Friends of Virgin, Inc.				
September 2003
P.O. Box 790005
Virgin, Utah 84779-0005
www.friendsofvirgin.com
If you wish to be removed from our email list please send a message to friends@friendsofvirgin.com.
Our Purpose:
To promote the continued health, safety, security, beauty, and viability of the town of Virgin, Utah, through the combined efforts and talents of the individuals and entities herein known as the Friends of Virgin.  Though the Friends of Virgin differ dramatically in viewpoint and political affiliation, they unite here to assist in informing and educating local residents and decision-makers; promoting openness in the town government and free access to its records; and encouraging public input as well as its serious consideration by officials.
Board of Directors:
Lee Ballard, president
Adele Pincock, secretary
Sandra Grow, treasurer
Linda Collet, director
DRD Properties South director
Jan Walker, director

MEETING WATCH
[editorial and explanatory comments italicized in brackets] 

Special Town Council Meeting, 9/3/03: Mayor Pro Tempore Ken Cornelius; Councilmembers D. Spendlove, B. Johnson, and G. Wilcox; and Town Attorney Russ Gallian were all present.  The agenda called for a discussion of “written complaint of violation regarding Liahona Academy and property boundaries”. Some residents had submitted formal requests, asking Council not to issue a building permit for Liahona Academy until the subdivision process followed last fall had been investigated and the Council had been provided documentation of the Academy’s compliance with requirements.  There was some question as to whether the subdivision request had been made by the owner/agent of the larger parcel, as required by law.  Chris Edwards said that there had been an error in recording and that the mother parcel of 76 acres had, in fact, been transferred to Gerry Wood, who, in turn, authorized Liahona representatives  to apply for the subdivision. [the following day, the County Recorder reported that the deed transferring 2.5 acres from G. Wood to Liahona Academy was filed at 4:05 pm the night of the special meeting, and that the mother parcel still remains in the names of Garry Barrick and Jay Lee] 
	The Council then discussed other issues brought up in the complaints, including Liahona’s apparently expired corporate status and the lack of documented accreditation of  their educational program.  A formal motion carried, compelling the applicants to provide documentation of compliance with all local and state requirements to the Council before being issued a building permit.

Planning & Zoning, 9/3/03:   Larry Amodt, Allen Lee, Darwin Hall, Marcia Rasmussen and attorney Russ Gallian were present. 	After the August minutes were approved, both the revised Subdivision Ordinance and revised Road Standards were tabled; A. Lee and D. Hall will work with the Town Clerk to modify St. George road standards to fit our needs.  A meeting was scheduled for Sept 10th to address the subdivison ordinance.   Items from the flloor included a discussion of excavation permits (see 2000-03-16). Chairman A. Lee said the rule is for town streets, rights of way, and homes, and that most towns have one excavation permit for roads and one for homes. D. Hall and A. Lee offered to get copies of excavation permits from other towns. Zoning Admistrator Lenny Brinkerhoff explained that the purpose of such permits is to allow town regulation of  dust control and restoration.  M. Rasmussen asked about the status of the group home ordinance and a plan to meet do a review was discussed.
 GOINGS ON
An interesting task presents itself to our Town Council this month:  they must choose a new mayor to finish the last two years of  Jay Lee’s term.  Anyone may apply for the position; forms are available at the Town Hall.  The issue will be addressed at a special Town Council meeting on September 25th.  
Another issue to be addressed on the 18th is the release of the building permit for Liahona Academy.  Liahona was granted permits to locate a youth residential treatment center in Virgin nearly a year ago.  A few weeks ago in August, representatives of Liahona Academy applied to convert an office building in St. George to a home for troubled boys, but a permit was denied by the St. George City Council on August 21st.  Applicants returned to Virgin just this August, and paid their license and conditional use application fees (due back in September of 2002).  We understand they have since been gathering documentation required for the granting of their building permit.
The September 8th Fifth District Court preliminary hearing for previous Town Clerk Noelle Higbee, who was charged this spring with misusing public funds, resulted in a dismissal by the judge when a jury trial created a scheduling conflict for Deputy Attorney Paul Christensen.  According to the Washington County Attorney’s office, Higbee’s case will be reinstated or refiled shortly.
As you likely have read in the newspapers, former mayor Jay Lee entered a plea agreement in Fifth District Court on August 28th.  The agreement included 1) his formal resignation as mayor of Virgin; 2) a plea of no contest to class A misdemeanor misuse of public funds; 3) a plea of guilty to class A misdemeanor witness tampering; and 4) an agreement to testify truthfully in the case of former clerk Noelle Higbee.  Each of the misdemeanor charges is punishable by one year in jail and a fine, with possible restitution.  Rather than immediately impose the sentence recommended by County Deputy Attorney Paul Christensen (two suspended, concurrent years), Judge James L. Shumate said he would listen to a victim impact statement prepared by members of the Virgin Town Council before pronouncing a sentence on October 1st at 10 a.m. 
Applications are still being taken for part-time office help in the Virgin Town Hall.  Details are available from the Town Clerk, and the deadline to apply for the job is October 1st. 
Last month we reported that a primary election would be held in October for the Town Council candidates.  In fact, since Bruce Densley has withdrawn his formal declaration of candidacy, there are now only four official candidates and no primary will be required.  Because  Densley became a resident in October of last year, he did not fulfill the residency requirement of one year preceding the primary date.  Since he will fulfill the requirement on  Election Day, Densley does qualify to become a council member, and voters may still write him in on November 4th.    
Get to Know Your Candidates
	In our last newsletter we promised to try to interview each candidate for Town Council and print the result this month.  From a list of a dozen or so, our board reduced the questions to only five.  Upon reading through transcripts of the interviews we were struck to see confirmed, once again, what we have increasingly suspected over the last year or two:  that the people of Virgin are pretty much in agreement about the kind and degree of growth we want here. Though the similarity of responses by the candidates will make the voter’s decision more challenging, it is certainly comforting to know that, in many ways, we are all on the ‘same page’.
Interviews
      First, a note from the interviewer:  This week I had the neighborly experience of going to the homes of the people running for the seats on Virgin’s town council. I was made to feel welcome in every home while all the candidates answered the questions thoughtfully. I want to thank all of them and their families for making it so easy for me. In the interest of saving space I have made a few edits but the whole transcript of each candidate is available for the asking.  – 			Jan Walker 
Each candidate was asked the same five questions:  
Have you read Virgin’s General Plan? If so, what do you think of it?
Bob: No, I haven’t. If it’s like most of them it full of “legalese” and needs to be translated in to everyday conversational normal English. I think I can do that. I have a track record for that.
Bruce: No, I haven’t read it. I didn’t know they had one.
Darwin: I have read Virgin’s General Plan and basically I think it’s a good document. I think we can improve a lot as we get the different ideas of the general public. I think everybody has the individual right to express what they want and that a political figure should vote the way the majority of the town would vote, on any issue, if they had the facts at their fingertips.  
John: I have read it and I do like it, but like every plan - times change, it needs to change.  As long as the current General Plan is in place we ought to follow what’s in place.  That would help our growth issues.
Matt: I haven’t read it clear through; I’ve read parts of it... I think if the General Plan was used like it’s supposed to be, it would be a good plan.
Which types of growth do you think should be promoted in Virgin and why?
Darwin: Everybody in this town has a different idea as to what they want to see grow and develop. And everybody has the right to get what they want and that’s why we’re ruled by the majority. I like the people in the Friends of Virgin but I’m not sure they represent the wishes of the general town members.
Matt: I think most types could be made in Virgin if its done right. We just don’t want junk in here – like youth homes. golf courses, motels – that kinda stuff is junk to me. I don’t want to see that here.
Bruce:  I would like to see some small business, I wouldn’t really encourage them, but I wouldn’t mind seeing some small businesses that would be compatible with a small community come in, for the reason of increasing our tax base. I’d prefer to see residential growth but I know that we need more income down the road... I’m  not into encouraging fast growth at this point. I like it small, the way it is.
John: I think “smart growth”:  growth that’s going to help the town and keep it rural, and keep [it] like the reason people live up here.
Bob: Harmonious to our quiet rural setting... meaning, we’re not a major manufacturing center, we’re not a major tourist stop with all the infrastructure and all of that; this is a quiet rural town. Most people live here or somewhere else nearby and it’s a good place to live, and we need to maintain that quiet, rural, harmonious setting. Our homes and building need to fit in with Mother Nature who has done such a phenomenal job, just for us and no one else. We don’t need skyscrapers.
Do you think encouraging growth in Virgin is a good idea? Why or why not?
Matt: I personally don’t think it’s a good thing to encourage it, because I love it the way it is. I don’t want to see big buildings and that kind of thing. I’d just as soon it’s left agricultural, myself.
Bob: I think we should encourage harmonious, quiet, rural setting growth because that’s the facts of life - the county is growing and so we will. By necessity it will happen. We need to control it and keep it fitting in with what’s already here. We don’t need skyscrapers and we don’t need bare desert; we need to be in between there.
John: Small commercial. Tourism. Anything we can do tourism-wise.  I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t encourage growth as long as it is small growth. Something that will help the town, in small phases at a time, not all at once.
Darwin: Its been my experience that you’re improving, or you’re not improving:  you’re going backwards. So I think we need to have controlled growth with clean business on a small scale. We’re still a bedroom community  and I don’t think we need to get a Wal-Mart in town; and, yeah, I don’t want to hurt the quality of life we’ve all come to love and enjoy here.
Bruce: I would like to see tourism encouraged but again I don’t want to see a lot of big growth - that’s not why I moved here. I ‘d like to see it remain the way it is; but if we are going to see some growth, if we’re going to have growth, I’d prefer to see something that would bring tax dollars in to us, and tourist-type growth.  That type of industry would bring us some tax dollars.
        Much has been said about the development of private, commercial youth centers in Virgin. What is your take on this issue?
Bruce: I’m against any additional growth. I think that, granted, those permits that have been [given] should be honored. For example, Falcon Ridge:  if  we’ve agreed they could go to 22 people then I think that should be honored. As far as any new growth coming in, I’m against it adamantly. I think we have enough. I think we’re doing our fair share.  I think, considering our population, that more youth centers would be detrimental to our community as a whole.
Matt: I’m totally against it. I don’t like them one bit, and I don’t think they do the kids any good, and they don’t do the community any good.
John: I don’t think a town this size should have to take on youth centers.  There are other places that are better for youth centers - out in the open territory. We have such a small population I don’t think it’s right to have them so close in the town.
Darwin: I personally think we’ve got enough youth homes in Virgin. I think a certain percentage of the population, one percent of your population, could be youth home kids. And I realize that these kids have got to have a chance.  If we don’t help these kids who are in trouble then our society is doomed.  It may be a long time from now, they’re in trouble and they need to be helped. And the reason we help youth is because they can change. Our society is built on that. Kids can change. easier  than adults. They’ve got to want to change, and I like good youth homes, but I think we’ve got enough for a little town like Virgin. I’m not in favor of any more, but I also realize that the state legislature realizes all of this and they’ve made it difficult to turn a youth home away. We need to get our ordinances in place so that we’re within the law in turning them down.  I think we need to do that through zones, then choose where that zone’s available and be careful  not to re-zone another piece of property to that designation.
Bob: I think it’s a very  over-complicated, over-regulated  issue that neglects to ask a couple of important questions.  If I were on Council already I would have asked the applicant “How does what you want us to do for you affect quality of life for those already here? How do we measure the benefits or the negative effects of what you want us to do?”  If they can’t tell us how to measure it, then we need to table the issues until [they] can come back and tell us how we can measure the issue. Then we’ll make decisions, but we don’t want to be known as La Verkin, the Second.
Do you believe it is important for local ordinances to address issues beyond the nuts and bolts of running our town?
John: I think there need to be ordinances, but, yeah, we do need stricter ordinances than some of the ones we’ve got, and get rid of some of the ordinances we don’t need, that are more or less just taking up room. There are a lot that need to be put in place to make it a better place for everybody to live.
Bruce: Yes, I do. We need to prepare for tomorrow today. If we wait until issues are upon us it may be too late. I think we have to plan and address all issues that may be coming before us in the near future, so when a situation does come up, we’ll be prepared for it.
Matt: I think we should have ordinances for the future:  about sub-divisions, or whatever it might be, to protect us for the future.  I believe, I don’t know, I’d like to see the town council, the mayor, all be together on it. You know anything happens in the town, moneywise or whatever, I’d like everyone to know about it instead of trying to hide it or be secretive about it. That’s what I’d like to see.  
Bob: Not ever. I think, believe, our local council needs to be concerned with enhancing the quality of life of the people that live here. That means to me: good, safe, usable roads; safe, drinkable water; good, safe, enjoyable parks; and a dependable, well-equipped volunteer fire department. That’s about all. The gun ordinance makes us look foolish.
Darwin:     Yes, I do.  I think we need to do that. One case in point is the... not sure of the name... but the county set up for all the communities in Washington County a directive that they had to choose any future boundaries that they were going to annex, not when they were going to annex it, they just said you’ve got to mark your boundaries;  then, other communities cannot annex in to that designation without your approval, and that way communities can work together.  Virgin simply said ‘we’re not going to deal with this’, and it leaves all the communities around here able to infringe on property that should logically go to Virgin.

Upcoming Dates
Town Council:  Thursday, September 18th at 6:30pm; 
Special Town Council:  Thursday, September 25th at 7 pm
Planning & Zoning:  Wednesday, October 1st at 7pm; work mtg 6:30
Voter Registration  deadline: Forms must be received by the Washington County Clerk  by October 13th or postmarked by October 2nd.
History
	Our apologies to those of you who eagerly await our History section.  Candidate interviews required much space in our newsletter this month, but, have no fear, our next newsletter will include a double excerpt.   Please join us in these pages next month for the further joys and trials of the Workmans in the early days of Virgin.