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Volume 117, No. 22 May 29, 2019 Single Copy Price $100

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RIFLE VOLLEY • Members of American Legion Post #1 present the rifl e volley at the Memorial Day program at Vine Bluff Cemetery in Nephi. Blair Painter, Legion member, read a memorial tribute; Trisha Rindlisbacher and Becky Rumsfi eld sang two songs; a metal silhouette of Ma-rines raising the U.S. fl ag at Iwo Jima, constructed by Aaron Mangelson and donated by IPP, was unveiled; a wreath was placed on the Veterans Memorial monument; Chaplin Reid Jarrett read the names of the newly deceased veterans; and Troy Rindlisbacher and Steve Hart played the Echo Taps to conclude the program.

Jones Annexation is approved by Nephi City Council, with one dissenting vote

By Rebecca Dopp

Times-News Correspondent

After months of discussion, the Jones Annexation has fi-nally been approved by the Ne-phi City Council. The annexation, whose ap-plicants include Russ and Di-ane Jones, Bryce and Marian Lynn, and Gayle and Wesley Lynn, was approved at city council meeting on May 21 with all council members ex-cept Kent Jones voting in the affirmative. A public hearing to take comment was held before the regular meeting. “This has been in the pro-cess for a couple of months, at least as far as the city pro-cess,” said Seth Atkinson, city administrator. “It’s been in the works for many years to do an annexation on the north end.” The property is just north of the Hunter Meadows Sub-division and Nebo Heights and east of Central Valley Medical Center. The property to be annexed will come in at the R1-H zone, which is for 1-acre lots, said At-kinson. That will be the desig-nated zoning upon annexation. Donald Ball, resident, want-ed to know if animal rights would be extended towards these 1-acre lots. Atkinson said that they will not be currently designated with animal rights. Mike Cannell, resident, wanted to know where the ac-cess to the subdivision would be located. Atkinson said at this time there was not any proposed access on the annex-ation area, however, when a development plan comes forth, those access areas will be iden-tified. He said that they antici-pate 200 East and Main Street will be the access areas to the subdivision. Cannell asked how this new subdivision would impact the city’s utilities. Justin Seely, mayor pro tem, said that right now the city can accommodate for the subdivision’s water and sewer. Nephi City is currently working on a water project to add a new storage tank on the south end of town, one by the existing water tank by the golf course, refurbishing an old well and adding another well to the system, explained Na-than Memmott, council mem-ber. The existing electrical sys-tem cannot accommodate for this new subdivision, so a new power substation will need to be built on the north end of town, the council said. Later on, in the regular meeting, Atkinson said that the annexation had gone through all the steps including the initial petition, the certifi-cation process, a notification

Council sets rules for conduct in public meetings

By Rebecca Dopp

Times-News Correspondent

Nephi City has set a new set of rules for conduct in their public meetings. Justin Seely, mayor pro tem, read the docu-ment before the public hearing and regular meeting that were held on May 21. “As a reminder to the public and residents in attendance at the public hearings,” he read. “These meetings are held to re-ceive input from the public on decisions made or about to be made by the city council. Com-ments from the public should be relevant to the topic of the pub-lic hearing and should present

information and give input to the council.” “This is not a time to request information or to ask questions of the council or staff,” he said. “Time limits are set by the mayor or mayor pro tem and all in attendance will have the op-portunity to speak,” he contin-ued. “Members of the public are expected to comply within the time limits and be respectful in their comments to the council, staff and other members of the public.” Seely said he would set a three minute time limit for each speaker who wished to address the council during a public hearing. “The premise and back-

ground on this,” he said, “is to create an environment where people are able to express their feelings and wants for our com-munity, but most importantly, that it’s done in a respectful way that adheres to the rules and expectations that we want to set here in the council.” For regular meetings, Seely said that, “Public meetings are not the same as public hear-ings. These meetings are open to the public so residents can be informed or witness decisions made by the city council. The council can only devote a few hours each week in these meet-ings to discuss and act on city business. The time reserved in the public meeting is for the

council to deliberate and take action on items related to city business. It is not a time for the public to comment or partici-pate in the meeting. A portion of each meeting is set aside for public comment where those in attendance may express their opinions about items related to the city. Staff should direct comments to the mayor and the council. Members of the public with questions or comments may speak with members of the council or staff before or after the meeting.” There will also be a time limit set for the public meeting. Each participant should also state their name for the official record.

USBE board member updates JSD board on issues at the state level

By Rebecca Dopp

Times-News Correspondent

Linda Hansen, Utah State Board of Education board member, District 3, came be-fore the Juab School District Board of Education to give up-dates on what was going on at the state level. “As you probably are aware, we’ve had some hiccups with the RISE test,” she said. “We thought they were little hic-cups and then they just went on and got bigger, so we are going to have a third party evaluate the validity of the tests. We’re hoping to get some answers for you, and we really apologize for that. We are all sick about it.”

According to a recent article in The Salt Lake Tribune, the problems with the standard-ized tests delayed more than 18,000 public school students in completing their assess-ments this past April and May with some schools reporting computers freezing in the mid-dle of tests, some portions not being available to students, and the data from the test scores not being readily avail-able to teachers and school dis-tricts. Utah switched vendors for the annual standardized tests last year and JSD announced the change in January 2019. RISE was to take the place of the SAGE test which JSD has been administering for the last several years. Questar Assess-

ment, Inc. offered the cheapest bid and won the contract. Linda Hanks, board mem-ber, asked what was going to happen with the evaluation. Hansen said they hadn’t heard all the details, but they had a committee that would be look-ing into what went wrong. “When we started out the SAGE testing...the first year was a bit rough as well, but this was much rougher than what they expected,” Hansen said. On another topic, she said that USBE had approved the health standards curriculum for schools and the science standards draft was out for K-5, 9-12 and they would be approving that hopefully in June.

“If you look at it and see changes, just let me know,” she said. She said that they had been working on the school fees is-sue and asked if there were any questions about it. “We don’t know how some of it’s going to go,” she said. Tracy Olsen, board member, said that he anticipated some unintended consequences as they move forward with the discussion on school fees. He didn’t want to deny students from doing what they wanted because they could not afford to pay for extra projects in CTE classes or keep them from

See Annex on page 2 See Board on page 8