Newsletter May 26, 2007

Welcome to Ideal Living Updates – May 26, 2007
A free newsletter from Ideal Living Media, www.ideallivingmedia.com.

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WHAT’S NEW?

• Have a good Memorial Day holiday this Monday!

• A Provo company which is pioneering new technology to make smaller, more effective — and completely clean — geothermal power plants is rapidly securing rights on the many hot springs located in Central Utah. Raser Technologies ( see http://www.rasertech.com/geothermal.html ) is recognized as the world leader in these types of plants, which use water, which has been already heated in hot springs to spin electric generators, rather than burning fossil fuels — such as coal — to do so. These new types of power plants, which are contained in relatively small buildings and issue no pollution, then return the water back into the well, continually renewing the resource. Many technical hurdles of old-style geothermal plants have reportedly been overcome by using sophisticated refrigeration equipment, using much less water, and essentially making the hot water unit a reversed air conditioner, with the heat contained inside the unit to generate the highest possible amounts of heat and electricity.

Raser Technologies has confirmed to Ideal Living that they are “actively seeking geothermal leases” in our area, which contain hot springs in Monroe, and in Joseph. In a press release — available here: http://tinyurl.com/2u9e74 — Raser announced it had already obtained leases which give them the rights to develop geothermal resources for a period of 10 years on 28,901 acres throughout Utah. Raser’s CEO, Brent Cook, states, “Not only is geothermal power environmentally friendly, but we also believe that it represents part of the United States’ solution for energy independence. The entire nation should be adopting renewable energy portfolio standards, particularly those states in the geothermally active West.”

It is difficult to foresee how positive the impact a new geothermal power plant would have on our area, yet Tim Wagner, President of the Utah Smart Energy Campaign, confirms that the Sevier Valley has an enormous potential with these new geothermal plants, speculating that Sevier County may be capable of generating more electricity via geothermal technologies than it would via the proposed coal-fired power plant.

If true, this means that Sevier County government could receive more tax revenue, in less time, by supporting development of our geothermal resources than it would by supporting the troubled proposal for a coal-fired power plant in Sigurd — with no negative environmental impact, and with a building project said to be around the size of a large garage. With an estimated 80+% of Sevier County citizens opposing the proposed coal-fired power plant, the question now is whether the Sevier County and local governments are listening, and will respond to the potential this new opportunity represents.

• Local realtors Hal & Jean Ward’s latest free email newsletter, “On the Market,” gives timely advice on the effects of the nationwide mortgage crisis on the Sevier County real estate market. “The best and worst of times are upon us. Depending on whether you are buying or selling, you’ll view the market accordingly. Here is some advice for whatever your situation…” The newsletter continues with specific, how-to advice depending upon your home-ownership status:

- If you were priced out of buying a home during the past 18 months in Sevier Valley…
- If you own a home and, because of your personal situation or family needs, it makes sense to sell…
- If paying your mortgage is becoming increasingly more difficult…

If you are in any of those groups, or just want to keep up on the local real estate market, sign up for their newsletter today at http://centralutahhomes.com . Thanks to the Wards for sharing this very valuable information with our community.

• Parsons Bakery is re-opening in its new home at Ideal Dairy. The dairy/restaurant has hired a former baker from the landmark bakery and will be offering the delicious baked goods you’ve known and loved for years, beginning on June 4.

• The Richfield City Library has re-opened, with the children’s section now located next door in the basement of the City Building. To do easy, online searching for books, periodicals, and to check the status of your account from home, visit: http://richfieldlibrary.com

• The Subway inside the Richfield Wal-Mart now offers individual size, deep-dish pizzas — with free, unlimited veggies, just like with their sandwiches. This brings the Richfield area to 6 pizza restaurants: Lotsa Motsa, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Little Caesars, Papa Murphy’s and Subway. If a Papa Johns and a Cici’s move in, we’ll be able to hold national taste tests right here.

• In case you missed it, the Richfield McDonalds has remodeled and upgraded their interior. They now offer birthday parties which includes setting aside an area for your party in the indoors children play area, a fun birthday cake with candles, happy meals for up to ten people, plus party favors (festive paper plates, balloons, hats) with small toys for everyone — all for $35. Plus, they do the clean up for you! They need 24 hours notice to have the cake ready.

• Children’s choir Tavaci is now accepting new students. The cost is $20 per month. Contact Molly or Paul Foster (Richfield Rec & Parks director) at 896-1959.

• Ideal Living has learned that NEVCO/Sevier Power may have lost their permit to build the proposed coal-fired power plant.

Reportedly, NEVCO requested that their current permit issued by the Utah Division of Air Quality be held in “abeyance” — or kept on hold — for an additional two years. The request explained that NEVCO believed that litigation and appeals (from Sevier Citizens for Clean Air and Water, Sierra Club, and others) would delay construction for at least two years. Of course, a proper extension of their current construction permit would likely require new hearings and allowance for public comment, so it is believed that NEVCO hoped to avoid this by requesting the abeyance. Indeed, Division of Air Quality approved a similar request for the new IPP plant in Delta.

However, the same request from NEVCO/Sevier Power was not approved. Rick Sprott, director of Division of Air Quality, has asserted that while he could have given approval he, in fact, had not, and that as a consequence of NEVCO’s failed request, their current permit is rendered invalid; thus, NEVCO would no longer be allowed to build a coal-fired power plant in Sevier County. The matter will likely be taken up in the courts, with final resolution not expected for months, and perhaps years. In any case, with their request, NEVCO appears to have acknowledged that they would not be able to construct their proposed coal-fired power plant within the time frame allowed by the permit.

• Meanwhile, the opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant in Sigurd continues to make a great deal of news, statewide and locally:

The newly-formed group, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, is influencing lawmakers and citizens alike with their authoritative counsel on the dangers of air pollution, receiving enormous media attention in the process (see http://tinyurl.com/39j3xw for over 500 examples). The Utah Physicians group, in consultation with Sevier Citizens for Clean Air and Water, has decided to focus their efforts on opposing NEVCO/Sevier Power’s coal-fired power plant project.

Accordingly, Utah Physicians will be having a free, public meeting in Richfield on June 28, 7:00 p.m. at the Richfield Quality Inn. They are expected to discuss the health impacts of mercury and other pollutants on the unborn, the young, and the elderly, which are distributed by coal-fired power plants for hundreds of miles around.

Further, another newly-formed, state-wide group, Utah Moms for Clean Air, has formed and joined in the fight for cleaner air, healthier children, and fewer miscarriages.

Meanwhile, the Salt Lake City Weekly, Utah’s fastest growing newspaper, has published an in-depth, investigative, cover article, entitled “Killer Coal: A proposed power plant in Sevier County threatens a local lifestyle and the air all of us breathe.” The article highlights the unfortunate controversy the proposed plant has created in our otherwise idyllic valley. The newspaper, which is headed by a former Tribune investigative reporter, examines the NEVCO/Nevada Coal/TDA Foundation/Magna Energy/Sevier Power Company, suggesting the company has attempted to operate secretively, going on to attribute the project’s limited progress to unwillingness in the county to confront obvious conflict-of-interest issues, along with many other issues. The article may be read at: http://www.slweekly.com/article.cfm/killercoal .

In response to these charges, NEVCO is opening an office on Main Street in Richfield, along with a billboard on the proposed site, reading “CLEAN COAL TECHNOLOGY.” The slogan is repeated on hundreds of campaign-style signs now being produced which the multi-named company will offer to any supporters to place in front of their homes or businesses. This slogan is puzzling to many experts, since “clean coal technology” is a term used to refer to Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle — or IGCC for short — technology. IGCC captures harmful gases and sequesters them underground, and is being researched and developed in locations across the country, including Southern Utah.

Yet, at the July Sevier County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, NEVCO declared that it was planning on using Fluidized Bed Combustion. Fluidized Bed technology was developed in the 1930s and, while being somewhat cleaner than, say, burning coal in a bonfire, is generally not viewed by people outside the coal power plant industry as “clean.” Indeed, it was at this Planning Commission meeting where Craig Cox contradicted earlier claims by the multi-named-corporation that they would build the “cleanest coal plant in America,” by admitting outright that the proposed plant would actually be “a cookie-cutter plant”. View his comments on Google Video here: http://tinyurl.com/3c9esx .

Meanwhile, local citizens group, Sevier Citizens for Clean Air and Water — which has gained thousands of supporters — has a new web site, which includes information and calls for donations, is now available at http://seviercitizens.com .

• Congress has passed a minimum wage increase, and the President has said that he will sign the bill. This will mark the end of the longest period without a minimum wage increase since 1938. The minimum wage will go up to $5.85 two months after President Bush signs the bill, then to $6.55 one year later, and to $7.25 the year following. Since Sevier County has an increasingly tourist-focused economy, and since minimum wage workers are often involved in the hospitality industry, the increase is likely to have a larger-than-average impact — both in terms of business owners needing to adjust pricing, and in more citizens having increasingly more to spend.

• School’s out! The free summer lunch program begins next Wednesday, May 30 (charbroiled hamburgers with pears, chips, fruit snacks and chocolate or regular milk), and runs through July 27 (Smuckers PB&J sandwiches, with string cheese, applesauce, baby carrots, fruit snacks, and milk). The program is designed to provide healthy lunches to all children, age 0-18, regardless of income or any other requirements. Your taxes do not pay for this program. It was felt that providing healthful meals throughout the summer would help students keep their bodies healthy and their minds sharp all year long. Parents are welcome with their children, and can purchase meals for themselves at a nominal fee. The more participation the program receives, the better for our local schools. So, please support the free summer lunch program. Locations are available throughout the county, and details may be found at: http://ideallivingmedia.com/calendar.html . And, with school out, remember to please drive carefully.

• Richfield’s Huish Reel Theatre is beginning their Summer Kid Show Series. All ten movies, one each week, shown at 1:30 Monday through Thursday, are available for all ages at $7.00 for all ten movies, or $2.50 each at the door. For the first week, May 28-31 the movie, “Flicka,” will be showing. Succeeding weeks are, in order: “Arthur and the Invisible,” “Night at the Museum,” “Open Season,” “Firehouse Dog,” “Happily N’ever After,” “Flushed Away,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Are We Done Yet?” and a surprise film.

• 300 acres near Venice has been purchased to be subdivided into 3-5 acre home lots (a minimum of 60 homes). Other housing developments, such as the several located in Monroe, have been rapidly filling up. It appears that the long-predicted move of many more retirees — along with larger-than-average families — to Sevier County has begun. Some local construction outfits are working as fast as they can, and can hardly keep up with demand… and this during a nationwide housing slump.

• While St. George golf courses charge around $200 to play 18 holes, Richfield’s municipal Cove View Golf Course offers its beautiful and enjoyable 18 hole course for $20. So join the many who are out on the course each day and enjoy some healthful activity and relaxation.

• A new store has opened in the K-Mart shopping area, offering refills on your printer and copier cartridges. With the cost of new cartridges rivalling that of the printers themselves, and with newer model cartridges often including only one-tenth the amount of ink as printers from just a few years ago, this is a welcome addition to the Richfield community.

• The Funfinity toy store in downtown Richfield has closed. The store, which enjoyed solid business since its opening 6 months ago, closed due to expanding business interests outside the store. This brings the total number of vacant businesses in the downtown Richfield area to two.

• The upstairs apartments in Downtown Richfield’s Young Block building are reportedly going to be refurbished into luxury condominiums.

• In another indication of the growing importance of tourism to the economic growth of our community, the Sevier County Travel Council and Sevier County Lodging Association have asked Ideal Living Media to produce a looping DVD of helpful, travel-related information to be played in the county’s 19 hotels, motels and inns on in-room television and lobbies. Commercials from local businesses will be included in the DVD. With the county generously covering the (often high) cost of production, these commercials are very inexpensive, and many businesses are welcoming the opportunity to join in the project and reach out to the approximately 1,000 guests staying overnight in Sevier County each day. Costs are only $100 for a television commercial running for 90 days, and $300 for the entire year (saving you $100). If reaching overnight visitors to our area would be helpful to your business, contact Ideal Living Media ASAP at 201-9884.

• Although we do not typically cover crime in our updates, in what may be a comfort to many in our community, Morris Mullins, the murderer currently serving a life sentence in Utah State Prison for the 2001 murder of 78-year-old Amy Davis, formerly of Richfield, has pled guilty to yet another murder in Yuma, Arizona, based upon recently-revealed DNA evidence. This means it is now highly unlikely the murderer will ever get out of prison.

• Did you know that anyone can search Sevier County property records, free, over the Internet? Just visit http://qdocs.sevierutah.net/recorder/web/login.jsp , click the “Login without an account” button, and search away.

• If you need a steel building, remember Tooter Ogden is the new steel buildings sales agent for QHB at 979-6310.

• NOTE: Charles Scott left his barbecue grill at Richfield’s City Park for others to use, where it’s use was welcomed by many, but now it has disappeared. If you have any ideas where it might be, please contact him at 896-6652. Thank you!

• If you need a new or improved web site, please visit Ideal Living’s portfolio of local web sites at http://ideallivingmedia.com/portfolio . Recently, we have helped folks like the Richfield Residential Hall — at http://richfielddorm.org — and the Central Utah Health Department — http://www.centralutahpublichealth.com . We are ready to help you today!

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NEWS – http://IdealLivingMedia.com/news.html

Recent headlines added to our local news archive in Central Utah News:

• Warning on bears in Utah areas issued – Salt Lake Tribune
• Hole Could be Answer to 40-Year Old Bank Robbery Mystery – KSL
• Convicted murderer takes plea in Yuma killing – Yuma Sun
• Fault yields hint of future quakes – Salt Lake Tribune
• Royalite Petroleum Company Inc. Reports Initial Well Analysis – Press Release
• ‘Pastime’ tells of painful time – Sacramento Bee
• Wind Farm Gets OK in Utah County – Forbes
• First Green Project of Its Kind: Utah to Make Biofuel from Highway Crops: If the Green Experiment Works, Utah Could Generate 2.5 Million Gallons of Biofuel Each Year – Associated Content
• Trigon Continues to Drill Significant New Mineralization at Marysvale – Press Release
• Biodiesel project: USU and UDOT aim to grow fuel- bearing plants: School, state hope seeds will bear fuel – Salt Lake Tribune
• Clayton Williams Energy provides update on operations – Oil Online
• Delta Petroleum Corporation Announces First Quarter Operating Results: Revenue Increases 15% to Record $42.5 Million – Press Release
• Fame and fortune from a flip: The Frisbee is still wildly popular a half century after its official launch. What a good life it has been for the inventor. – St. Petersburg (FL) Times
• Seeing The Trees For The Forest: WHRC Scientists Creating National Biomass And Carbon Dataset – Medical News Today
• Royalite Petroleum Company Inc. Well Update – Sys.Con Media
• Trigon Drills Significant Uranium in First Holes at Marysvale – Press Release
• Arch Coal Achievement Awards Given to Five Utah Teachers – Press Release
• Counting On Trees: Scientists Are Creating A National Biomass And Carbon Dataset For USA – Science Daily
• Australian group plans dinosaur-era garden on bluff overlooking Price – Salt Lake Tribune
• Raser Secures Eight More Geothermal Leases: Raser Deepens Its Utah Geothermal Resource Portfolio: 28,901 Acres in Utah Now Under Lease – Press Release
• Utah Power Plant Idea Not ‘Cool’ Enough? – KUTV
• Municipal Group To Build Coal-Fired Power Plant – My Fox Utah
• Mining Cos Go Extra Mile for Environment – KCPW
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR – http://IdealLivingMedia.com/calendar.html

Please submit any local events you know of at 201-9884 or ideallivingmedia@gmail.com. Thank you!

Upcoming local events include:

• May 24-26: Mid-Way West Carnival.
• May 28: Memorial Day.
• May 30 – July 27: Free Summer Lunch Program.
• June 2: Mulligan Masters Golf Tournament.
• June 15-16: Race to Richfield Street Festival Downtown.
• June 15-16: Danish Heritage Days.
• June 15-16: Race to Richfield street festival.
• June 22-23: Relay for Life.
• June 23: Miss Sevier County.
• June 30: Miss Richfield.
• July 4: Independence Day celebrations in Richfield and Salina.
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FOOD – http://IdealLivingMedia.com/food.html

• Best. Hamburgers. Ever.
• Summer Smoothies.
• Several Restaurants’ Salad Dressings.
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INTERNET – http://IdealLivingMedia.com/internet.html

• Free Casual (quick) Games
• More Kids’ Virtual Worlds
• Daily-updated Sites
• Great Internet Videos
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LATEST UPDATES – http://IdealLivingMedia.com/

• Visit www.IdealLivingMedia.com for news and business updates and other information for and about our “ideal” community! Thanks for visiting!
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MANY THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!

Please support the Richfield Mall and other local businesses by supporting our great sponsors!

Barney Outdoor Outfitters – http://barneyoutdooroutfitters.com
Blake Electric Co. – http://ideallivingmedia.com/blakeelectric
CentraCom Interactive – http://centracominteractive.com
Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties – http://ideallivingmedia.com/coldwellbanker
Comfort Inn – Richfield – http://ideallivingmedia.com/comfortinn
Hal & Jean Ward – http://centralutahhomes.com
Ideal Dairy – http://www.theidealdairy.com
Intermountain Computer Services – http://intermountaincomputer.com
Jones Glass and Decorating – http://www.jonesglassanddecorating.com/
Little Wonder Travel – http://littlewondertravel.com
Nationwide Floor & Window Coverings – http://FloorsandWindows.com
Ogden’s Superstore – http://ogdens.homeappliances.com

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Ideal Living Updates, a publication of Ideal Living Media.

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All contents are (c) 2007 Ideal Living Media, a public service of Ovid Learning Foundation, Inc.
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