It's party time!
While the DABC has in the past held its one-day annual managers meeting at department headquarters, with expenses limited to a lunch for participants and one-night hotel accommodations for those traveling from far reaches of the state, this year is different.
The two-day soiree beginning tonight and continuing through Thursday will be held at Snowbird, with the 60 participants put up in condos and treated to dinner at tonight's awards ceremony and meals tomorrow during the business meetings.
To be fair, the $10,000 outing was planned and budgeted four months ago, long before state officials realized the dire money crisis facing the state. But some of the DABC employees invited to the annual meeting say they are uncomfortable splurging at the same time basic government services are having to be cut.
DABC Deputy Director John Freeman said if the annual meeting were being planned now in the current financial climate, officials may have decided to go a different direction, but he said the department has outgrown the current facility, so alternative locations are needed.
Freeman said the expense is coming out of the department's travel budget and officials have tried to be frugal. All the meals offered the employees fall within the state's per diem guidelines, he said.
The department generates $256 million in sales revenue, Freeman notes, with $58.7 million going to the state's general fund and $14 million to the school lunch program.
Practice what you preach? The city of South Jordan is so concerned about water conservation it has offered a $250 rebate to residents and business owners who purchase irrigation control devices to cut water usage.
That sensitivity to water conservation seemed to be lost on city officials Saturday night, however, when after a daylong rain, sprinklers were running for long periods on the city-controlled parking strips around 9800 South and 3200 West.
Too late, Gary: Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert has sent "happy birthday" notices to Utah teens turning 18 before the general election and inviting them to fill out the accompanying registration form and mail it back so they can vote this year.
Herbert's letter cautions the teens that to be eligible, the form must be postmarked 30 days before the election.
Many of the teens received the letter on Monday, 29 days before the Nov. 4 election.
Part of the problem: In light of all the news about stings at pedestrian crosswalks lately, a reader writes that at the crosswalk near the Orem Elementary School at about 340 South and 400 West, the crossing guard parks her large SUV at the side of the road directly in front of the crosswalk, blocking the view of oncoming drivers so they can't see if a pedestrian is approaching the street.
Even the Orem public safety officers who watch the crosswalk with the crossing guards some days have not asked her to move the SUV.
prolly@sltrib.com
