Quent and I decided we should share the following article about what's going on in the town we are about to leave. The funny thing about the "drama" is that there is actually a lot more serious issues going on in town but right now this seems to be the current focus of the entire town.
A bit of background to the new marshal - he started enforcing the law immediately upon being hired. He has patrolled Highway 89 daily and has written hundreds of speeding tickets and has been cracking down on DUI's. Quent and I felt like he's done a pretty good job around town, but alas, we haven't been written up for anything as we are generally law abiding citizens. Ask yourself this question after reading the following article. Do you think the punishment fits the crime?
The following is copied from the Lake Powell Chronicle which is published weekly in Page, Arizona.
Big Water marshal is under fire
Posted: Wednesday, Sep 24th, 2008
BIG WATER — A contentious Big Water Town Council meeting on Sept. 15 featured heated discussions and crowd outbursts regarding actions taken by the town marshal when he stepped in to resolve a vandalism complaint involving the grandson of a town resident.
The recent spat between Glen Canyon Special Services District employee Teresa Tiberi-Phillips and Big Water Marshal Gary Patterson led to a complaint being filed with the Town Council, and the council going into executive session to discuss the complaint.
According to Town Clerk Genia Joseph, a special council meeting was scheduled for Tuesday to discuss what was decided in the executive session.
Tiberi-Phillips told the council she thought the marshal overstepped his bounds when he made the offending children wash the town’s fire department vehicles and police car as punishment for an act of vandalism committed on a town resident.
Earlier in the meeting, when Patterson rose to speak about a survey he had given out to town residents, someone in the audience yelled out, asking if he was going to talk about his letter. The letter in question was written by Patterson and given to the council sometime prior to the meeting, but the Chronicle could not verify its contents.
The letter was referred to numerous times by the council and audience members throughout the meeting. Council member Carl Powell said certain people had been damaged by the charges in the letter. Even though requested numerous times, the Chronicle was refused access to a copy of the letter by the council and members of the audience who had copies in their possession.
Patterson never rose to defend himself against the allegations being leveled during the matter, or to comment on the contents of his letter to the council. Instead numerous town residents, employees and council members spoke out against the incident and the contents of the marshal’s letter.
“Unfortunately our marshal may have meant well in his intentions in what he did, but in my point of view he overstepped his bounds when he tried to take control of fire department vehicles,” Tiberi-Phillips said.
Tiberi-Phillips told the council her daughter had agreed for the grandson involved in the incident to carry out restitution for the vandalism by having the children pull weeds for the assistant fire chief. Tiberi-Phillips said she was mainly upset because of the safety concerns of having children in a fire station with all types of equipment where they could get hurt, and the risk of insurance claims against the town.
“I do this to protect the district. You guys are the ones that do the insurance on those vehicles,” Tiberi-Phillips said.
Tiberi-Phillips said the marshal should have written a complaint on the charges and let Big Water Judge Peter Thompson decide the punishment. Town Attorney Charles Hummel quickly stepped in to explain to her that juvenile complaints immediately go to Kane County courts and would have been decided by a judge in Kanab, not Big Water.
When contacted for comment on Thursday, Patterson said he told the victim of the vandalism he didn’t think pulling weeds was really a justified punishment for the crimes committed. He wanted to write a report and send the matter to juvenile court, but the victim refused to press charges. Instead, Patterson said he thought helping the police and washing the town’s vehicles was a more suitable punishment.
Patterson also described Tiberi-Phillips as someone who complains to the council any time there is a legal issue with her family. He mentioned a previous problem she had with a former marshal after a family member was arrested.
During the council meeting Joseph commented on the letter, making reference to “ridiculous criminal charges he claims I have, though I have never been cited for.”
Joseph said the letter also claims she refused to pay a bill Patterson gave her for repairs done on the town’s police cruiser. She said she was given a bill that was for more than she is allowed to pay without proper authorization from the council and the treasurer.
Patterson would not divulge the contents of the letter he had written, instead referring comment to Hummel, who could not be reached by press time for comment.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Mantua Update
A view of our "front yard" in Mantua.On Friday with the help of my dad we were able to paint all the ceilings and the two smaller bedrooms a nice shade of bright white. It was amazing how yellow the white paint looked once we started spraying the walls white.
On Saturday we had a lot of help including Quent's Dad, my dad, Joe, Jim, Rick, Steve and Joy as we painted the walls in the kitchen, living room and the master bedroom a nice shade of tan and painted the one finished room in the basement and the utility room white. We even managed to get the stairs painted white.
The highlight of Saturday was when Rick, Quent and I ran down the canyon to unload our trailer full of stuff in the storage shed. We needed to go to Walmart as well so I told Rick to just go out to I-15 and head up the highway to the next exit as this would be faster than going through town. We got to the highway overpass to head to the on ramp and we came accross about 30 head of cattle being hearded over the overpass with three horses and an ATV, I don't know if it was faster to go this way but it was fun watching the cows "jog" over the overpass. (See picture below)
We drove home on Sunday only to find we had a broken water pipe that Quent and Nob fixed on Monday. We plan on being in Big Water until next Thursday to pack and get stuff going down here.
Who would have thought we would see cows crossing an overpass?
I can't believe how big TJ is getting. We had fun playing with the niece and nephew last weekend.
Morgan decided to put her dad's sunglasses on. She is "Joe Cool" in training.Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Where are Quent & Cindy???
With two houses, two post office boxes, three zip codes and a lot of uncertainty, everyone keeps asking where we are. The answer all depends on the day you ask. Today we are in Big Water, tomorrow we'll be in Salt Lake and Thursday we'll be in Mantua.
We are heading up to Mantua again this weekend to paint the house, meet with a contractor and finish up any other repairs we can before returning back to Big Water next Monday. Beyond that I'm not sure where we will be. Over the past three weeks we've driven over 3000 miles and we're just getting started.
The move is definitely going to happen, slowly but surely we are getting everything packed at our house in Big Water.
We hope that after we meet with the contractor this weekend that we'll have more of a plan as to when the "big move" will take place and when we'll trade three zip codes in for one. Until then just keep checking the blog, it's the easiest way to keep everyone updated.
We are heading up to Mantua again this weekend to paint the house, meet with a contractor and finish up any other repairs we can before returning back to Big Water next Monday. Beyond that I'm not sure where we will be. Over the past three weeks we've driven over 3000 miles and we're just getting started.
The move is definitely going to happen, slowly but surely we are getting everything packed at our house in Big Water.
We hope that after we meet with the contractor this weekend that we'll have more of a plan as to when the "big move" will take place and when we'll trade three zip codes in for one. Until then just keep checking the blog, it's the easiest way to keep everyone updated.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Post Office Update
As many of you know we have a "pretend" post office in Big Water so when I found out we were moving to Mantua I was excited that we might have a real post office to work with.
After talking with Quent about our commuting back and forth we decided that the best course of action would to be to get a post office box as the Hatchery and the residence share an address, yes this means we get mail delivered to the house!!! (Mantua has it's own zip code but the mail is delivered from Brigham City.)
While looking on usps.com for some unrelated information I found that I could reserve a post office box online and then take the form into the post office, pick up the keys and I'd be on my way. So in an effort to save time I decided I'd do that.
Last Friday while Joy and I were in Brigham City running errands and preparing for the move I stopped by the post office to pick up my keys for our new post office. What seemed like a simple task and a good idea didn't work to our advantage.
The friendly clerk was so excited to see the form, it was a new form and he wasn't even aware that you could reserve a po box online what a great idea he said. After spending some time and challenging me on the information it said I could use for verification we had to get a supervisor involved as he didn't know how to enter it in the computer well after about 25 minutes (at lunch time no less) he told me that they would have to void out the transaction and that they would figure it out later and get it taken care of. I checked my keys for the po box and we were finally on our way.
Today I decided I'd double check the status of my Brigham City po box to see if it had been resolved or if I needed to call the brigham city post office. Well after looking at my account online I found that I had a different po box assigned to me and that the status of that box is closed. I called the post office and they were well aware of the situation without even telling them who I was they assured me that the box that I was assigned last Friday was my box and that they had voided out my online transaction. I guess it wasn't as easy as usps.com made it out to be. I am hoping that this is the only post office drama we have in Mantua.
On the bright side I was able to get a hold of the Mantua zoning commissioner today to find out about getting a separate address for the house so we can separate our mail from the hatchery mail. After a brief history of the area and a nice chat with the man he told me that the hatchery did not actually have an assigned address and the only addresses assigned to the area were the two houses that were on the hatchery land. After explaining that he couldn't change the address of the house he suggested that we assign the hatchery a new address. Obviously after 30 years the hatchery isn't going to change it's address so Quent and I will take over the new hatchery address as our home address.
After talking with Quent about our commuting back and forth we decided that the best course of action would to be to get a post office box as the Hatchery and the residence share an address, yes this means we get mail delivered to the house!!! (Mantua has it's own zip code but the mail is delivered from Brigham City.)
While looking on usps.com for some unrelated information I found that I could reserve a post office box online and then take the form into the post office, pick up the keys and I'd be on my way. So in an effort to save time I decided I'd do that.
Last Friday while Joy and I were in Brigham City running errands and preparing for the move I stopped by the post office to pick up my keys for our new post office. What seemed like a simple task and a good idea didn't work to our advantage.
The friendly clerk was so excited to see the form, it was a new form and he wasn't even aware that you could reserve a po box online what a great idea he said. After spending some time and challenging me on the information it said I could use for verification we had to get a supervisor involved as he didn't know how to enter it in the computer well after about 25 minutes (at lunch time no less) he told me that they would have to void out the transaction and that they would figure it out later and get it taken care of. I checked my keys for the po box and we were finally on our way.
Today I decided I'd double check the status of my Brigham City po box to see if it had been resolved or if I needed to call the brigham city post office. Well after looking at my account online I found that I had a different po box assigned to me and that the status of that box is closed. I called the post office and they were well aware of the situation without even telling them who I was they assured me that the box that I was assigned last Friday was my box and that they had voided out my online transaction. I guess it wasn't as easy as usps.com made it out to be. I am hoping that this is the only post office drama we have in Mantua.
On the bright side I was able to get a hold of the Mantua zoning commissioner today to find out about getting a separate address for the house so we can separate our mail from the hatchery mail. After a brief history of the area and a nice chat with the man he told me that the hatchery did not actually have an assigned address and the only addresses assigned to the area were the two houses that were on the hatchery land. After explaining that he couldn't change the address of the house he suggested that we assign the hatchery a new address. Obviously after 30 years the hatchery isn't going to change it's address so Quent and I will take over the new hatchery address as our home address.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Back in Big Water (for a day or two)
It's been awhile since we updated the blog so here is a brief summary of the past 10 days.
We started packing up the house however it's going to be a slow process as we are going to be commuting from Big Water to Mantua twice a week and the house in Mantua isn't quite ready for us to move into so we are living out of suitcases when in Northern Utah and out of boxes in Southern Utah.
On Thursday we drove to Salt Lake where Quent dropped me off for a couple of days and he proceeded to Farmington where he spent the night at his parents house before heading off on Friday for his first full day of work on the new job. He said things went well and there is a big learning curve. He managed to go through his new desk where he was cleaning out hatchery reports from the early 80's. Not sure how long the government requires to keep information but over 25 years is probably a little long.
Friday I spent the day in Brigham City trying to get things ready for the move. I rented a storage shed that took about an hour longer than need be and then I went to the Post Office to get a post office box. I'll explain more about my Post Office experience soon, but needless to say we were there about an hour as well. I guess after growing up in a "big city" you get used to the luxury of people being in a hurry to help you so they can help the next person, not so much in a small town.
Friday night I was able to go to my cousin's wedding reception in Lindon - Kelli was a beautiful princess bride accoring to Morgan and fun to see my cousins who I haven't seen since I got married.
Saturday we spent the day at the Manuta house getting things ready to paint. Bill and Quent spent most of the day pulling the log paneling off the walls and I do mean logs, some where four inches thick nailed to the walls while Joyce and Joy spent the day washing the walls upstairs getting them ready to paint. I followed behind them with Spackle as every room had at least 50 holes in each wall that had to be filled before we paint.
Sunday Quent and decided that we would take a break and spend the day together. We managed to watch some football, some tennis and most importantly, Quent was able to take a nap.
Monday morning Quent went up to the hatchery and helped load over 1300 pounds of fish that were to be stocked near Vernal and then headed to my parents house to pick up a trailer and return home. Between Thursday afternoon and Monday morning I logged 415 miles in the Suburban and Quent logged about 1000 miles in the state truck. We arrived back in Big Water about 6 p.m. Monday night.
Next up: Another drive north on Thursday!
We started packing up the house however it's going to be a slow process as we are going to be commuting from Big Water to Mantua twice a week and the house in Mantua isn't quite ready for us to move into so we are living out of suitcases when in Northern Utah and out of boxes in Southern Utah.
On Thursday we drove to Salt Lake where Quent dropped me off for a couple of days and he proceeded to Farmington where he spent the night at his parents house before heading off on Friday for his first full day of work on the new job. He said things went well and there is a big learning curve. He managed to go through his new desk where he was cleaning out hatchery reports from the early 80's. Not sure how long the government requires to keep information but over 25 years is probably a little long.
Friday I spent the day in Brigham City trying to get things ready for the move. I rented a storage shed that took about an hour longer than need be and then I went to the Post Office to get a post office box. I'll explain more about my Post Office experience soon, but needless to say we were there about an hour as well. I guess after growing up in a "big city" you get used to the luxury of people being in a hurry to help you so they can help the next person, not so much in a small town.
Friday night I was able to go to my cousin's wedding reception in Lindon - Kelli was a beautiful princess bride accoring to Morgan and fun to see my cousins who I haven't seen since I got married.
Saturday we spent the day at the Manuta house getting things ready to paint. Bill and Quent spent most of the day pulling the log paneling off the walls and I do mean logs, some where four inches thick nailed to the walls while Joyce and Joy spent the day washing the walls upstairs getting them ready to paint. I followed behind them with Spackle as every room had at least 50 holes in each wall that had to be filled before we paint.
Sunday Quent and decided that we would take a break and spend the day together. We managed to watch some football, some tennis and most importantly, Quent was able to take a nap.
Monday morning Quent went up to the hatchery and helped load over 1300 pounds of fish that were to be stocked near Vernal and then headed to my parents house to pick up a trailer and return home. Between Thursday afternoon and Monday morning I logged 415 miles in the Suburban and Quent logged about 1000 miles in the state truck. We arrived back in Big Water about 6 p.m. Monday night.
Next up: Another drive north on Thursday!
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