Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Utah Statesman The
Campus Voice since 1902
Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com
Logan City remembers three landslide victims By DAN SMITH news senior writer
In the wake of the Jan. 28 settlement of a multi-party lawsuit resulting from a tragic landslide that killed three people, Logan City officials look to develop the land where the slide occurred. “When we were going through the mitigation side of this lawsuit, the family was down there,” Logan City Mayor Randy Watts said. “I told them we felt, as a city, it’d be fitting that we put a memorial to the mom and her two children. When we get the thing cleaned up we can find out where that memorial would be positioned.” He said he pictures something similar to the Olsen Memorial Park on Canyon Road where a memorial for Merlin Olsen’s mother and father was established near their former homestead. On July 11, 2009, after heavy amounts of precipitation weakened a canal wall near 915 Canyon Road in the Island Neighborhood, several tons of earth gave way. The resulting landslide demolished the home of Evelia Jacqueline Leavey, burying and killing her and her children Abbey Alanis and Victor Alanis Jr. The lawsuit was between plaintiff Victor Alanis Sr. – the husband and father of the deceased – and USU, UDOT, Logan City, Logan
Northern Irrigation Co. and the former owner of the property. “It’s been a long, drawn-out process,” Watts said. “Now that the lawsuit is behind us, we can move ahead to making some great strides with what we’re doing to clean up Canyon Road.” Logan City Parks and Recreation director Russ Akina said he and the Mayor have discussed turning the site into a public park of some kind once the city purchased the homes and cleared the area. “There are a couple of things that are going to need some attention,” Akina said. “That includes continuation of the stability of that slope.” The site is located at the foot of a bluff that supports Interstate 89 and USU property. Akina said most people think of a park as a place with baseball fields and volleyball pits. With the space that is available, he said it will most likely be more of a passive park with benches and easily maintainable plants. The trail that once ran along the canal was washed out by the landslide. Public Works director Mark Nielsen said City Council members have said they want the canal trail put back into use. A GREEN SPACE WILL be landscaped at the site where the Logan Landslide occurred July of 2009 as a memorial for the tragedy which killed three individuals who were in their home. BRECK BYINGTON photo
- See WATTS, page 4
Lyons: Debt due to lack of structure By BLAZE BULLOCK staff writer
MICHAEL LYONS, POLITICAL SCIENCE professor, addresses current issues involving national debt in an event including the College Republicans and College Democrats, Tuesday. CARL R. WILSON photo
The current national debt is not an immediate problem, said Michael Lyons, USU political science professor, Tuesday night in the auditorium of the TSC. According to usdebtclock.org, the national debt is above $14 trillion and a little over $127,000 per taxpayer. The debt problem isn’t urgent but it’s getting worse, Lyons said. Lyons spoke prior to the documentary screening of I.O.U.S.A which was hosted by the College Democrats and College Republicans Lyons said there are a lot of misconceptions about the national deficit and debt in America. He said Republicans like to blame Democrats and social spending programs for the debt, but Democrats like to blame George W. Bush and the two wars for the debt. The real problems and causes of the debt are more a matter of structure, Lyons said.
“We’ve always had deficit spending,” Lyons said. “Our nation was born in debt.” Lyons said two senators for each state and representatives for congressional districts creates “very perverse spending incentives.” Tax money goes into a pot, then states get the money with no relation to how much money they contributed to the pot, Lyons said. “The incentives are to take as much money out of the central pot as you possibly can for your district or state because somebody, somewhere else, is paying most of the bill,” Lyons said. The other problem deals with two-year election cycles, which don’t exist anywhere else in the industrialized world. “It puts tremendous pressure on members of congress to take quick action that is momentarily satisfying to members of their districts,” Lyons said. “It puts pressure on congress not to raise taxes.” Longer congressional terms and less frequent elections might make
it easier for members of congress to shift their focus to long term instead of the short, Lyons said. Lyons quoted former president Jimmy Carter, who said, “Our tax system is a disgrace to the human race.” Lyons said that statement was an understatement. “Our tax system is a disaster,” Lyons said. We have a huge deficit right now because of the recession and high unemployment rates which lowers government revenues, he said. One of the best ways to fix our national deficit and debt problem would be to implement a national sales tax, Lyons said. This would make everything more expensive but it would give people more money to start with. Lyons said people with honest jobs that honestly pay their taxes are carrying the burden of dishonest people like drug dealers who don’t very much in taxes. Having a national sales tax would solve that
- See SYSTEM, page 4
Career Fair suggests Cooling tank may save money economic recovery By KEATON REED staff writer
By CATHERINE MEIDELL news editor
With more than 130 companies attending Wednesday’s Career Fair, students will have a better chance at entering the post-graduation work field than they have within the last few years, said Melissa Scheaffer, associate director of USU Career Services. Randy Jensen, who is also an associate director of Career Services, said 120 companies registered to participate in the fair last year. Just as the number of companies registered for the Career Fair has increased, Scheaffer said she has seen the number of career opportunities she has informed students about increase.
- See GOOGLE, page 4
Inside This Issue
Fences went up on Feb. 15 to mark off a portion of the HPER field where a new thermal energy storage tank (TES tank) is being built. Darrell Hart, associate vice president of Facilities, said the central cooling plant on campus is running out of the air conditioning capacity needed to satisfy all buildings, but this tank will help remedy the problem. “We either had to buy another chiller or construct this tank,” Hart said. He said USU’s air conditioning system currently runs on four chillers, but the central cooling plant only has room to add one more chiller. Ben Berrett, director of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, said “adding additional chillers doesn’t save money, this does.” Lorin Mortensen, mechanical engineer for USU Facilities
3/02/11 Maranatha Baptist combines with the nondenominational Alpine Church on Main Street. Page 5
Aggie women’s tennis defeated in-state rival Weber State at home. Page 8
Planning, Design and Construction, said the system could save the university around $100,000 per year in electricity costs. Berrett said, “That’s under current prices. Those savings could be larger if power rates go up.” “It saves us money by reducing the amount we pay for electricity. We can run our chillers at night during the off-peak hours when energy costs are lower,” Mortensen said. “Typically, we run those chillers during the peak heat part of the day, which is also the time of peak energy cost,” Hart said. “Cold water storage will chill the water at night when energy costs are low.” Berrett said the tank is 30 feet tall, will hold 2 million gallons of water and will be completely buried under the HPER field by December of this year. He also said the field is expected to re-open at that time.
- See TES, page 3
www.utahstatesman.com Check out Big Blue’s Best Calendar, the best master calendar on campus. Send something in ... let people know what you’re up to. Official Student Newspaper of Utah State University • “It’s All The News You Need!”