AXTELL—Karl and Debra Humphrey, the winners of this year’s Axtell Walking Stick award, met as children, but in a way no one would expect. Debra, a fourth generation resident of the town, is the daughter of the late George and Arva Lee Bertelson and a graduate of Gunnison Valley High School. Karl is the son…
MANTI—The Sanpete County Commission detoured into a discussion about water allocation, a hot topic affecting the whole state, during its meeting Tuesday, July 20. The discussion arose as the commission took up eight routine proposals, which collectively included 23 new home lots in the unincorporated county, most in areas not served by a culinary water…
MANTI—Voters in eight Sanpete County cities should start receiving ballots Wednesday for the municipal primary, which is coming up Aug. 10. Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neill said Monday that her office planned to put 7,832 ballots in the mail the next day for primaries in Centerfield, Gunnison, Fairview, Mayfield, Mt. Pleasant, Moroni, Manti and Spring…
There’s clearly a lot of home building activity in Sanpete County this summer. But some people who have bought residential lots are postponing construction because the cost of lumber and other materials has shot up the cost of their homes. Meanwhile, some of them want to build garages and other outbuildings. That is creating a…
MT. PLEASANT—A Mt. Pleasant man who works for Wasatch Academy headed out July 1 on a trip around the world without knowing exactly where he was going. “The idea is to not come back for a year,” David Leach said as he took a break as creative director for Wasatch, in his favorite local hang-out,…
MT. PLEASANT—Culinary water in Mt. Pleasant got through 2020 with flying colors, based on tests of more than 70 samples over the course of the year at a state-certified laboratory. Summary results of tests for the presence of 14 substances, most of which cause health problems in high concentrations, were reported in the city’s annual…
MANTI—The Manti City Council has approved a general-fund budget of $2.4 million for the coming fiscal year, 11 percent more than the budget approved a year ago. Meanwhile, the budget for the total city, including the water, sewer and electric utilities as well as the general fund, peaked at more $6 million for the first…
EPHRAIM—The Ephraim City Council will hold a public hearing tonight (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. on an approximately $6 million general fund budget for the next fiscal year. Besides the general fund, the council will be addressing a budget for various utilities and special funds come to about $8.7 million, bringing the city’s total expected budget…
MANTI—The Manti City Council has agreed to come up with a revised fine schedule for violations of its nuisance ordinance in hopes lower fines, and the potential of having fees waived, will encourage people to clean up unsightly properties. At a meeting May 19, the council agreed to put the ideas into a written draft…
EPHRAIM—Snow College may be primarily a community college, but students who graduated this spring with bachelor’s degrees in software engineering say the education they received rivals many master’s programs in computer-related fields. The students, who were interviewed two weeks before spring commencement, also praised the quality of their professors, the time professors spent with them…
EPHRAIM—No one knows how many people will show up for the Scandinavian Heritage Festival this weekend. But organizers believe the festival could be the biggest ever. The festival has focused its advertising on radio on the Wasatch Front and on social media. As of Friday, May 21, Instagram and Facebook pages have had a combined…
MANTI—The Sanpete County Fairboard would like to move ahead on a building containing a ticket booth, a concessions stand and restrooms, the final major item on a fairgrounds master plan completed more than five years ago, the fair chairman told the Sanpete County Commission last week. At a meeting Tuesday, May 19, Mike Bennett, the…
If you’re wondering what’s going on with lumber, it’s pretty simple, according to local lumber sellers. “Supply is down, and prices are up. It’s almost astronomical,” says David Linam, an associate at Alvey Lumber in Manti. On a lumber package for an average new home, the customer needs to add $25,000 to $30,000 from any…
MANTI—The Manti City Council has voted to raise the cost of a lot in the city cemetery from 12 to 200 percent, depending whether or not the person being buried was a city resident at time of death. The increase was the first since 2004. At the meeting in early April where the council took…
EPHRAIM—For the most part, to participate in the Scandinavian Heritage Festival over Memorial Day weekend (May 28-29), all you need to do is show up. But for several events, including some new ones, you need to take action now. Beard-growing: If you want to enter the beard-growing contest, a new event, you probably want to…