This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Some Salt Lake City motorists have complained that when traveling east on South Temple, as they pass Virginia Street nearing the University of Utah, they are stopped from going any farther on the road that forks from South Temple onto Federal Way.
A sign tells them the road shuts down daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Robin Hutcheson, the city's transportation director, tells me the closure has nothing to do with the fact that Mayor Ralph Becker lives on Federal Way.
She said notices were mailed to area residents before the road was closed last year after traffic studies indicated the neighborhood was overly stressed by morning commuters going to the U.'s campus. Many neighbors complained, she said, and when she found out Becker lived on the street, she and her staff reconsidered whether to close the road.
"We decided we shouldn't punish the residents there because the mayor lived on the street."
Hutcheson said her division continues to monitor the response to the closure and whether it causes problems for other streets, but so far it seems to be working well.
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Lack of communication? • Provo resident Steve Thompson was shocked last Friday when a constable showed up at his home and handed him a summons to appear in the Salt Lake City Justice Court on Oct. 29 for a parking ticket he received July 24, 2014, that he never knew about.
The summons says he owes the city $445, which includes $190 in late penalties, $20 for a service fee, $60 for a filing fee and $175 for an attorney's fee.
Thompson went to a Salt Lake Bees game that night to see a baseball game and Pioneer Day fireworks. He had parked on a side street about two blocks from the stadium.
When he returned to his car and drove home, he says there was no ticket on his windshield and that he never received a notice of a citation.
Mary Beth Thompson (no relation), who oversees collections for Salt Lake City, says notices went to Steve Thompson's address Aug. 3 and Aug. 14, 2014. No other notices were sent until the summons was delivered last week.
But he insists he never received a notice in the mail and doubts they were sent. He says he has gotten parking tickets before and has a history of paying them right away. He would have done the same thing this time had he known he had a ticket.
He plans to appeal the fine and penalties, and then boycott Salt Lake City — even though he enjoyed seeing Bees games, the Utah Symphony and other venues.
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No room at the inn? • With proposals to shut down some golf courses and employees of Glendale Golf Course getting reprimanded by the mayor's office this summer for displaying a sign advertising a planned protest of the course's closing, golfers may be getting a tad paranoid.
Add to that recent surveys commissioned by the mayor's office that concluded residents favor a bond for parks, trails and open space, but not for golf courses.
Now, Liberty Park patrons have noticed signs in the park advertising a public hearing Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall over the mayor's proposed $150 million bond for parks, trails and open space.
What's interesting is the city's golf division, which is separate from the parks division, was not given those fliers for posting at its courses. So now golfers wonder if they're welcome to speak at the hearing.
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The graveyard can wait • Jim Kastanis was attending a funeral at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 11 a.m. Saturday when, after the service, he witnessed an act that could be given a 10 on the "inconsiderate &#%*hole" scale.
The funeral coach and the family limo were parked in front of the church with enough room between the two so the back doors of the hearse could be opened and the casket removed. But when the casket was carried back to the hearse after the funeral, someone had squeezed a car in between the hearse and the limo, leaving no room to open the doors. The hearse itself finally had to be moved, creating an awkward situation with cars going by on 300 West.
Perhaps the owner of the offending vehicle was in a hurry to get to the Farmers Market in Pioneer Park across the street.
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A few still standing • Back in the first half of the 20th century, Stewart Junior High was a training school on the University of Utah campus and under the U.'s auspices.
There aren't too many students left from those classes, but a few are gathering at the home of Sonja Malm Decker on Friday for the 66th anniversary reunion of the ninth-grade graduating class of 1949.
At last count, 13 alums plan to attend.
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Who's on first • Belva Parr posted on the Utah Republican Party's website that she is a delegate to Saturday's state GOP convention but won't be able to attend. She asked whom she should notify, stating: "I do not know who my precinct leader is."
The party responded: "Belva, you will need to contact your precinct chair and notify them that you need to be replaced."