FYI PanguItch

by Mack Oetting ~ mackoetting @gmail.com

gone, it is really worth your while to go, regardless of your faith. It took us about an hour and a half to see everything that is on display. When you get on the I-70 freeway, it is the first off ramp you come to.

This weekend is the semi-annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. It is broadcast at 10:00-12:00 and again at 2:00-4:00, both on Saturday and Sunday.

I am not sure when the students will have their spring break, but the 28th annual Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, April the 8th. There will be plenty of prizes and candy for all, so bring a basket or bag to put all of the goodies in. It is a picture taking moment so bring your phone or camera. The Easter Bunny will arrive by the big red fire engine, and then the fun will begin.

Again this yeat, the Baptist Church will have their fun blow-ups, so dress the little ones in warm clothing and wear the kids out.

I, for one, will be going down to Hurricane for their annual car show. It is a really big show, and last year, they had over 300 cars on display.

Easter Sunday, the holiest of days for the Christian religion, falls on the 2nd of April this year. I understand that many of the wards in town will celebrate with a Sacrament meeting only, so people can watch the Conference.

April is just around the corner, with Saturday being April Fool’s Day. The word "April" comes from the Latin word aperio, “to open” (buds of plants begin to grow during this month).

Earth Day is on the 22. Start thinking about different ways to honor and celebrate our planet, whether it’s planning an outdoor ramble, cleaning up litter or using more Earth friendly products, or maybe looking at some of these abandoned homes around town and cleaning up their area. April is best known for its showers that bring May flowers. May used to be "Mud Month," but I think that March has taken its place.

March Madness is coming to an end after only three weeks. Utah’s women’s team were oh-so-close to a win. They were only a free throw away, but the player missed two chances. This team should be really good next year since they did not have any seniors.

South Carolina, last year’s champs, have won 42 games in a row and are big favorites to repeat. I think that LSU, Eastern Florida, Iowa and So. Carolina are in the final four. In the men’s side so far, UCon and San Diego State will be in the finals; the other two teams will play on Monday I got this article out of my “Week magazine.” For decades, doctors advised that consuming a daily alcoholic beverage or two is fine for one’s health. A growing body of research, however, indicates that toasting “to your health” is an Oxymoron. Studies have found that even modest drinking can have a negative consequence, including the risk of cancer or heart attacks.

Alcohol contributes to more than 75,000 new cancer cases per year in the U.S. and 19,000 annual cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. When humans consume alcohol, they metabolize it into acetaldehyde. This toxic chemical can damage DNA, enabling the out-of-control cell growth that creates cancerous tumors.

Alcohol is known to be a direct cause of seven types of cancer: oral cavity, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box) liver, breast and colorectal.

Alcohol is the thirdleading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Alcoholic liver disease kills 22,000 Americans every year. Risk of liver disease is greatest among heavy drinkers, but one study found drinking only two drinks a day for five years can do damage to the liver.

The eyes of all America are upon us. As we play our part, posterity will bless or curse us.

—Henry Knox Mack O.

Skyview: After more than ten years of dreaming, planning, and designing, Joshua Rowley and Nicholas Derrick opened their ultramodern Skyview Hotel in Torrey on March 10, 2023.

efficiency equipment, and besides a few potted plants, the landscaping is completely xeriscaped.

Skyview is also proud to partner with other local businesses. Hotel guests are welcomed with goodies from the Wild Rabbit Cafe, Shooke Coffee is roasting their own special Skyview blend for use in the rooms, and guests have the option of adding on a breakfast box from Hunt and Gather. Dog guests are also welcome at Skyview and are greeted with their own special treats from Loa-based Captiol Treats. Not to mention that a portion of their pet fee goes to support Color Country Animal Welfare. Shawn Passey of Shooke Coffee says, "We're really excited to partner with Skyview and are thrilled to offer a reusable container of our coffee in their rooms."

April 3 - April 9

by John Mosley

I hope you found minor planet Ceres last week and added a notch to your binoculars. If you didn’t— and poor weather has been a problem—Ceres is still there and it hasn’t faded. If you need to refer back to last week’s Sky Report for observing hints, know that they’re archived at https:// stellarvistaobservatory.org/ category/sky-reports/ for all of posterity. And forward that link to a friend who might enjoy reading them.

the hotel’s exterior resembling the walls of a twisting, turning slot canyon requiring guests to wander a bit before finding their room. “People don’t know how to get to their room and I love that,” says Rowley. He says one of the best parts of the design is that every room has a view of the landscape but you don’t exactly know it until you open the door to the room and are hit with the view.

The hotel’s color palette draws from the surrounding desert landscape with a special nod to the area’s dark skies. Skyblue-hued headboards extend upwards to the ceiling representing the night sky, and each room features its own unique art installation inspired by landscapes in Capitol Reef National Park, which are all designed and created by Derrick. One of the rooms has a Cathedral Valley Glass Mountain installation, which features 550 meticulously placed glass pieces. All rooms have private patios, and six of them have their own personal hot tubs. The resort’s main feature, however, is the rooftop terrace. It’s here that guests can sit back and enjoy unobstructed views of the night sky.

Rowley calls Skyview “upscale eclectic,” and he made sure to note that this does not mean fancy. Accommodations also include six glamping domes, which feature the same stellar views as the hotel rooms, some with panoramic sky views. He says that getting started camping can be intimidating for some so he likes the idea that the glamping domes can provide a camping-type experience without investing in all of the necessary gear. The domes are slated to open in April of 2023.

Skyview was designed with outdoor adventurers in mind, and they hope to appeal to travelers conscious of their environmental footprint. The owners take water conservation seriously. The hotel’s bathrooms feature low flow water systems, the laundry uses high

Both Rowley and Derrick have backgrounds in design, and Rowley says they’ve been planning this hotel since the day they met. They would like to eventually find or build a home in Torrey, but they went all in on the hotel, so they are making do with one of the hotel rooms for now while also maintaining their home in Salt Lake City. Rowley grew up in Green River and never thought he’d return, but the opportunity arose to take over the Tamarisk Restaurant and it seemed like a good step toward one day owning their own small hotel. Derrick grew up in Sandy and was an easy convert to small town life, according to Rowley. Although they thoroughly enjoyed their nine years in Green River, Torrey seemed to be a better fit for their hotel goals, and they especially were drawn to the town’s Dark Sky designation.

“There are many ways to see the desert,” says Rowley and Skyview is a representation of how they’ve embraced this particular part of the Colorado Plateau. Rowley said that local residents should feel welcome to stop by and check out the slot canyon art installation and hotel grounds. They also plan to host a grand opening celebration in April where locals will be invited to tour the domes and view the inroom art installations.

Venus is by far the brightest planet tonight, and it dominates the western sky for almost three hours after sunset. Venus is so brilliant because it’s relatively nearby at just over 100 million miles away but especially because its clouds make it highly reflective. Venus reflects about 70% of the sunlight that hits it compared to about 10% for our cloudless moon (which is actually a very dark rock) and 30% for the partly cloudy earth. Imagine how bright our full moon would be if it reflected as much light as Venus! Note that Venus is approaching the Pleiades Star Cluster (aka The Seven Sisters) in Taurus and will pass near it next week.

Mars is out too, but unlike Venus, it blends in with the brighter stars near it, and you need to know your constellations to pick it out. Mars is in the feet of Gemini, the Twins, and during the next five weeks, it moves northward diagonally up the twins to position itself in line with Castor and Pollux in the middle of May. (Venus then will also be in Gemini; watch it traverse Taurus during April.) Mars is in the middle of a ring of similarly bright stars that include Castor and Pollux, Procyon, Betelgeuse, and Capella.

Little Mercury is currently at its best evening appearance of the year. Through the 11th, it will be a little higher at sunset each evening, reaching its greatest angular separation from the sun on that day, and then in only a few days, it’ll leave the evening sky. So up to and around the 11th is best chance of 2023 to see elusive Mercury in the evening, and I include it this week so that you can be looking for it.

To see it, you’ll need a low western horizon, a clear sky (of course), and perseverance. Binoculars will help. Look beginning 40 minutes after sunset, when Mercury will have an altitude of about 10°. Binoculars will help you find it, but if the air is clear, you’ll have no trouble seeing it with your eyes alone —and pointing it out to your neighbors—to their wonder and astonishment.

Mercury is in Aries where there are no bright stars nearby to confuse it with.

This year, Easter falls on April 9th. Like Passover, which Easter is based on, the date moves from year to year because it’s based on the cycles of the moon, rather than (like Christmas) the motion of the sun. The best source of historical background information for such things is often The Old Farmer’s Almanac, now online (https://www.almanac. com/content/when-is-easter).

John Mosley was Program Supervisor of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles for 27 years and is the author of “Stargazing for Beginners” and “Stargazing with Binoculars and Telescopes.” He and his wife live in St. George, where he continues to stargaze from his retirement home while serving on the advisory committee for Stellar Vista Observatory.

BLM Utah State Office Seeks Public Comment for the September 2023 Oil and Gas Lease Sale

SALT LAKE CITY -

Consistent with direction in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office released an environmental assessment analyzing 18 parcels comprising 31,807.99 acres for the proposed September 2023 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Fourteen of these parcels cover 26,853.94 acres on public lands managed by the BLM Richfield Field Office with an additional four parcels totaling 4,954.05 acres on National Forest System lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDA Forest Service) Fishlake National Forest. The release of this environmental assessment starts a 30-day public comment period, which will end April 19, 2023.

The BLM completed scoping on these parcels on Dec. 22, 2022, and now seeks a 30-day public comment on the environmental analysis. All parcels leased as part of an oil and gas lease sale include appropriate stipulations to protect important natural resources. Public comments must be submitted electronically via the BLM Land Use Planning and National Environmental Policy Act Register (ePlanning) and must be received by April 19, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. MT. Comments received by other methods will not be accepted. Additional information, including spatial data and exhibits, are online on our ePlanning website at https://eplanning. blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022049/510.

Please note the most valuable public comments are practical and relevant to the proposed action. For example, comments may question, within reason, the accuracy of information, methodology or assumptions, then present reasonable alternatives to those already analyzed.

Comments containing only opinions and/or preferences, or those seeming similar to other comments will not be addressed specifically in the environmental review process. This BLM lease sale will include updated fiscal provisions authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act:

• Minimum bids for all offered parcels will be $10 per acre, an increase from the $2 peracre minimum bid set in 1987; Royalty rates will be 16.67 percent, up from the previous minimum of 12.5 percent; and Rental rates will be $3 per acre for the first two years; $5 per acre for years three through eight; and $15 per acre for years nine and 10.

(Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, rental rates were $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre for each year thereafter, rates originally set in 1987).

Further information can be found at blm.gov. —Bureau of Land Management

For First Time in School's History, BVHS Debate Team Wins 1A Speech and Debate State Championship

PHS Sports Sidelines

by Mack Oetting

Track season is upon us, and the Cats have been to a couple of meets so far this year. In Kanab, the girls, without a couple of their seniors, took 1st place quite easily, and the boys took second.

The meet at Pineview, which had 51 teams com- peting, had some outstanding showings. Tucker Chappell broke Arlin Sawyer's school discus long time record, with a toss of 148’ compared to Arlin’s 145’. How long has that record stood? Well, Arlin has a 35 year old daughter. Alix Allen also did well in the discus, taking 4th. The Cats don’t have any home meets this year, so you will have to travel to see them. Both teams are very strong and should bring home another couple of championships.

2nd Annual LitJam Promotes Literature and Self-expression to EHS Students

ESCALANTE"Making Plays," "The Power of Punctuation," "Comics," "Country Music Writing"—all this and more were presented at this year’s Lit Jam for Garfield County grades 5th - 8th at Escalante High School. Lit Jam began last year and is a mini-writing conference for middle schoolers, teaching kids the significance of literature and writing in their life. This year, the keynote address was playwright Raymond Shurtz, from Boulder. Other teachers included children’s author Amber Dennison, Cheryl Cox, Robbin Peterson, Jared Brehms, Sondra Jones, Evelyn Corning, Ward Williams, Rowdy Miller, Karen Munson, Jemma Young, Bonnie Jensen, Joey Martel, and Michelle Lindsey.

could get more individualized learning.

Two fifth graders said of the conference, “I got to meet songwriters, actors, and authors.” “It was awesome—cool to see people from here who can do all that. And Ward Williams is a good singer!”

Several kids in particular were impressed with the “Comics: Storytelling Through Art” class. A 6th grader said, “I learned comics and the layout. There’s a lot of cool art.” Another said, “I learned how to draw different scenarios and emotions in the characters.” A 7th grader commented, “I learned from Jemma you need to always be practicing. It will only get better, not worse.”

BRYCE - For the first time in the history of Bryce Valley High School (BVHS), the BVHS Debate team won the Mountain America 1A Speech and Debate State Championship (hosted by Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA)) at Ogden High School on March 17th and 18th.

The team is made up of seniors Mason Beesley, Isaac Leech, Anne Overson, Dallen Platt, and Loyd

On March 17, Shaylie Pollock received the Silver Medal in Student Congress, Oscar Word received the Gold Medal in Extemporaneous Speaking, and Zaren

Roberts received the Silver Medal in Impromptu. Original Oratory was the other event of the day.

On March 18, Oscar Word received the Gold Medal in the LincolnDouglas event, Mason Beesley and Dallen Platt both received Gold Medals in Public Forum, Isaac Leech and Zaren Roberts both received Bronze Medals in Public Forum, Taylor LeFevre and Shaylie Pollock both received Gold

Medals in Spontaneous Argumentation (SPAR), and Anne Overson received a Bronze Medal in SPAR.

For the first time in the history of Bryce Valley High School (BVHS), the BVHS Debate team won the Mountain America 1A Speech and Debate State Championship (hosted by Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA)) at Ogden High School on March 17th and 18th. Roberts; juniors Taylor LeFevre and Oscar Word; sophomores Eli Beesley, Shaylie Pollock, and Zaren Roberts; and freshmen Mason Ahlstrom, Mase Bybee, Annabella Vasquez, and Carina Word. Debate team coaches are Lacey Jensen and Rowdy Miller.

Points from each individual event are totalled, and BVHS won with a score of 71 points, Intermountain Christian School (ICS) took second with 69 points, and Panguitch High School rounded out the top three teams with 65 team points.

—Bryce Valley High School

4-H Teens Attend Annual Saddle Up & Lead Southern Region Retreat

Courtesy Callie Ward

(From L to R) Callie Ward, Advisor; the 2022-2023 Region Ambassadors Ther-

GARFIELD CO. -

Twenty-Two Garfield County 4-H teens attended the annual Saddle Up and Lead Southern Region 4-H Retreat held at Ruby’s Inn on March 9th and 10th. At the retreat, the teens participated in several workshops on planning and accountability, respect and responsibility, hard work, dependability, teamwork, and communication. Work groups were cutting, sewing, stitching, and stuffing toys and pillows. The group made over 150 items to be dispersed through south- ern Utah to several agencies. The whole retreat was branded with the Code of the West: an unwritten socially agreed upon set of informal laws shaping the cowboy culture of the Old West.

The keynote speaker was our very own 4-H Program Coordinator, Clint Albrecht. He focused on sharing the western culture and the principles to live by: live each day with courage, take pride in your work, always finish what you start, do what has to be done, be tough but fair, when you make a promise keep it, ride for the brand, talk less and say more, remember some things aren’t for sale, and know where to draw the line. And in pure Old West fashion, they all attended an awesome dance where we learned new line and swing dances and danced the night away.

Five Region Ambassadors were selected last spring to help plan and implement this retreat. The 2022-2023 Ambassadors were Luke Albrecht, Sadie Pollock, Theron Evans, Maddie Albrecht, and Rylee

Ward. Throughout the year, they meet with other ambassadors from southern Utah to build on their leadership. Regional Ambassadors is Utah 4-H’s officer leadership training program. This team builds upon leadership skills that youth have already developed, transforming them into officers for county or even state-level positions. Within Region Ambassadors, we promote a culture where youth and adults work together to develop and apply leadership skills. This is a fun, interactive program where youth will polish their skills and prepare for the next level of their leadership experience. Participation in the program will facilitate individual growth, positive social experiences, and meaningful service opportunities. Join the team! 4-H Youth Leaders expand their roles to effect positive change in their community. Our goal is to produce individuals who are educated, responsible, confident, and motivated to share their leadership abilities and expertise in a way that improves their local communities, state, country, and, ultimately, the world. Ambassador applications with be available April 1, 2023, for 2023-2024.

—Callie Ward, Utah State University Extension

“We wanted to do something to help literacy in our area,” said Robbin Peterson, author and one of the founders of Lit Jam. “Lit Jam has become a fun, informative experience for everyone involved. Our team shares a passion for literacy, and we wanted to show students that they can learn to use the resources and information they have around them to create and express themselves, and to find joy in the heart of literature. Sometimes kids can feel like their abilities to create are limited, that they only have so many options, that learning isn’t fun, that they need to find self-expression in avenues that can actually hurt them. There is a power in writing and reading that nothing can match that can take you places you never dreamed of. I know it definitely has done that for me in my life.”

This enthusiasm for literature and self-expression was contagious with classes like “Write to Fight for Your Rights” by journalist Joey Martell, and the class “Who am I? Personal Narrative” by professional therapist Michelle Lindsey. Michelle helped the kids look at their past, their parents and grandparents, and see what qualities they admire and share to better utilize those qualities in their own personal stories. The class sizes were kept small, under 15 students, so they

One 6th grader said she really liked meeting new people from around the district and working with them. Especially in classes like “Running Dictation” with Jared Brehms. “In his class we wrote a story and then we cut it up and stuck it around the gym, and then we chose another team’s sentences and then we had to run over, remember it, make a picture with it, and then put them in order. And then the other team judged you on how good you did. It was my favorite class. It made me energized for the day.”

Each student was encouraged to submit a sample of their personal writing in the categories of argumentative essay, informational essay, poetry, or a fictional narrative. Eighty-nine submissions were scored by local judges. Twenty-three outstanding writers were identified with five champion writers whose work was exemplary and stood out as being worthy of extra acknowledgement. Excerpts from these five were read during a closing awards ceremony, and the top five writers were later given an engraved metal bookmark to recognize their performance. All students received applause for their participation, a bookmark, and a $2 bill with a certificate attached to their work.

—Robbin Peterson, LitJam