[Davis County Watch: Creative Solutions] Standard Examiner:Transportation::Davis leaders to send letter with concerns

For the last week, my drive home has taken about three times as long. I drive north along I-215, and the bottleneck has begun in SL, around 7th North, but the pimple on my route seems to be where I-15 and 215 merge.

If Davis County were a room of your home, it would be the bedroom hallway, and the fact remains that the great majority of our residents still work outside of the County. So, I'm pleased to see that the Council of Governments is requesting of SL that they consider Davis County when they plan the downtown. I'm also hopeful that we will take responsibility for the bottleneck that we create in our own vicinity.

Transportation::Davis leaders to send letter with concerns

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Creative Solutions at 9/29/2006 08:42:00 AM

NSL Dodges bullet from SL County

I should really create a category for things like this running problem with Salt Lake. I hate that wedge issues arise that seem to be motivated for reasons of spite. Why does Rocky want alienate SL and NSL. Why does the City Council Support him if not for political correctness alone? Why SL County? As NSL attorney, Brent Hatch, has said, "“I don’t know why they [SL County] would want to get involved in the litigation.”

Well, it appears that any decision that SL County may have made, pre-emptively, on the contested 80 acres as 'open space' is tabled, for now.

NSL Dodges bullet from SL County

[Davis County Watch: Announcements] Blogger BETA already does Categories

After doing all the work to come up with my snazzy Blog-by-topic workaround, I've discovered that Blogger BETA let's you do virtually the same thing. They call it 'Labels'. See this example from a blog of a friend of mine. I haven't decided to take the plunge, yet, since I have already done the work. However, anyone is welcome to take advantage of the work that Blogger has done to give us this feature.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Announcements at 9/25/2006 11:39:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Announcements] The Breakfast Exchange Club of South Davis County: Meet the Candidate

The Breakfast Exchange Club of South Davis County is a member of the National Exchange Club and the Rocky Mountain District Exchange Clubs. It meets at the Cotton Tree Motel in North Salt Lake (Kmart Exit) on Thursdays at 7:30AM. A speaker is featured each week at these meetings and the public is invited, free of charge. Breakfast may be obtained from the Diner, if desired, for a nominal fee.

Breakfast Exchange Club of South Davis County
Thursday, September 28th, 7:30 AM
Cotton Tree Motel in North Salt Lake (Kmart Exit)

Speakers will be:
Bret Millburn, Candidate for Davis County Commision (Seat A)
Louenda Downs, Candidate for Davis County Commision (Seat B)

Don't Worry! You'll still be able to meet Kim Burningham Thursday night at 6:00 PM.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Announcements at 9/23/2006 08:28:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Citizenship] The Clipper is an 'inspired' work?

I realize that my previous post is quite heavy in content. So, I wanted to post something more succinct from the same event that may tickle your interest in reading, or listening, further.

If you fast forward the audio linked to in my previous post to 2:06:55, you'll get to hear Tom Hardy, Bountiful's City Manager, elevate the Davis County Clipper to the status of a 'Standard Work', along with the Bible, Book of Mormon, et. al.

Hardy said, "We do not include the Ogden Standard as part of the inspired works".

Well, I wonder what the Standard Examiner readership might say to that?

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Citizenship at 9/23/2006 01:11:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Citizenship] Ann Hardy questions Citizens for Tax Fairness

Political Subdivisions Interim Committee--September 20th, 2006

I'll post a section of the discussion from a meeting at a State Legislature Committee meeting. The entire audio can be heard here.

The topic of discussion was "Using Public Funds to Promote Political Issues", specifically, centered on the Rec Center fiasco of a couple of years ago.

It begins 1:39:20 into the discussion with a question posed to Ronald Mortensen who was testifying in front of the committee.

Ann Hardy:
I would like to ask you how you think it's fair to taxpayers, for the last two years, for you to have taken up the time of taxpayer paid, elected officials-both County Commissioners, the County Clerk, five Mayors, City Council Members, the Attorney General, and now bring it to the Legislature. If you added that up I would guess it's probably thousands of dollars of taxpayer money that's been involved in this and I want to know how you feel that that's being fair to taxpayers?

Ronald Mortensen:
I think it's fair for a citizen to exercise their right to participate in the system. I don't think that we're...if we're doing that than nobody should become involved. Or, if we're going to put a dollar value on every time we talk to somebody, or, ask a Legislator to do something. And, I think that the system is enhanced if there is a challenge. We do challenge things! We question, why is this tax going to this? Why is this tax rate like this? Why are we building this? Why should we be doing this? And, there's different, divergent, points of view on it. It's not a uniform, or a monolithic
government where government is all-knowing and government is all-right. If you don't have public discourse in the process then you are going to have abuse of the system, you are going to have corruption come into the system. And you have...There are different groups out there that have voices. And, all we're doing is we're giving a certain voice to a certain area of concern, and I hope that we're not saying that we are going to be denied the opportunity to do that because it inopportunes public officials?

Ann Hardy: Could I make a comment?

Walker: You bet!

Ann Hardy: That wasn't really my point. My point was obviously you have that right, and any citizen has that right, but at some point you have to recognize the fact, especially after the Attorney General has ruled in the manner that he did, or one of his staff, that maybe you need to move on to another issue.

Ronald Mortensen: Well, I think you could say that. I think, though, if you look at the way the Attorney General--if you go to court and you get a...and there is a decision made in a court. You have the right to appeal that decision if you think that a mistake was made on an issue of law or, on an issue of the facts. And, that's all we're doing in this situation it's not--We just asked the Attorney General to take another look at it. Did you overlook something? And uh...and that's all we asked on this issue on it. So, I don't see that there's anything wrong with doing that. And like I say, I've been gone for two months, so I'm not badgering people every day when I'm sitting in Beirut. I'm not uh, not uh, as I guess I've been portrayed as badgering public officials.

I could have gone on beyond this, but I think this, alone, speaks volumes.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Citizenship at 9/23/2006 12:16:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Creative Solutions] Davis County Library: Downloadable ebooks/audiobooks for patrons

It's been years since I've used my library card, but I might have to go dig it up. Davis County Library Patrons can now download ebooks and audio books online.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Creative Solutions at 9/22/2006 02:26:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Announcements] Preserving Davis County: Proposed Property Tax increase

Open houses for the public, regarding the proposed tax increase, will be held on October 25th at the Centerville Library (5:00-8:45 p.m.), and on October 26th at the Layton Library (5:00-9:00 p.m.). For details, click here.

Questions or comments regarding the proposed tax increase can be emailed to 2007budget@daviscountyutah.gov

Focus:
Flood Control
Operating the New Jail
Our Senior Citizens

Source: Davis County Website

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Announcements at 9/22/2006 02:17:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers] Meet the Candidate: Kim Burningham

Kim Burningham is south Davis County's current representative on the State School Board, where he also serves as chair. I am hosting a meet the candidate/walk your neighborhood night for Kim on Thursday, September 28th at 6:00. We'll meet at my friend Jamie's house, chat with Kim about his vision for our schools, and then divide and conquer North Salt Lake. What a great way to get involved and support a candidate who so ably supports public education! Please let me know if you are interested in attending and I'll send you more information. Thanks!

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Posted by NatGo to Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers at 9/21/2006 10:30:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Election] Utah Amicus Press Conference

I found this nugget in Rob Miller's speech.

"It is a pledge that this Democrat will make and will keep. If there is an emergency that requires a tax hike, there are two other commissioners that will have to do it. Maybe even with my public support, but never my vote."(italics are mine)

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I want to reiterate what Miller is saying. He's saying the the line that he is walking may be to encourage the other Commisioners to vote for a tax, while washing his hands of the blame that comes with a vote. That is a very comfortable stand to take. It isn't taking a risk at all, and is an easy promise to keep.

It just doesn't show the spine that I know Miller has.

I want someone in office that will use their principles, not just declare their principles.

My vote is still for Bret Millburn.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Election at 9/21/2006 10:20:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste] Hold on! Rec Center taxes lower than thought

The title of this article represents media spin at it's finest. The implication is that we will pay less taxes than advertised. Not so! $43.00 is still higher than the $41.00 estimated in the pamphlet. Who is to say that the amount isn't lower, at least in part, due to the efforts of watchdogs like Citizens for Tax Fairness.org?

Hold on! Rec Center taxes lower than thought

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste at 9/19/2006 09:33:39 PM

[Davis County Watch: Elections]Juan C. Arce-Larreta for Mayor of North Salt Lake

A While ago, I said that Arce-Larreta's website wouldn't exist after the Election for NSL Mayor was over. I stand corrected.

Juan C. Arce-Larreta for Mayor of North Salt Lake

[Davis County Watch: Announcements] Blog Organized by Topic

If you will look down the sidebar for Davis County Watch, you will now see seven links under the heading 'Davis County Topics'. I've always wished that Blogger had a feature to allow a person to blog by topic. What I didn't realize is that Blogger does allow categories. It just requires some tweaking. Here is what you'll need if you want to blog by topic with Blogger.

Ingredients:

• At least two blogs with Blogger (One Master Blog and one on a specific topic).
• A gmail (email) account.

Steps to a Topical blog with Blogger:

• I setup my gmail account to filter based on an alias. Let's say that your email address is jane.doe@gmail.com. Any email sent to jane.doe+blogthis@gmail will make it into your inbox. You then setup gmail to forward all emails sent to jane.doe+blogthis@gmail to your Mail-to-Blogger Address (i.e. jane.blog.blogger.com)
• Next I go to my master blog. In my case it is Davis County Watch, and I click on the Settings-->email tab. I fill out my Mail-to-Blogger Address (i.e. jane.blog.blogger.com) and I check publish (now anything emailed to this address will automatically be published to my Master Blog.
• If I haven't done it already I go to blogger and create one or more entirely new blogs. I called some of mine Davis County Watch: Announcements (http://daviscountywatch-announcements.blogspot.com)
• I click on Settings-->email tab for one of my topical blogs. I fill out the BlogSend Address with my alias jane.doe+blogthis@gmail. I do this same thing for each of my topical blogs.

That's it! Now anytime I publish to my Announcements, or one of my other topical blogs, then that post will be automatically posted to Davis County Watch as well. I basically trained my topical blogs to blog for me on Davis County Watch.

So, what does this mean for you? It means that you can now click on one of the topics in the sidebar and look at just the topics that interest you. If you aren't at all interested in what I have to say, but want to hear from one of my Guest Bloggers, then you can click on that topic. If you like RSS Feeds, then you can subscribe to only the Feed for the topic that interests you.

I haven't worked out all the kinks yet, but things are looking good. I'm sure I could have chosen some better topics. Rest assured I will be adding more. I spent a lot of time moving most of my old posts under one of the categories, and I discovered that it's hard to categorize everything perfectly. For example, I have a category called Creative Solutions that is full posts about people/politicians doing nasty things. In a sense 'creative' has become a synonym for 'nasty'. On the other hand, I've posted some legitimate, productive, solutions that others have proposed there.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Announcements at 9/19/2006 07:37:00 AM
Update: I should really have given a hat tip for this hack to Oreilly.com

[Davis County Watch: Announcements] Categories on Davis County Watch

I will be implementing a little blogger hack that allows me to organize my posts into categories shortly. I'll give more information later.

P.S. This is why I haven't posted much lately.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Announcements at 9/19/2006 12:03:00 AM

A Letter to the Past: September 2, 2001

September 2, 2006

Friend,

If this letter has reached you then you can be sure that I have reached the destination that we discussed previously. Having made it thus far I can tell you that your journey may not be easy, as we once thought. And, what is worse, you may have to tread it alone. I will, however, attempt to give you hints as to what awaits you.

Several days travel for you, from now, lies a place where a great battle commenced. Many people died, and many heros were proven on that ground. Though you may think it best to not journey there, I would beg of you, for all of our sakes, that you go. Who knows but that you may prove to be one of those hero's. Or, if not, we cannot say whether your words will be the last that another hears. We must not rob those, lost to us now, of such a moment. One day yours may be our cause to fight on another field. For all that may occur, it is best that you go forward. For, as has been eloquently said by another, "they purpose not their deaths when they propose their services."(Henry V, 4.1.147)¹

It was not long after that some did first question the motives of those who stood to protect that ground, but it is my hope that your voice will not add to that company. If it had been an inside job, it would have to be one that was planned long before. Not months, as has been said.

Who can say how many were involved in such a dastardly plot to take so many lives. Is it thousands? We still don't know. More plans have been made to harm us by others. Which is why we continue the battle even today. May you, one day, make it here to battle with us. Not against us as is wont to happen in war.

Whatever may happen there for you, it is my hope that we will meet, again, soon. Remember the words that bore us on, through difficult times, in past battles.

Far-called, our navies melt away;

On dune and headland sinks the fire:

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet.

Lest we forget - lest we forget!²

Sincerly,

Your Friend

Salt Lake Tribune - Mero quotes Mero

Okay, this letter is rimshot worthy.

Props to Dennis Miller.

Salt Lake Tribune - Mero quotes Mero