SPRING CITY—An external audit of Spring City’s finances culminated in a “clean opinion, an unmodified opinion, and that’s the best opinion you can receive,” auditor Ron Snow told the Spring City Council at this month’s council meeting.Over the past year, there have been allegations against the mayor and city council, all unverified, of “sweetheart deals”…
EPHRAIM—After a half-day of brainstorming about long-term goals, about 15 city council members and department heads in Ephraim settled on three focus areas for the city over next three years.The emphases will be infrastructure development, updating the general land use plan and preparing an economic development plan.Staff in various departments are now coming up with…
SPRING CITY—Joe and Lee Bennion have won a battle in their legal fight to dispel claims that they are leaders in an LDS Church of Satan, and as such, have participated in crimes ranging from child sexual abuse to cannibalism. But they haven’t won the war.In September, Judge Kasey Wright of the 4th District Court…
It’s time for compromise and resolution of the lot-size issue in Spring City. For some, preserving the grid set up by pioneer settlers, with 1.06-acre lots city wide, is at the center of everything they’ve worked for 40 years. For others the acre lot size is a burden, a requirement to have more land than…
I recently returned from a meeting of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE) at South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. Many of the participants had retired from their newspapers. A few were using walkers and wheelchairs. A lot of others, like me, were past retirement age but still working for their papers…
Brennen Russell, Moroni public works director, is standing next to the city’s new, 600,000-gallon water tank, most of which is underground. In the background is some of the new housing development that helped spur a $6-million expansion of the city water system. By Suzanne Dean and John Hales MORONI—Earlier this year Moroni City completed…
A boardwalk leads to Finnish saunas heated by burning wood at Mumma’s Sauna Village in Mt. Pleasant. (Inset): Tina Geddes, a native Finn, stands in the doorway of one of the saunas at a new recreation development in Mt. Pleasant. MT. PLEASANT—Time in a hot, dry sauna, followed by dumping a bucket of cold water…
This is a part of the Home & Garden 2025, a yearly supplement to the Sanpete Messenger. To view the rest of the articles, click this banner. At a birthday luncheon in mid-April, a drawer pulled out of a cabinet somewhere in Marla Deaton’s house was used as the base for a centerpiece consisting of…
One of the legendary figures in the Rocky Mountain sheep industry is Hank Vogler, who runs the “Needsmore Sheep Ranch” in Spring Valley south of Las Vegas. He spoke during the storytelling session at the 2025 gathering. FILLMORE—Ah, 22 years. Twenty-two winters, that is. That’s how many years the Old Sheepherder’s Gathering, which brings together…
EPHRAIM — Two Snow College students are among at least 45 in Utah who have had their student visas revoked since the first of April, the college confirmed Tuesday. But none of the schools have provided many details about what countries the students are from, the reasons given by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE)…
This is a part of the Home & Garden 2025, a yearly supplement to the Sanpete Messenger. To view the rest of the articles, click this banner. Peggy Layton of Manti, a former home economist for a food-storage company and author of books on food storage, in her own food storage area. MANTI—Whether by bottling,…
EPHRAIM—Based on a presentation by the Power Department director at the last city council meeting, Ephraim is getting serious about developing its own natural-gas power generating plant, a project that could cost $7.5 million up front but save the city much more than that down the road. Ephraim owns hydroelectric plants in Ephraim Canyon that…
Members of the Sanpete County Chapter of Youth Education in Shooting Sports (YESS) display some of their plaques and medals. In front (L-R) are Zariah Willden, Zander Willden and Jaxon Johnson. In back (L-R) are Richard Nielson (coach), Lilly Nielson, Chase Anderson, Kasch Willden and Kyan Mickelsen. The youth and their coaches visited with the…
MORONI—The Moroni City Council has passed an ordinance designed to make its sewer charges more fair for people who are forced to use culinary water or irrigation. Presently, sewer charges are based on culinary water consumption. But people who water their lawns with culinary water obviously consume more water than people who are hooked up…
“If they go belly up, what does Ephraim City lose? Zero. We’re getting some infrastructure it would take years for the city to create.” Councilwoman Margie Anderson EPHRAIM—The Ephraim City Council has voted unanimously to support creation of The Crossing Public Infrastructure Districts (PIDs), Nos. 1 and 2, with all council members saying the PIDs…