Friday, April 8, 2011
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Vandalism cases on the rise By DAN SMITH senior news writer
Vandalism, specifically graffiti, is on the rise at USU and in Cache Valley in general, said patrol officer Sutton Hanzalik of the USU Police Department. Tagging, stenciling and even using ketchup or dry-erase markers are all forms of graffiti that have been found recently by university police. “This is the first year where we’ve really been hit like we have in the last month and a half,” Hanzalik said. “I went to our last gang meeting a couple weeks ago and they’re up dramatically.” Hanzalik, the USUPD liaison to the Logan City Police gang task force, said a lot of the graffiti seen on campus is not gang-related. Most of the recent tags are references to social media sites. A lot of these sites are new and not as broad as Facebook, he said. They are geared towards specific preferences to things such as sneakers, rap music and street art. “All the people that are getting caught right now are still the young GRAFFITI CASES ARE RISING at USU with nine cases so far this year. Last year only 12 cases were reported. Sutton Harzalik of the kids,” Hanzalik said. “They’re not 20- or USUPD said those getting caught are “young kids” trying to get atten- 30-year-olds, they’ve grown out of it. Most of the kids are just trying to get tion. ALISON OSTLER photo
noticed.” Capt. Steve Milne of USUPD said nine occurrences of graffiti have been reportedalready in 2011, compared to the total of 12 that occurred in all of 2010. Last week he was notified that the f-word was spray-painted on the Business Building and on an airconditioning unit atop the Lillywhite Building. Some buildings on campus have exterior roof access, Hanzalik said, but others are only accessible from the inside of the building. “It’s not just the police that are here trying to protect the property, it’s every student kind of has a responsibility.” Milne said. “The problem is it destroys property, it takes time and funding and resources away from something else. I bet you a lot of people have either seen something going on, or know or heard somebody talking about it, and that’s the information we need coming in to us.” Graffiti is a part of rebellion for young people, Hanzalik said. The respect for other people’s personal property has been lost over the last 2025 years, he said, and the community needs to work with police to change things.
“There’s no way (police) can be somewhere 24-7,” Hanzalik said. “If you look at inner-cities, any inner-city that has changed in a positive way, it’s come through the community. It didn’t come through law enforcement.” Milne said graffiti is a form of vandalism, which is classified as criminal mischief. If caught, the perpetrator is charged with at least a class-B misdemeanor and the penalty goes up depending on how much damage is incurred. A more obvious form of vandalism – outright destruction of property – also occurs somewhat frequently on campus, Milne said. On March 29, Starr Christensen, a resident assistant at Snow Hall, called university police to notify them that three windows were damaged on the ground floor of the building. “I don’t know the monetary amount of damage,” Christensen said. “It was enough that they had to replace the glass, it made the rooms colder and it made the residents feel a lot less safe, which the most valuable thing is my residents’ safety.”
- See ART, page 4
Billiards room to move for new fitness class
By MEGAN BAINUM assistant news editor
we wouldn’t see more than a third of the students. They are taking the class because they can spend the time to get to the Fieldhouse, not the Fun Park,” Crook said. Lee Stevens, general manager of the Fun Park, said during the day the billiards tables are usually slow so it will have “minimal effect on the customers.” He said pool tables will be available to customers during class time depending on enrollment numbers. Jacob Wolim, a sophomore and member of a billiards course, said it isn’t as accessible to students since they would have to worry about finding a way to get down there for class. “They are basically eliminating the club, I know that isn’t their intention but that is what they are doing,” Wolim said. “In a year or two there are just not going to be enough students that are willing to go down there.” Crook said the billiards courses bring in money to the university, and moving the class would not be financially positive. He said there are about 320 students currently enrolled and with a $50 course fee,
The billiards room in the Nelson Fieldhouse at USU may be turned into a cross-fit class room come Fall semester and members of the billiards club and instructors for the course say enrollment will fall if the pool tables are moved off campus. Chris Crook, the treasurer of the billiards club, said as of now the plans are to move the billiards courses to the Cache Valley Fun Park because a cross-fit class is going to be taught in the current billiards room. Kevin Kobe, director of campus recreation, said he hasn’t heard of anything being finalized, although negotiations with the Fun Park are ongoing. He said because of the success of the Fun Fit Forever program, there is a need for added space. Crook said the majority of students he has talked to say they probably won’t be enrolling in billiards classes if they are moved to the Fun Park. He said students take the course because they have breaks in between classes and it is close on campus. - See POOL, page 3 “If they go to the Fun Park I bet
MEMBERS OF THE BILLIARDS CLUB SAY moving the pool tables will hinder their ability to practice. The billiards room in the Nelson Fieldhouse is set to be relocated. A Fun Fit Forever class will likely be held in that room starting in the fall. MEGAN BAINUM photo
Flooding in valley possible if wet weather continues By RHETT WILKINSON staff writer
Warnings of the first floods in Logan and surrounding area since 2006 abounded in a presentation given by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hydrologist Brian McInerney, Tuesday, at the Logan City Municipal Meeting at City Hall. Following the meeting, McInerney said current NOAA projections, based on runoff rate from melted snowpacks from the surrounding mountain range, foresee the possibility of summer homes in the Logan Canyon area, below the Logan River, and perhaps residences in the valley below the Blacksmith River, to encounter problems. “This year, if temperatures remain mild and we have an absence of heavy rain, we’ll come out with no problem,” he said. “But if the weather remains cold and wet as it did in March up until late May, we’ll definitely have some flooding issues.” Such problems were caused by a jet stream from several Pacific regions into the nation’s midwest and east coast regions, resulting in
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a bad case of La Nina, McInerney said. “We had bad air in absence of storms, then a high pressure retrograde that opened the door for storm activity,” he said. “That went away but was replaced by two big low-pressure systems that moved through area and dumped tons of snow into the mountains.” McInerney said the current snowpack in the mountains in Logan is 145 to 150 percent of the average snowpack amount for this time of the year. The rate is right on pace with the valley’s record snowpack amount in 1982, which resulted in an overflow above standard river levels to the point of being just 0.4 feet from flood quota. In contrast, in May 2006, rivers were flooded as high as 5.2 feet above the standard level. McInerney’s presentation revealed that the threat has been a rapid increase from the precipitation rate of October 2009 to January 2010, when the rate hovered between 50 and 89 percent in the valley, according to studies conducted by the NOAA. However, temperatures 5-7 degrees above average beginning in January 2010 resulted in a 129-150 percent runoff volume in various rivers throughout the valley, most prominently the Logan and Blacksmith Rivers. Following La Nina, which produced slightly colder than normal
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temperatures, early snowfall in affected areas resulted in a 644 percent precipitation from average in Utah’s Virgin River Basin in late December of last year. The storm included 19 inches of precipitation there in a three-day period. The outpouring brought abnormally cold and wet conditions throughout the Pacific northwest before scattering her remains throughout the Rocky Mountains. As a result, the valley is also encountering its highest soil moisture in eight years, McInerney said. Council member Dean Quayle acknowledged the threat, but said he feels with many necessary precautions established, the city would be ready. “You know, we could have serious problems, but we could also have no problems at all,” he said. “There’s potential for flooding this year, so now we’ve just got to hope for a moderate springtime so we don’t get a flood. I think as you saw, the city is well aware of it, are doing what they can ahead of time. They know where the flooding potential is very high.”
- See COLD, page 4
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