDE 1)*
* Laura Cabanilla – laura4provo.com
* Carl Mayo — carlmayo.com
* Coy Porter — www.coyforcouncil.com
* Howard Stone — www.howardstone.org
* Lindsey Wiblin — wiblin@cougar.netutah.net

For your information there are 2 candidates running for office from precinct 20 – Carl Mayo for City Council & Don Allphin for Mayor.

The primary election will whittle the field of candidates down to two candidates per open seat. The General Election will be Tuesday, November 3, so mark your calendars! Remember that federal law requires employers to allow employees time to vote.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Precincts 20 & 24 - vote at Lakeview Elementary (2899 W 1390 N), in empty classroom down the west hallway of the school (by kindergarten classes).Precinct 31 (east of Geneva Rd & north of 820 N) - vote at Westridge Elementary (1720 W 1460 N).
Precinct 23 (east of Geneva Rd, south of 820 N, and north of the river) – vote at Freedom Academy (1190 W 900 N).

If you have any questions about where your polling place is, visit the Lt Governor's site at: https://gva1.utah.gov/elections/polling.aspx

If you are not registered to vote, Please go to the following web address, print the form and send it in.You won’t be able to vote on September 15^th, but if you get it in by the deadlines you will be able to vote on November 3^rd.You must be 18 years old by November 3^rd to register. The last day to register by mail is October 5^th. The last day to register in person at the County Clerks Office is October 19^th. http://elections.utah.gov/VoterRegistrationForm.pdf

Villages at Celebration

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:57:00 +0000

There is a large amount of land that Provo City has asked a developer to make a concept plan, Specific Plan Development, as its called. This land is all part of Utah County (346.72 acres) and Provo wants to annex it. Part of the land is owned by Provo School District. Other land is owned by farmers, and the developer.

The Developer is Gardner, Plum & Associates. Apparently the city council really likes the work these guys do, so they want him to develop it. I along with many of my neighbors have been trying to fight it. Tomorrow night (September 1, at 7:p.m.) is the City Council meeting set to decide if it should go forward or not.

Here are all immediate problems I see with this development (it looks pretty on paper, for the most part, but here are some of the realities):

CRIME - This development would be out as far west as you can go at the north of Provo. The housing scheduled for the first 2 phases (which is all the developer's representative said they would build and leave it up to someone else to buy the land and build the rest) has already been approved, by the planning commission (which we felt like we were lied to about, because everyone kept saying it was a city council decision), to be smaller homes, on smaller lots, with the approval to have only 5 feet between each home - essentially adding 210 starter homes on skinnier streets. Also the only street in and out of the development (first 2 phases) would be lined with town homes. Police have told us that with higher density housing like this, our crime rates would go up, especially if it is tucked away in a corner like it is. Just last week a gang member tagged my neighbor's house. Can't imagine what they will do if this development gets to go forward.

SAFETY - This development (phases one and two = 200 homes) is only 1 block away from the Lakeview Elementary School. The street the school is on, is the only street that goes into this development. It's just a wide neighborhood street, not a major road. We already had a kid hit by a car last school year, just imagine adding 400 + more cars on this street.

COMPLETION - The developer's rep, has said that this entire plan is probably a 15 year project. I'm afraid that this will start like other projects and never get finished. They might get started, but that doesn't mean they won't stop at 3 years and not complete it. Or what many have done, is once the project is approved and they get the first few phases done, then they sell it and since it is already zoned for certain things it makes it easier for the new developer to make even more changes, that we might not like.

THE PLAN - Like I already mentioned basically what we are looking at is 200 started homes all wrapped up in a pretty bow. Everything else on the plan is not going to be built by this developer, according to their own spokesman. Every thing on the plan is likely to change since every step will need to be approved by the city council, so the new owners can come in with a different plan. This plan has already gone through some changes. They took out some of the green space, and a church, and added more houses. I'm sorry, but quality of life issues need to be addressed. Overall this plan would add around a 1400 houses. In that same amount of houses from west of I-15, from the river to 2000 N. there are 4 churches (3 LDS and 1 other).

Long term issues with this plan, if it goes through:

UNIVERSITY AVE. SIZE ROAD - The road through the middle of the plan is a University Ave. sized road, which is approx. 2 blocks west of the school. It really divides this development in half. If put in, it would also force the school district to have another situation like Provo High, where kids have to cross a major road to get to their ball fields. Which by the way, the developer's rep. told the planning commission that the school will just have to sell their land, if they won't do it that way, because they will lose.

INFRASTRUCTURE - As of right now, there is not an approved plan to even have water out to this development (except for the first 2 phases, because they put the pipes in just a few weeks ago, before the city council meetings). It's absurd that the city would approve a project before they even have funding or a way to get the basics down. This water project is a $18 million project, that they seem to think 200 homes are going to pay for the whole thing, because they said it wasn't going to cost any of us any money. I highly doubt that a project this expensive will never cost any other property owners a cent.

I'm out of time for now. As you can see there are many issues with this plan overall, and I haven't even hit half of them!

Planning Commission report with latest site plan (it's on the very last page, page 31):
http://provo.org/downloads/comdev/pc_staff_report_august_12_2009_-_item_1.pdf

Phases 1 & 2 is what they are planning to go ahead with right away (possibly phase 3 also). The orange lots are smaller than the Cobblestone homes across the street to the east. You have to zoom in, but you can see all the town homes along 1390 North and so on.

Upcoming Elections

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Apparently I took a summer hiatus! Now it's time to gear up for some up coming elections.

August 27, 2009 - election for county recorder and republican committees and legislative district officers (must be a central committee member to vote for this election). Candidates can be found here: http://utahcountygop.org/declared-candidates/

September 15, 2009 - primary election for non-partisan city races (mayor and citywide council member - also 2 districts). Candidates can be found here: http://provo.org/index.php?module=ibcms&fxn=elections.listofcandidates

November 3, 2009 - general election for non-partisan city races.

March 23, 2010 - precinct caucuses (Republican and Democratic parties)

Great Campaigning Info by LaVarr Webb

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:52:00 +0000

Tuesday Buzz
Written by LaVarr Webb & Associates

Four Phases of a Utah Campaign

Utah has a unique election system that is more complicated, and probably more difficult, than most state election processes. Candidates in intra-party contested races have to run four very intense and different campaigns, each with distinctive strategies and requirements. By election day, candidates who make it to the end feel they’ve run an exhausting, harrowing, political gauntlet – and they have. But the process forces a candidate to focus on both grassroots and mass media, and prepares a candidate for service.

Here are the four phases of an intra-party contested campaign:

1. From starting date (right now!) to Neighborhood Caucuses (March 23, in 2010). Objective: Get supporters to the party caucuses to win state delegate slots. Mount statewide grassroots organizational and communications effort to win support of likely caucus attendees, focused on opinion leaders, previous delegates, political insiders/activists, and new potential supporters. Requires hundreds of individual and small-group meetings, phone calls, numerous direct mail pieces to keep the buzz going, build coalitions, win support of opinion leaders and interest groups; run mini-campaigns in each voting precinct in the state. Maintain sophisticated database of all contacts, who’s for, against, and neutral. Build “dashboard” to track progress and “see-at-a-glance” progress. Use e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

2. Caucus Night to State Convention. Objective: Now that delegates have been selected, pursue their support with all manner of direct and indirect contact. Lots of small-group meetings, lunches, breakfasts, etc., with direct mail, e-mail, and phone calls. Develop county convention strategies, and prepare for state convention presentation and strategy. Update database/dashboard with all relevant info so proper data and intelligence is available at all times.

3. Convention to Primary Election. Objective: Extend reach to all Republican or De mocratic voters with broader communications/paid media. Still strong focus on grassroots. Figure out winning number (50% plus 1); target, target, target to reach them.

4. Primary to General Election. Objective: Finally, fight the candidate of the opposing party. Again figure out winning number and how to reach it. Target to make it happen.

April 28th Neighborhood Meetings

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:15:00 +0000

On April 28th we had 2 neighborhood meetings. One was the Lakeview Neighborhood and the second was the Neighborhood Watch. I have posted my notes about these meetings on my Google Group. If you are in my neighborhood, please sign up! There is a link on the sidebar. Look for My Lakeview Neighborhood Group.

2 Things that Bothered Me about the Convention

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:22:00 +0000

So now that the convention is over and done with and all disputes have been washed under the table, there are a couple of things that I hope never happen again.

The first one is just a irritation of mine, because of my trying to change a delegate. I was told that there is no way that I could change a delegate. I was told that it wouldn't be fair, the candidates wouldn't get the new delegates information in time and because they needed time to get the delegates credentials, among other reasons.

So why is it that Marian had a special meeting the morning of to approve her own appointments? There was no notice for the candidates, except for the meeting right before, if it was even mentioned there. Why were their credentials previously made up? Why can't you play by the rules? Why is there always so much secrecy? This is the stuff that I don't like about our party.

Here is the other thing that really irritates me. In the race for vice chair, the majority of the delegates at large did not know that Don Larsen was going to withdraw. Many had already voted on their ballots before convention even started. Largely in part, because not everyone had a pen and were asking to borrow one.

Don had a number of the votes. In fact, it was a large enough percentage that Mark did not win by 51%. Lowell only lost by 10 votes. It is my guess that if those delegates would have voted correctly that the race may have gone the other way. So delegates not voting properly is one issue, but the party should have acknowledged what had happened with the votes and issued a re-vote, or second ballot, since you had to win by 51%. But that would be too much work and "our guy" won anyway so let's just leave it. There was already a 2nd ballot printed, that we all had in our packets.

Again, I realize that nothing can be done about these things it's just irritating that so many of these things happen. And to think, these are just the ones I know about, how many others are there that I don't?

It is my hope that the new leadership will run things differently. That they will be more open, honest, and fair in their dealings. That they won't hold themselves to different rules than everyone else.

Vote for Lisa Shepherd

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:05:00 +0000

It's about time the delegates voted for Lisa. I don't think I know anyone who personally puts in so much time and effort into her political stuff. Finally, others are realizing it. Politics can be mean. Lisa has had many personal attacks against her. I'm sure that can not be easy. However, she just picks herself up and keeps plugging along. She knows the problems we have and wants to help find reasonable solutions to them. She ran a great campaign. She gave a great speech. She talked highly of the other men in all the county leadership races. She really deserved this win.

Initially there was going to be a multiple ballot for Lisa's race. They take 3 names, and then narrow it down to 2. We voted the first time, and awhile later we were told that we were not going to need our second ballot. This is because one candidate received over 50% of the vote. We were a bit nervous about it, but hoped for the best and she came out on top. It's quite an accomplishment to beat out the man who had "all of our elected officials support."

The other great thing, is that Lisa was also running for State Central Committee. There were 52 candidates. The first 20 people with the most votes would be on the committee. Out of all the candidates Lisa received the number one most votes.

Wow! What a great outcome for both races!!!

2009 Utah County Organizing Convention Results

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:59:00 +0000

This County Convention was all about electing new Republican party county leadership. Offices we voted on were chair, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer. We also elected State Central Committee Members.

Here are the results:

Chair:

Taylor Oldroyd 440 votes

Steven Diamond 391 votes

Vice Chair:

Mark Cluff 415 votes

Lowell Nelson 405 votes
Don Larsen withdrew during his speech

Secretary:

Lisa Shepherd 484 votes

Matt Thompson 307 votes
Keith Kuder 32 votes

Treasurer:

Lynn Taylor 592 votes

Ben Smith 236 votes

State Central Committee Members (top 20 are committee members):

1 Lisa Shepherd 477
2 Steven Diamond 467
3 Lowell Nelson 456
4 Matt Thompson 454
5 Marian Monnahan 447
6 Ben Smith 421
7 Lynn Taylor 404
8 John Valentine 395
9 Mike Thompson 333
10 Don Larsen 324
11 Sharon Storrs 324
12 Kip Meacham 308
13 Curt Bramble 302
14 Karen Valentine 301
15 Stan Lockhart 299
16 Susan Bramble 294
17 Becky Lockhart 290
18 Clayton Holbrook 286
19 Brian Jenkins 278
20 Jackie de Gaston 268
21 Linda Houskeeper 257
22 Heather Williamson 255
23 Dave Duncan 253
24 Ivan Keller 242
24 Poppy Moreno 242
26 Holly Richardson 239
27 Chris Herrod 230
28 Jay Morgan Philpot 227
29 Beverly Miner 221
30 Marc Roberts 216
31 Jed Morley 213
32 Steven Turley 210
33 Craig Frank 203
34 Kristen Chevrier 202
35 Jordan Gunderson 196
36 Adrielle Herring 190
37 Jim Proctor 188
38 Judy Keller 182
39 Bradley Reneer 178
40

Chad Bunn 174
41 Phil Peay 164
41 Hayden Williamson 164
43 Corey Norman 156
44 Sam Brand 153
45 Mike McGee 150
46 Delaina Tonks 142
47 Bruce Armstrong 140
47 Alan Lisonbee 140
49 David Starling 118
50 Nathan Rathbun 112
51 Wendy Hart 95

52 Mark Steele 84

see previous post for convention info & pics.

My Time at the 2009 Utah County Convention

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:55:00 +0000

It was a cold and rainy day! As you approached the doors of the school there weren't many signs outside. I got there fairly early. I had told Lisa Shepherd I would come and help pass out papers while she went to the candidate meeting. I walked around the candidates tables, then I grabbed some of Lisa's stuff and I parked myself by the front doors, along with many other people, to handout fliers and other miscellaneous campaign items.

At 7:30 a.m. it was time for Central Committee Meeting. This is for all precinct chairs and vice chairs. Commissioner Steve White chaired this meeting. We discussed 2 platform changes, one on family and another on immigration. With some adopted changes, they both passed.

Next, we had Senate District Sessions. Mark Madsen is my senator and he was not there. I can't say I was very happy about it. Maybe he had a good reason, but I didn't hear about it. We voted instead to listen to candidates from our district that were running for the State Central Committee. This proved to be a very useful and informative use of our time.

We then moved on to our Legislative Districts. We stood out in the hall for a very long time waiting, because the Senate District before us went over time. It was Margaret Dayton's district. Finally, we all came in and took a seat and Margaret proceeded to take up some of our time as well. Keith Grover is my legislator and he was there. He talked about legislator's lack of salary and the way to take care of ethics in the house is by voting every 2 years. He talked about the committees he is on and all the email, letters and house visits he receives from constituents. He said that this is not a permanent career from him and invited us all to come visit him in Salt Lake City, during the congressional session, and to spend time on the floor.

He opened the meeting up to questions, which was really nice. We discussed the I-15 project at various points, Provo Center Exchange, and Orem Center Street overpass, etc. We also talked about the Common Ground Initiative, Health Care coverage, The Autism Bill that didn't pass, and air pollution in Utah County.

On to the Convention...

Provo's Mayor, Lewis Billings, chaired this meeting. He did a great job.

Prayer, presentation of the colors, singing of the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance followed. This is what Mark Shurtleff, state Attorney General, twittered about the Pledge:
At Utah County GOP Convention. I have NEVER experienced a more powerful and moving Pledge of Allegiance!

It really was remarkable!
Next, we had a vote on if the candidates for county leadership should be allowed 5 minutes, instead of just 3 minutes, to talk. This was turned down.

Becky Lockhart, Rules chair, talked next. A motion to approve the rules was made and it passed. Later on we find out that doing this approved the meetings agenda. Pretty sneaky of them, since they knew many people were in opposition to the agenda and that there was going to be some talk on amending it.

Susan Bramble, credentials co-chair, said that out of the 1234 possible delegates (7 unfilled), 805 had checked in. This was 66% and constituted a quorum. [You have to have a quorum to vote on anything.] The number of delegates that checked in is not the final count.

Phill Peay gave the treasurer's report. He said that the party has $44,988.25 and a postal credit of $856.83. He said that the post office box and insurance are paid until 2010. Accounts receivable were $27,500 and I believe he said most of this comes from the Lincoln Day Dinner.

Garr Judd, auditor, made a motion to accept the audit and it passed.

Marian Monnahan, county party chair, spoke next. She talked about the $54,000 that the party gave to the Utah County PAC, which she said made another $50,000. [This Utah County PAC is always a topic of controversy.] She talked about how the penny is actually called a "one cent" coin. She talked about the balance of email and privacy. [This has been highly controversially the past year or so.] She hopes that this will continue to be the best run and most successful county in our state and said, "Ask not what the party can do for you, but what can you do for the party?"

Next up Clayton Holbrook asked for an agenda amendment. This is where we found out that unknown to all of us we had already accepted the agenda. There was a lot of booing. However, we still had some debate on it. Clayton wanted the County Party Leadership races to be voted on before the State Central Committee. Which completely makes sense. Why they wanted to do it the other way is beyond me. We needed a 2/3 vote to pass it. There was discussion back and forth about it. The reason for the request is because we get to vote for up to 20 people. The County party chair and vice chair are automatic Central Committee members. So delegates felt like they might be wasting 2 of their votes if they voted for one of the winners of those 2 races. Curt Bramble requested that we amend the rules to vote for 22 instead. He couldn't do this because it was out of order, we weren't discussing the rules, just the agenda. After all this discussion it was essential turned down.

[Senator John Valentine was Parliamentarian]

However, another man got up and made a new agenda amendment. I can't remember how he worded it, but it was essentially asking for the same thing, to move the County Office elections to now. This passed! I guess it's all the way you say it!!!

Ideally the way this should have gone, is we had all the opening and party report items. Next, vote on County Leadership. Following the vote, the elected state representatives should have spoken. They were supposed to be going to the Salt Lake County Convention following ours. This would have allowed them to get up there sooner. Why are the conventions even on the same day? After that, we should have elected the State Central Committee, because we could have had the results of the county leadership by then. But of course, this is not how it went.

So we listened to each of the candidates for county party leadership.
Taylor Oldroyd, Steve Diamond, Lowell Nelson, Don Larson, Mark Cluff, Matt Thompson, Keith Kuder, Lisa Shepherd, Lynn Taylor, and Ben Smith.

The speeches were interesting. They were only allowed 3 minutes. Don Larson withdrew himself when he got up to speak. Keith Kuder railed on the Brambles, which lead to Curt talking to him on stage and continuing in their seats after they were asked to sit down. Matt Thompson had Margaret Dayton talk about him, which I think if anyone was still wondering about who to vote for, knew after listening to her, that it was not going to be him. Taylor 's wife and kids came up to the front and stood there at the end of his speech. After he was done all the kids left except one little girl who was watching her daddy. It was adorable. I think it scared her when she realized that she had been left behind.

Then we voted. We were told that because there were 3 people in the secretary race we might need our second ballot. The only reason we wouldn't is if one candidate got more than 51% of the vote.
Chris Cannon was given the Ronald Regan award and spoke.
Next, came the introductions of the 52 candidates for State Central Committee. Their names were read off and they marched across the front of the stage.

Then we voted. Both times we placed our votes in taped up cardboard boxes.

Here is Chris & I waiting for the all the ballots to be collected and for the meeting to continue. Mayor Billings had to ask several times for everyone to take their seats and ended up having to go over to legislators on the stage and ask them again to take their seats.
LauraLyn Eberting talked about the platform and if anyone wants to make changes they should submit their requests to their precinct chair. She talked about the 2 changes that were adopted earlier in the Central Committee Meeting. We then voted to either ratify or reject the changes and not discuss them at all. They were both ratified.
Our elected officials now had the floor...
Gary Herbert said our state is in good shape. Governor Huntsman took $1.1 billion out of the state budget. Utah has been recognized as the best managed state. Forbes said Utah is the best place in America to do business. Utah was also recognized as the best state poised for economic recovery. Republicans hold every main office. He said, "traditional family is the bedrock of our society." He also mentioned - principles are the important thing. Principles are what guide us.

Mark Shurtleff thanked everyone for their prayers and support. He mentioned his thoughts on hearing the Pledge of Allegiance. He said that the #1 problem in our state is prescription drug abuse. He talked about SB81 and his Attorney General Strike Force against criminal illegal aliens. The said, "Utah's Constitution prohibits same sex legal unions - PERIOD." He also talked about state directory to protect your email and cell phones from adult oriented solicitations. It is @ https://www.utahkidsregistry.com/ He talked about the Tea Parties. Nancy Pelosi was calling those who went "dupes" and how President Obama claimed he was unaware of them (the parties). He goes on to say just like how he was unaware of the AIG bonuses, that 5 of his cabinet members weren't paying their taxes, or for 20 years was unaware of his pastor. He talked of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Quoted Cleon Skousen and Longfellow. I liked his closing statement about rising up the purple majesty, rolling across the plains and crashing down on the current administration.
Stan Lockhart - He mentioned that it wasn't until 1996 that all the offices in Utah County were Republican. The said that the party chairs is responsible for 3 things. 1) to make sure Republicans are elected. 2) to organize the party 3) to raise money. He said it's the grassroots that make the party not the administration. He told the new leadership that the standard is not perfection, just the best that they can. He also told them to understand that it is difficult and to keep a good attitude. He talked about how the legislators hit a brickwall when it came to I-15. They were told they would only bond for it if the legislators agreed to raise taxes. Legislators said no. They eventually worked out a compromise of a small vehicle fee increase.
Jason Chaffetz stared with, "Welcome fellow terrorists." He talked about recently going to IRAQ. He said that we should be of more service. He also said that we should thank, help and support our troops. We need to do more to take care of those men and women who take care of us. He also said he wouldn't support a president that apologizes for being a military and economic superpower during his stops around the world. His speech was short and sweet. He got a standing ovation and lots of applause.
Bob Bennett - He said that there are 2 fun things to do at convention. 1) to be a cheerleader, to be proud to be an American, that it's OK to be American. 2) to be a truth teller. He said we already had cheerleaders today, so he was going to be a truth teller. He said that this week is the 1st time in 5 years that polls show Americans feel that America is on the right track - 80-90%. He said American's really like their attractive, new president. He said all we have to do is be smarter than Barrack Obama. He talked about General Washington and the Continental Army and how he looked for points of weakness to win. He said that we need to be careful about finding the right battles to win. People will lose their love affair with attractive, young president.
Orrin Hatch talked about how he is "fighting his guts out to have 41 senators [Republican senators for US Senate]." He said it is hard not to like Obama, but they are running us into bankruptcy. This administration spends, borrows and taxes too much. He talked about how the House can push anything through, but it stops in the Senate. They want to limit spending to 20% of GDP. Right now it is 28% going to 38%. He said that Obama is pushing the wrong programs. He said that he is the longest member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and when they release papers people will think that they had the wrong impression of George W. Bush. He said George W. Bush could have used his veto pen more. He said there has never been one single day where physical conservatives were the majority of any one body of congress. Republicans aren't just dreamers, we are doers. It's going to take all of us to make change and for our dream to come true.

Awards & Such

Marian gave a gift certificate to one of the leg. chairs and a "Bush Souvenir" and gift certificate to Lewis Billings.

Mayor Billings said Marian has served 8 years as chair and that is the longest anyone has served in that position. She was given a flag.

Marian gave Susan Bramble one of the Republican logos that apparently Mayor Billings and family made some time ago.
Susan Bramble came and gave the final credentials report: 847 for 69%
7 spots not filled, 380 didn't check in. Someone earlier had mentioned that they only thought 420 would come. We doubled their expectation.

Next, there was a proposed resolution that needed to be discussed. The declared that we still had enough people there for a quorum so they went ahead. Don Larsen wrote the proposal. He said we must support the Rule of Law and the Constitution. The resolution failed. A division was called. They did it visually, not an actual count. It failed.

They announced the winners of the county party leadership, but they didn't have the results of the state central committee by the time it was over.

Results can be found here: http://provovoice.blogspot.com/2009/04/2009-utah-county-organizing-convention.html

Lakeview Neighborhood Watch Meeting

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:07:00 +0000

Here is the information (from Lawrence Law our Neighborhood Watch Chair) for the upcoming Neighborhood Meeting:

Lakeview Neighborhood Watch Meeting for all neighborhood people.

Meeting date: April 28th
Meeting time: 7:30 to 9:p.m.
Place: Lakeview Elementary School Gym

Agenda:

1- Lawrence- welcome, prayer, flag ceremony, introductions of leadership. (Cluff get scouts for flag ceremony.)

2- Deena- short synopsis of last meeting. Update on what has happened since last meeting.

3- Neighborhood chair introductions by self. Don Allphin and Kevin Garver

4- Sgt. Jensen give update report on recent crime in area, stressing ongoing need for vigilance.

5- 2 min. District Reports with DL, ADL and Sec. of each district up front so people know them.

6- McGruff home update. PTA pres? How are homes chosen and filtered? Quota? 3 Step process- background check by police, check with bishops, neighbor concerns?

7- Deena- give contact information, talk about street team responsibilities and phone tree.

8- Jim Campbell- training on street patrols

9- 5-10 min district huddles (overview of purpose, possibility of BBW, upcoming meeting, patrols?)

10- Lawrence- thank you, retire flag, closing prayer.

We are asking for a donation to cover costs of the neighborhood watch program. We are recommending a minimum $5 per family or home to defray costs such as McGruff House program dues, flyers, paperwork, etc. We will be reporting costs and where the money is being used. No one is profiting from these funds and will be used sparingly. Please be thoughtful and donate generously.

So far we have spent $220 for paper, pens, staples, copies, posterboard

We have over 1200 homes in our Neighborhood Watch boundaries and every family needs to be represented. Please come support the safety and beauty of our neighborhood.

Provo TEA Party

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Provo’s Tax Day TEA Party - Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I applaud David Kirkham (co president of Kirkham Motor Sports) for hosting such a spectacular TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party. What a great turn out, could easily have been 1000 people there. It was really something. I also applaud all the people who came out to make a stand on such a miserable weather day. The silent majority was not silent today!!!

(I apologize for the bad pictures and any name misspellings, etc.)

The party started just after 5:p.m. I am not sure what time it ended because I had to leave at 6:40 p.m. to be to another meeting at 7:p.m.

Brianne Nelson, the daughter of Provo City’s Library director, sang the National Anthem. It was stunning and beautiful.

David introduced each speaker and spoke a bit between each.

1^st up was House Representative, Jason Chaffetz. It’s always fun to listen to him speak.

David spoke a bit next. He talked about how he organized the first Tea Party in Utah on March 6^th in Salt Lake City. Among other things, he mentioned the instapundit site (www.instapundit.com). I really liked David. I wished that he would run for some type of public office. I think that he would be great.

Mayor Lewis Billings spoke next. He said that Provo City was in its fourth rounds of budget cuts. He also said that the government should be more like those of old with the motto of fix it up, make it do, or do without. He said that “CHANGE is all we have left.”

Margaret Dayton spoke next. She spoke of if there is a decision between government brains and private brains, private brains should always win. She talked about how she wanted to opt out of the No Child Left Behind program. She asked for a raise of hands for how many people were first time protesters. It was well over half.

David Kirkham talked about how one time he was in Poland at the factory that was building the body of his cars. He said that the factory had it’s lights off. Men were in there working with machinery without any lights. He said that is what happens with Socialism. He said, “I don’t want my children to grow up with that.”

David had a child come up with the sign he was holding. The sign said “I owe 12 trillion dollars.”

Nick Kirkham, David’s 12 year old son, gave an amazing speech. He read an essay he had written. It moved me to tears. He talked about a conversation he had with his father about John Revere and talked about driving a cobra through town yelling, "the Socialists are coming." He asked if you were a Republican to raise your hand. He then asked if you were a Democrat to raise your hand. He then told us we were all liars – we are all AMERICANS!!!

Chris Herrod spoke next. He said that Socialism destroys the soul. He said that Obama’s change is just old philosophy that has failed time and time again. He talked about how Glenn Beck says power rests in WE the PEOPLE. He also quoted Ezra Taft Benson. It was a great quote, wished I had it to share with you.

David mentioned many times how he turned down people to speak at this event. He said his purpose for holding these events was to effect change in the 2010 elections.

John Dougall was next. He said our agreeing to debt today is taxing our children. He talked about how Patrick Henry said, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death,” but now it is “Give me Liberty or Bail me Out.”

David said we left Europe once already, why are we headed back? He said that there were 13 Tea Parties in Utah.

Francis Gibson spoke about getting involved. If we get involved we can make change. We each needed to tell 5 people about our opinions and to get them involved also.

David talked about our need of economic freedom.

Brad Daw said, “Where is this global warming?” (Did I forget to mention there was snow on the ground and it was raining and cold?) He reminded us that our rights don’t come from Washington, but from a higher source. They are God given. He said our federal government shouldn’t dictate to us, we should dictate to them.

David - Socialism is trickled down disappointment.

Jess Jones, a college student, spoke.

Ken Ivory said that 93% of the bailout went to only 25 companies. He talked about the “Big Stick Tea Party.” This will be an event when 1000 tea bags will be hand delivered to all 535 members of congress. Accompanying the bags will be a video called the “Big Lie.” The purpose is to stop future government bailouts. (http://www.ourcaucus.com/BigStick.html)

Senator Valentine spoke and pointed out that we are a silent majority no more!

David read one of the signs – “Extinction is Forever, Save the Tax Payer.” David told a story of his friend Tiffany whose husband recently died of cancer. When trying to get financial help for their medical bills it was recommended to them to get divorced, because then Tiffany could go make some money. At the time, the government had them sucked into their system and only allowed them to make $200 (two hundred, didn’t want you to think I wrote it wrong!) a month.

Ruth spoke about 912. Glenn Beck first started it. The purpose of the Utah 912 Project (utah912.com) is to unite with other Americans who share the values practiced by our founding fathers; to study, uphold, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; and to take action to hold our elected officials accountable for the oaths they have sworn. Glenn came up with 9 principles and 12 values to bring us back to that time of September 12^th where we all stood united. United We Stand. Change takes place in our neighborhoods.

David’s neighbor, Simon Jester, spoke next. He recited the 4th verse to the Star Spangled Banner. (You must read his comment to this post!)

“Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

Brianne sang another song, Power of a Dream.

David read another sign, “Revoke Congress’ VISA”

This is when I had to leave…

There were people standing on the sidewalk along University Ave getting people driving by to honk their horns the entire time. It was great!

Trying to change my Appointment

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:13:00 +0000

I can see why people get really frustrated with politics. I can see even more now why people hate local politics. People are just plain mean. Although this does not relate much about what I'm going to write next, it's just something I have noticed and witnessed since I wrote one silly blog post a few days ago!

As you may have read before, my precinct's vice chair resigned. I have been under the impression that to be elected to your precinct as chair, vice chair, or a delegate, it was your number one responsibility to represent your precinct and attend convention so that you can vote. It is completely irresponsible to not do this. Having said this, it is every precinct's right to have representation. They should be allowed the full number of delegates to vote in their behalf. This is why in the case of a death, resignation, or when a delegate moves, the precinct chair is allowed to appoint someone else in their place. This is a responsibility of the precinct chair to make sure that their precinct has full representation.

Right now convention is in 9 days. Having someone appointed means that their biggest responsibility is to go to convention. It is hard to find someone with nearly a full free Saturday to go. I have been asked to publish who I asked, but I feel like that is completely unfair to those people. They did not ask me to ask them to be vice chair.

Let me tell you what happened this week. One of the people I called was the lady that originally had been voted in as vice chair at my precinct's caucus last year. She had to resign because her daughter had a dance competition out of town that she had to attend the Saturday of last years convention. It was unfortunate. She finally got back to me on Tuesday, 4 days after the deadline. She was actually my first choice since she was originally voted in by the precinct members. I told her that the deadline had passed. If only she had called 4 days earlier! I would have changed my appointment. It makes way more sense that someone who was voted in take the position, over someone I had appointed.

I didn't think much of it until I had looked online noticed that Salt Lake's convention is on the same day as ours and they didn't have to have their changes in until this coming Friday, a whole week after our deadline. I made a few phone calls and sent an email to Marian Monnahan, Mark Cluff, and Susie Bramble asking if I could make the change, stating the background of the situation and Salt Lake's deadline. I didn't hear back.

I called Susie Bramble and she said that it was Marian's decision to make. She said that Marian had already sent a reply and gave me Marian's phone number. She told me that Marian won't do it because there would be about 6 other changes she would have to make. I'm thinking that 6 changes out of 1200 delegates with 9 days to go would be quite doable. I called Marian and left a message. She called me back. She said that she had sent the email, which I never got, but I believe that she sent it, Susie had gotten it. She declined to make a change for me, stating if she did it for me, it would open the door to do it for others.

Really I find it outrageous. I know you have to have order, and you have to have deadlines, but by no means do they have to be so strict that you would rather have someone I appoint vs. someone that the people voted for be a delegate. They make exceptions and changes for things all the time, even at convention. I just thought that this would be a no brainer, especially since they are all so upset over the appointment I had made. Personally, I would be happy to have either one of those fine ladies be the vice chair.

Tax Day Tea Party in Utah - April 15th

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:05:00 +0000

You probably already know all about the Tax Day Tea Parties being held all around the country this coming Wednesday. In fact, there are even parties scheduled in other countries!

The purpose of this grassroots effort is to take America Back with the theme of: Repeal the Pork, Cut Taxes and Spending.

TEA = Taxed Enough Already

It's a tax revolt. Just think back to your history classes and the Boston Tea Party.

Here is the info from www.teapartyday.com:

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
want government controlled health care?
want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

If so, participate in the TAX Day TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.

Bring your cell phone and call Congress and the president while attending the TAX Day TEA party rally (Representative and Senators, 202-224-3121; President, 202-456-1414). Tell Every American about this effort by forwarding this invitation to your friends. Together we can make a difference.

Utah's Scheduled Tea Parties:

Noon - Salt Lake City - Federal Plaza - 125 South State
5:p.m. - Provo - Old Utah County Courthouse - SE corner of Center & University

Utah County Organizing Convention Time Schdule

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Utah County Organizing Convention

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Canyon View Jr. High School
655 East 950 North, Orem

6:30 am - Check-in Desk opens - must bring ID
7:00 am - Candidate Meeting - for candidates only
7:30 am - Central Committee Meeting - meeting for precinct chairs and vice chairs, etc.
8:00 am - Senate District Meetings - break out into Senate Districts
8:40 am - Legislative District Meetings - break out into Leg. Districts
9:30 am - Convention Starts - voting of County Party Leadership

All Candidates are In

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:27:00 +0000

The deadline for filing for Utah County Republican Party Leadership positions is past. I have listed all those that are running for the different offices in a previous post. For the current list please visit: http://provovoice.blogspot.com/2009/04/2009-utah-county-convention.html

Bramble Ambush

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Curt Bramble and his wife, Susan, came to the open-to-all-candidates open house (Lynn Taylor & Lisa Shepherd were the only two that came) . Susan is the current Utah County Republican Party Secretary and Curt is the current State Senate Majority Leader.

I felt really bad. My precinct's vice chair resigned. As precinct chair it is my responsibility to appoint a new vice chair. I had just over a month to find someone. I had no idea it was going to be so hard. The biggest problem was finding someone who was available the Saturday of Convention. There are plenty of people who would have agreed if their schedule would have allowed. I went back on my notes from the caucus meeting and found someone who had attended, ran for a position, and would be able to come to convention. So I appointed Olivia Shepherd, who happens to be an adult daughter of Lisa Shepherd.

However, I had no idea that this would be a cause of contention with Curt. He asked a very pointed question to Lisa referring to this matter. I couldn't even believe it! He and Susie both said that he doesn't look over the lists until she makes them public. These lists were not public at the time of this open house (24 hours after the deadline of getting the changes in), so he should not have even known about this. I apologize in anyway for making this process any harder for Lisa.

*** Just after 10:a.m. this morning, Curt Bramble called to clarify a few things. I had a pleasant conversation with him. He informed me that his wife, Susie, had not given him the new list and he had no idea, at the time of the open house, that Olivia had been appointed. He said that Susie had only made a comment to him that Lisa had sent over a list of 10+ people that had been appointed in her district, he did not know who they were exactly. I apologize for assuming that he had access to something he did not, though it does seem like he had a heads up by the comment his wife made.

He said that since there were so few people there (which is true) that it wasn't a public meeting and he did have a few things that he was going to ask Lisa in private, but decided to do it openly. They were really aggressive questions that seemed like it would have been more appropriate had he stuck to his originally plan and asked them privately.

He made mention of myself and another lady being in favor of Lisa, who were in attendance. For myself, I can say that is true, but should clarify that Lisa did not know I was coming to the meeting and I did not know that the other mentioned lady was coming either. I had come to hear from Lynn and any other candidates who might show up (originally there had been at least one other who said he was going to be there).

*** A second phone call was made by Curt, but that was only to remove some sensitive security information to a future event. With completely understanding, I immediately removed the information.

Open Houses

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:03:00 +0000

The Utah County Republican Convention is soon approaching. Candidates for Utah County Party's Leadership have been holding open houses so the delegates can get to know the candidates and often times ask questions. Lynn Taylor (running for treasurer) and Lisa Shepherd (running for secretary) held a joint one this past Saturday. It was one I could actually go to, my hectic schedule prevents me from going to most of them.

Lynn seems like a very nice, intelligent man. He is retired from the Air Force. You can get online and read about him @ lynntaylor.wordpress.com. I liked that he would want to make the Party more transparent. That he would want to place all the financial statements online on a restructured easy to navigate Party website. I also really liked that he wants to place the proposed by-law and constitution changes on a forum so that they can get debated long before we ever go to vote on them. I find this extremely beneficial.

The last special session we had we were voting on changing the appointed Education Officer to be elected. Lisa Shepherd was given a whole 2 minutes to make her case. This is not enough time. Neither was it very fair. From what I was told, Lisa was told be prepare a 7 minute presentation, one minute before she got up to present they changed it to only 2 minutes. Now if this had been available online in a forum, we could have read the arguments for and against. We could have been better educated as to why people felt that way. Personally I think that Lisa got steamrolled. Of course, the party leadership did not want the education officer appointed. They want to stay in control of as much as they can.

Lisa has been actively involved in our county politics for a long time. She has also worked on several campaigns. She is also very nice and intelligent. You can read about her online @ web.me.com/lisamshepherd. One of the things I really liked about Lisa is that she would want to credential everyone for our central committee meetings. She would propose to use the precinct secretaries to do this.

I think that this would be really beneficial. The last Central Committee Meeting (not the special session) was held at the Provo City Council Chambers. At the time of voting it was standing room only. Problem being, is that some of the people in the room weren't even Central Committee members. As a delegate I could see how easy it was for someone to stand and be counted, even if they didn't have the right to do so. It was kind of a mess (not surprising right!!!).

I also liked that Lynn and Lisa both agreed that we should have an agenda at our committee meetings. Every meeting I ever go to has an agenda, be it for school, church, community, etc. I'm not sure why the party feels like they are exempt from this. I think it's common courtesy to give everyone an agenda. The current party leadership is afraid of technology for some reason, so you would think handing a piece of paper to everyone would be right up their alley.

Lisa also mentioned that she would want more money to go to rallying republicans to party meetings. I know its hard for the leadership to think that we need more voters out in Utah County. I think that they are afraid that we will lose our stronghold. I think that they should have more faith in our party. They should quit treating us like we don't know what is good for us. I think more people would get involved if they weren't treated so bad from the beginning. I don't know what they spent their money on, apparently they did to try and get more people out, but I didn't see it in my neighborhood. I would hope that they would do something on a more local level, since it is our Utah County Party that the money would come from, so why not use it locally?

Spring Clean UP!

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:09:00 +0000

There is a change this year to the normal Provo City Cleanup.
This year the dumpsters will only be at one location, 430 North 500 West (North Park).

The details are below:

Spring Cleanup
March 23 - May 2, 2009

Get rid of your unwanted "stuff" during Spring Cleanup 2009. This year there will be dumpsters for trash, yard waste and metals at only one location for six weeks:

March 23 - May 2
430 North 500 West (North Park)
Monday - Saturday (dumpsters will be available until 3 pm on Saturdays)

Unacceptable Items
Please do not dump rocks, tires, concrete, tree stumps or pesticides in the dumpsters. For more disposal information call 852-6714. Or... some of these items may be taken to the demolition landfill in Lindon. Please call them to see what items they will accept at 225-8170.

Hours of Operation
Dumpsters will be at the designated locations Monday - Saturday. The hours the containers will be available are: Mondays - Fridays 8 am - 6 pm; and Saturdays 8 am - 3 pm. Please note that all locations will be closed nightly at 6 pm and that it is unlawful to leave items on the ground at any of the area locations.

Compost Station
The city has developed a very successful recycling program that makes beneficial use of yard waste items such as grass clippings, tree and shrubbery trimmings, weeds, leaves, etc. We encourage all residents to bring their organic yard waste to the compost station located at 1625 South Industrial Parkway. There is no charge for city residents to bring secured loads into the station. The Compost station hours are: 8 am - 6 pm Monday - Saturday (Spring, Summer, & Fall).

Transfer Station
Provo City residents who would like to take debris directly to the transfer station in Springville may do so free of charge, with coupon, during business hours from March 24 - May 3. The coupon was mailed to each residence during February in the Mayor’s Update. The transfer station does not accept rocks, concrete, large stumps, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners or hazardous waste. If you have a question about your load, please call the station at 489-3027 or the Provo City Sanitation Department at 852-6714. All loads to the transfer station must be covered to avoid a $4.00 tarp fee.

2009 Utah County Convention

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

County Convention is coming up. This is an organizing year, which means that we (county delegates, nominated at neighborhood caucuses or appointed by party leadership) will be voting on Utah County Republican Party Leadership instead of State Representatives.

Positions that we will be voting on:

Chairman
Vice-Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
State Central Committee

Those that are running :

Chairman

Taylor Oldroyd

469 E 3125 N

Provo, UT 84604

801-404-8635

taylor@ucaor.com

Steven Diamond

1910 Terrace Dr.

Orem, UT 84097

801-830-2400

steve@stevencdiamond.com

www.diamond4chairman.com

Vice-Chairman

Paul Overson

326 S 650 E

Orem, UT 84097

801-223-9981

phoverson@msn.com

Mark Cluff

645 Hubbard Circle

Alpine, UT 84004

801-368-6695

markcluff@comcast.net

www.markcluff.com

Don Larsen

45 N 1360 E

Springville, UT 84663

801-489-4186

ledgedistd@msn.com

Lowell Nelson

11167 N 5700 W

Highland, UT 84003

801-763-8056

Lowell@netdocuments.com

Secretary

Matt Thompson

85 N 800 W

Provo, UT 84601

801-804-0426

mthompson@broadweave.net

www.mthompson.info

Keith Kuder

477 W 1200 S

Orem, UT 84058

keith4secretary@gmail.com

www.KeithforSecretary.com

Lisa Shepherd

895 N 2550 W

Provo, UT 84601

801-787-8211

lisamshepherd@aol.com

web.me.com/lisamshepherd/

Treasurer

Ben Smith

1378 Sageberry Dr.

Santaquin, UT 84655

801-754-1780 H

801-856-1558 C

Ben4liberty@gmail.com

www.Voteben.us

Corey Norman

926 W 800 N

Mapleton, UT 84664

801-380-6921

ironmancorey@gmail.com

Lynn Taylor

1195 N 730 E

Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

801-602-3914

lynntaylor0@gmail.com

lynntaylor.wordpress.com

State Central Committee

Mark Steele

Don Larsen

Marian Monnahan

Corey Norman

Curt Bramble

Susan Bramble

Stan Lockhart

Becky Lockhart

Ben Smith

Clayton Holbrook

Lowell Nelson

Adrielle Herring

Phil Peay

Chad Bunn

Mark Cluff

Lisa Shepherd

Taylor Oldroyd

Matt Thompson

Jay Morgan Philpot

Craig Frank

David Starling

Kristen Chevrier

John Valentine

Karen Valentine

Delaina Tonks

Lynn Taylor

Ivan Keller

Judy Keller

Holly Richardson

Chris Herrod

Steven Diamond

Kip Meacham

Linda Houskeeper

Bruce Armstrong

Poppy Moreno

Sam Brand

Brian Jenkins

Mike Thompson

Mike McGee

Jordan Gunderson

Sharon Storrs

Bradley Reneer

Alan Lisonbee

Jed Morley

Marc Roberts

Steven Turley

Beverly Miner

Dave Duncan

Nathan Rathbun

Wendy Hart

Neighborhood Watch Organizing Meeting

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:12:00 +0000

My notes from the Lakeview Neighborhood Watch Organizing Meeting, Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The area covered in the Lakeview Neighborhood Watch is basically the Lakeview Elementary School boundaries. The area is then divided into districts: North, Northwest, East, Central, Southwest, and South. I took some pictures of the map. They didn’t turn out well at all, but you can get the idea and see what area you are in. (see end of post for zoomed in pics)
Attendance: I counted over 70 people at the beginning of the meeting, but people kept coming in. If I had to guess, I would think 90-100 people were there.

Recent major crimes in our area: Drive-by shooting (drug related), Amelia Earhart was broken into yesterday (Monday, March 23) and several thousands of dollars of equipment were stolen (complete computer labs, etc.).

Officer Jensen spoke to us and answered some questions. He is the Police officer over our neighborhood. The following items are all things that he talked about.

He talked about the importance of our neighbor taking down a license plate number and calling in the drive-by shooting and offered a round of applause for him.

Provo City currently has 8 patrol cars out on the day shift, 9-10 on the swing shift, and 7-8 on graveyard.

Criminals look for the weakest, easy targets (people, cars, homes, etc.).

Make your home a hard target. Things you can do: light it up (keep your outside lights on all night), remove bushes that block the view from your front door, make sure your windows are locked, have solid core front doors, make sure you have a deadbolt lock that goes at least 1” into the wall, make sure your door hinges are screwed into a stud, and make sure you don’t have property left around your yard (bikes, especially ladders that can be used to access higher windows, etc.). Get an operating home security system.

Make your car a hard target by using the car alarm (red blinking light will stay on). Vehicles that are broken into usually have something valuable in sight.

Take inventory of all your property. This includes all the serial #’s for everything. Keep it in one book. Better yet, use a binder and include photos of your items, house, rooms, cars, etc. Pawn shops are required to enter data (serial #s). So if your item is stolen and you have a serial number the likelihood of finding your property goes way up.

Time of day most crimes happen – Thefts are late at night and assaults are random.

Crimes on the river trail are mostly graffiti and some lewdness up in the neighborhoods.

How bad is our area? It goes in spurts. We are a good community. We are in the middle, there are worse areas of town and there are better areas of town.

Other issues for our area: graffiti and street racing.

Graffiti should always be called in (801-85-CRIME). Graffiti is usually done by two types of people (taggers) – the artist type and gangs. The artsy ones will paint pictures usually to show off their work. Gangs are usually 3’x3’ sections tagging their gang name. These are usually done by youth in our own area. The best sign of knowing if your child is involved in this is to check their hands. Taggers always get paint on their hands. The other thing is to check their notebooks. Taggers often practice (doodle) their designs before they paint them.

Gangs in Provo include (there are several others): PBL, RJ, ABG, LBZ, STG. These gangs do not have borders and some have been around for 5-6 years. They do have colors for instance PBL is red and RJ blue. They don’t necessarily wear the colors all the time, but if they are going to the mall to hang out on a Friday night they most likely would.

Recently there was a gang fight at the mall (Provo Towne Center) involving 4 members from one gang and 6 from another. That night 1 was arrested. Officer Whatcott worked on this and 3 others were arrested later. The mall is not considered a known “hangout” for the gangs. It just happens to be a place that youth like to be.

Street Racing is also a problem for our area. If you see it happening please call it in. Most likely the officers won’t be able to do anything, but you might get lucky and have an officer already in the area. Also calling it in provides a record of the problem. Speed bumps are not something that Provo City will allow. All Provo City’s residential areas have a speed limit of 25 mph unless otherwise stated. We can put up signs on the side of the road. Officer Jensen has a bait car that he leaves out on the roads, this seems to help.

He said that we need to take care of our own neighborhoods. We need to keep our yards well kept. We need to obey city parking laws (cars must fit on your driveway). These help keep our neighborhoods safe and as a bonus, keeps our property values up. Parents need to watch their children. Crime in our area is mostly done by people in our area and not necessarily gang affiliated. Parents should check their kids’ backpacks, bedrooms, and sketch books. We need to obey noise ordinances. 7:am – 10:pm has a higher decibel allowance. If a noise is highly irritating or wakes you from a dead sleep call it in.

We will have a safer neighborhood if we will stand together vs standing alone. Adults taking walks at night is another thing we can do to deter crime. We need to know our neighbors and the vehicles that they drive. This will allow us to know of those vehicles that are out of place.

One thing that we can all work on is describing people and vehicles. Officer Jensen said that this is a learned skill and that we all should practice this (including our kids).

Provo City Police (when in doubt error on the side of calling it in)
Emergency 911
Non-Emergency 801-852-6210
Graffiti 801-85-CRIME or graffiti.provo.org

Clarifications:
Neighborhood Watch is what we are starting; it’s a foot-patrol sort of thing.
Mobile Watch is coming. We have to establish a Neighborhood Watch first. This is driving around the neighborhood to look for out of place things, etc.

McGruff House:
RaDeen Hatfield spoke about McGruff Houses. They were started in Salt Lake City in 1982. They are homes to provide temporary havens for children in dangerous situations. Adults at a McGruff house would be responsible to make phone calls to help the child either to their parents or the police. Questar also has McGruff Trucks. This is a self administered program. We decide how many houses. Participants are required to pass a background check (it’s really quick) and be trained. We would spend about $30 for signs. We would be required to have 3 sponsors. We would need one community sponsor (which could be our Neighborhood Watch), one school sponsor (which would be Lakeview Elementary School) and one Organization sponsor (which could be Lakeview Elementary PTA). McGruff houses are not bathroom stops, you wouldn’t give out Band-Aids or give children rides. Also an adult does not have to be home at all times. All people in the home must know and understand what a McGruff house is.

Lakeview Neighborhood Watch Organization (elections were held):
President: Lawrence Law
Vice Pres.: Chris Medina
Secretary: Deena Lane

The election cycle is every 2 years in September. Elections will be held this year, so those elected will be in office until September.

Each district had there own separate meeting where District leaders were named.
NW District:
Leader: Christina Dunn
Assistant: Herb Greer
Secretary: Jason Dunn

I do not know about the other districts. You would need to contact Lawrence Law to find out.

Where we go from here - The District leaders will meet and get some training. They will get back to their districts and get people to actually go on patrol. Then late next month (April) there is going to be a training for all those that would like to be a part of the neighborhood watch (patrol) and what your responsibilities will be, etc. So for now, I guess we wait until we hear more from our district leaders.

Thank you so much to everyone who has come together to make this possible and to those who will help in the future to make and keep our neighborhood great!!!

District Pictures (you can click on picture to enlarge it):

North District:

Northwest District:

Southwest District:

East District:

Central District:

South District:

I keep having problems everytime I send out a neighborhood email. Both my gmail and hotmail accounts don't like the amount of emails going in and out and I'm too cheap to upgrade to a paid subscription. So I am trying something new. I will send emails out via a google group. Please join if you like getting this type of neighborhood information. I set it to our neighborhood only and it might ask you what is your address. Sorry, I've not figured it all out yet!

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Our Local Legislators

cgomm2@hotmail.com (christy) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:39:00 +0000

After the Central Committee Meeting, our local legislators came in and addressed us. I was really glad to have the opportunity to have all but 2 of the local legislators there for us to talk to. However, this was 3 hours long. I think in the future they should not allow public questions, and limit each person to 5 minutes. This would have cut the meeting in half, easily. Then after everyone has spoken, they could allow questions, because often times the question asked of one legislator was better answered by another.

Legislators were asked to tell about their opinions, what they are working on, and other happenings.

I wrote down two of the names wrong, so I'll just leave them as ?'s for now, maybe someone can let me know who they were.

Steve Sandstrom - Dist. 58
Government grew too fast and expanded budget too quickly.
We need to cut $600 million from the state budget.
A cut of 10-15% for each program is not the end of the world.
Tabled gay abortion bill in house.
Utah wants to opt out of the Real Id Act (requires a radio frequency chip to be embedded in your drivers license). 21 other states have already opted out.
Tell the federal government to stay out of our business we are a sovereign state.
10th Amendment rights are being trampled on. Our state should decide where we drill, not the federal government.
House Bill 357 - bill to carry loaded concealed weapons.
HJR8 - bill to protect secret ballots with unions.

Patrick Painter - Dist. 57
Deals a lot with land and water rights.
HB51 - bill that the state engineer can't forfeit your water rights.
Working on a resolution endorsing the use of coal - technology that can split hydrogen out of coal and use it to power turbines and much cleaner than other alternative fuels.
Leases in Carbon & Duchesne county to open drilling fields.

Michael Morley - Dist. 66
Need to once in awhile clean house and trim the fat (in regards to the state budget).
Against raising fees to increase the general fund.
Bill to do away with frivolous lawsuits from people who move next to farms and then sue over complaints that are agriculture related (smells, noises, etc.)

Francis Gibson - Dist. 65
He was appointed to the Judiciary Business & Labor and Education Committees.
Health Care is his field.
He said this important to do more listening and when we speak make it worth while.

Lorie Fowlke - Dist. 59
Dealing with land issues and blocks on land leases and sales.
HJR8 - this resolution does protect secret ballots (applies to unions) and preempts federal legislation.
Families are being attacked.
The way to win is to frame the argument the right way.
She recommends the 15% budget hit for education come from Social Security and Retirement.
School Districts should have the flexibility to make cuts where they want.

I wrote Daw & Dougall so I'm not sure which one spoke, but I think it was Daw - Dist. 60
There are perverse tax code violations.
Health Care is not market base.
We are not really in control of our doctors, benefits, etc.
We need to put individuals back in charge, not employers and insurance companies.
Would like employers to take insurance $ given to an internet portal and the employee picks which policy works best for them. If the employee changes jobs and both employers use this portal, the employee's insurance won't have to change.
If there is excess money then it could go in a health savings account.
Birth place of health savings accounts is Missouri.
The biggest detractors to this system is large insurance companies.

???-
Bonding is being done for a science building at UVU and something out by Thanksgiving Point.
Rates and constructions costs are at a all time low.
*comment - we don't need anymore debt
`response - bonding is a process we go through in this state. We need to bond to keep our state moving forward.

Becky Lockhart - Dist. 64
Revenue is down $329 million.
Working on Health Care Reform, called Mandate Light. You could get a policy that doesn't offer everything, so your premium can come down. You could pick and choose whatever coverage you want.
Common Ground Initiative
It takes 38 votes in the house and 15 in the Senate to get anything done.
*comment - Energy Solutions center offers an economic solution.
`response - mention something about business subsidizing government, not the other way around.
*comment - Increase cigarette tax
`response - Senate tabled bill in their committee to do this. Other revenue enhancements (taxes) are gas, motor vehicle, food, liquor, and cigarettes. Sin taxes fund programs and we aren't being honest when we earmark that money.
*comment - thoughts on former speaker Curtis' rapid jump to lobbyist.
`response - What he did is not illegal. There is currently a Revolving Door Bill, that is passed states that a legislator cannot be a contracted lobbyist for one year after leaving office. Most legislators who become lobbyists aren't very successful.

Keith Grover - Dist. 61
Common Ground Initiative
Encourages everyone to email and contact their legislators.
SB48 - UEA and unions don't want this to pass. It would allow professionals (such as auto mechanics) to teach in public schools without a teaching certification or card.
Initiative that would allow Police to intervene in activity that might be perceived as wrong (such as gang related things). Before they could only intervene if someone was actually breaking the law.

Kenneth Sumsion - Dist. 56
Abortion Litigation Trustfund Bill
North Dakota passed a bill saying life begins at conception.
Figg Engineering is the company that would build the toll bridge across Utah Lake from 8th North in Orem to Pelican Point. The study came back that there would be no wetland impact. Working on getting Wild Life Division lease.
Transparency needs to be greater in all levels of government: school, city, state, etc. (mostly referring to financial data). State website should have ledgers of all state programs, entities, etc.
Bureaucrats say citizens don't care about that info.
Sex offenders should have to register with their local city policy not just the state corrections.
If a program doesn't protect, feed or educate, the whole program needs to go.
Downturns make America great.
Camp Williams Veteran Cemetery is in disarray. We shouldn't use government funds to take care of it, we should involve our communities.
*comment - Gramma Request Bill
`response - this is there to protect certain identities... Dougall response - Record should be public, but in some instances they need to be kept from the public... Bramble response - the issue is if an attorney can use the Gramma Report as discovery, can you get a fair trial.
*comment - who decides what records are made public?
`response - the State Advisory Board
*comment - The DNA of a baby is different than it's mothers (making it a separate human being).
`response - Jailed for 2 murders if you kill a pregnant woman.

Craig Frank - Dist. 57
When contacting a legislator, please put your name and precinct # in the subject line.
Visit le.utah.gov and plan to spend awhile.
Craigs website - underthedome.org
one of his precinct chair's blog - hollyonthehill.wordpress.com
Looking for Sin Tax - tax cold caffeine!
Time to stop the madness.
Marriage License increase fee of $10 was killed because it didn't correlate with abuse in and out of the home, which is what they wanted to earmark the money for.
People who own land north of Utah Lake are worried about eminent domain.

??? -
Revenues are declining, have to be careful with it.
Common Ground Iniative
DUI Bill
Choose Life license plate - $ goes to agencies that promote adoption.
HB272 - Highway & Byway Issues, when getting federal money there are always strings attached.

Margaret Dayton - #15
Controlling deer population.
Forestry Fire and Lands - people will now be responsible if a forest fire is started by their abandoned fire.
Working on saving concurrent enrollment - give $19 million in scholarships.
*comment SB91 - protecting cell phones
`response - it passed the Senate it is still in the house.

David Hinkins - #27
Questar pipeline from Green River to Castle Valley to Utah County
Westridge Mine shutdown and various other companies closing does affect us.
85% of power bill is the cost of the fuel.
$16 million power bill in Castle County is mostly from the gas companies.

Curt Bramble - #16
If physician performs an illegal abortion it's a 2nd degree felony from Roe v. Wade and Danforth.
Criminal restitution has statue of limitations, a new bill would eliminate it. If you have a monetary amount you have to pay you will have to pay it back instead of just waiting out the time and not paying.
Utah's capital punishment, requiring Utah's Supreme Court to follow state statutes.
Energy Solutions only accepts low level A waste (gloves, clothing, etc.). 99% of the waste comes from out of state. 5% of their capacity has been set aside to bring in waste from foreign countries. Right now a cubic foot is $20 domestically. However, they can charge $200-400 for the same amount internationally. Low level waste comes from many things, cell phones, exit signs, x-rays, etc. Low level radio active waste is not nuclear waste. A company in Utah that does medical sterilization brings in more radio active waste than the Energy Solutions Clive facility ever would. Over time radio active waste breaks down (half life of several 100 years). The facility will be filled with low level waste, it's just a matter of it we will accept it from overseas. Waste will come wither we want it or not. Question is, do we want the money?
Autism - impose mandate on health insurance companies.
Cigarette tax if too high will promote smuggling. Right now there are earmarks so they oppose.

Mark Madsen - #13
Reaction to cut funds is always to cut services.
65% of Education budget must be used in the classrooms.
If cigarettes and alcohol are drugs then our state's biggest drug dealer is the state, since they control all alcohol sales.
Ludicrous to think that legislators stand to gain.
*comment SR1 - work program is blatant support of illegal immigration.
`response - Senate votes 2 times and then it can go through on the 3rd vote. There are misconceptions on how Social Security and FICA work. ... Bramble response - Federal Government failed on illegal emigration. The federal government will not enforce the law. If states are left to enforce it the federal government needs to get out of the way. I voted for it to make a statement to Washington.
*comment - question about ethics reform