New flag will fly over Ephraim City

By Lloyd Call 

Associate publisher

2-13-2020

EPHRAIM—A new Ephraim City flag will be flying soon. The colorful flag, designed by Ephraim Middle School Tara Daniel’s 6th grade class last year, was officially approved by the Ephraim City council at its meeting on Feb. 5th.
The flag has a black hawk, representing the Blackhawk Indian War, in front of a tree, that represents the Peace Treaty Tree in Ephraim’s Pioneer Park. Surrounding the hawk are two colored fields, Scandinavian blue and red: blue stands for peace, red stands for excitement and the white circle in the middle stands for hope and goodness.
“We thought this was a great project at the time, and with the help of I-Four Media, the flags are now ready to be printed. The kids considered a flag with the words ‘Ephraim City’ printed on it, but decided it would diminish the impact of the image,” Mayor John Scott explained.
After the unveiling of the flag, Ephraim city manager Shaun Kjar led the discussion about the vital importance of the upcoming 2020 census for the city. “We feel confident that census takers will reach all the regular residents of Ephraim, but our concern is that many Snow College students might not be bothered to fill out the census, and that could cost Ephraim $1,870 per year in federal aid,” he said.
The census will start its online campaign from March 12-20, followed by phone and in-person visits to try and account for everyone in the city limits. That process will continue through the end of July. Of course, the Snow students will all be gone by the end of April, and if they don’t participate in the census, they will return to their home towns, and Ephraim stands to lose significant federal funds.
The council wants to do everything it can with banners and other media promotion to encourage prompt and early attention to the census. People should know that by far the easiest way is do the online survey, which only takes about 15 minutes, explained census representative for Ephraim Olivia Oliphant, who also briefly addressed the council.
The census bureau is hiring about 130 persons in Ephraim (at about $16 per hour) for part-time employment from March to July, and that is a really good wage for a part-time job in Sanpete. “We currently have about 80 people signed up, but we need more,” Oliphant explained. The quickest way to apply for the jobs is go to: http://www.2020census.gov/ or if you want more information first, call Oliphant at (602) 900-1682.
In other matters, the city renewed the annual lease by the Resource Clothing Bank to use the old ambulance shed for the storage of free clothes that volunteers organize. “We feel this is a good service provided to those in need,” said Mayor Scott.
The council also approved reimbursement for Steve Brandt, the city animal control officer, for training he is taking under the city’s continuing education clause, with the commitment that he will continue to serve Ephraim for at least two more years.
Finally, the council confirmed that they will soon be discussing the revisions to the impact fee ordinance, after official notice has been advertised for the public meetings. The council then adjourned to go into closed session to discuss “possible or future litigation.” The next council meeting will be Feb. 19.