e The Times-News, Nephi, Utah

 

 

96 South Main Street, PO Box 77, Nephi, Utah 84648 - Voice: 435 623-0525 - FAX: 435 623-4735
On our front page this week
December 29, 2021

 

 

  • A Look Back at 2021

January

COVID-19: There were 91 active cases of COVID-19 in Juab County at the printing of the first Times-News of the new year. Cases would fluctuate throughout the year, but never get over 130 at a time. To date, there were 2,162 total cases, 20 deaths, and 2,124 recovered cases in Juab County.

Local businesses were able to receive CARES Act funds through the county. This money came from the federal government in order to help struggling businesses affected by the coronavirus shutdown in 2020.

Vaccinations for people 70+ were approved by Governor Spencer Cox. This was a sigh of relief for many county residents, but also met by some pushback by those who were skeptical.

Juab School District was confident in the steps they were taking to keep students in school which included faculty vaccinations, continued mask wearing in schools, and following the guidelines set by the state. JSD was not forced to shut down again due to the cooperation of parents, students, faculty, staff and district leaders.

POLITICS: Juab County swore in four newly elected people which included Zack Buck, county assessor; Debbie Zirbes, county recorder; Melanie Cowan, county treasurer and Marvin Kenison, county commissioner.

School board members were sworn in at the end of the month. Janet Ware, Dale Whitlock and Cassie Beutler were all re-elected to their positions on the board.

NEW YEAR’S BABY: CVMC welcomed Mateo, the first baby born in 2021 on January 1st.

NEPHI KEEPS GROWING: The new year saw many requests for annexation into the city limits. One of these requests included the Nephi South Commercial Park. City leaders examined the reasons why so many annexation requests were being made, some of which included island annexations (property not contiguous to city boundaries). They also looked at the future of Nephi and where they wanted it to go.

WEDDINGS: Tanner Wright and Madison Webster; Brad Brindley and Courtney Baker.

OBITUARIES: Stephen O’Neal.

February

SOLAR FARM: Construction began at the Clover Creek Solar Farm west of Mona. The new facility provides power to Utah Municipal Power Agency (UMPA) of which Nephi and Levan are members.

GRAVEL PITS: Juab County commissioners discussed the need to strictly enforce the gravel pit ordinance because several pit owners were not in compliance.

SPORTS: Juab boys basketball team was crowned region champs with an 11-1 overall record. They would go on to end a 61-year drought with a big win over San Juan HS in the championship game. The last time they won a title was in 1960

Grace Holman was the first state champion in swimming for Juab High School. This is still a new sport in the district, but continues to grow.

Juab Wrestling continued their dynasty after winning their fifth straight state title. Individual champions included Rowdey Peterson, Channing Warned, Chase Ingram, Will Harmon and Shan Jackson. Coach Joel Holman was named Coach of the Year. The team qualified 24 wrestlers for state and 15 placed.

NEW WATER TANK: Mona City was granted funds through CIB for a new water tank that was badly needed in the community. The one million gallon tank was estimated to cost $1,950,000 to construct. Mona City’s older tank had many deficiencies and would not be sufficient for future growth.

OBITUARIES : Analee Sessions, Ilene Anderson, Clay Boss, Eugene Martinez, Harry Newell, Melba Jensen, Verl Thomas, Jilene White, Lionel Suazo, Janet Stuart, Wallace Kay, Ramona Wilson.

March

SCHOOL: JSD Superintendent Kodey Hughes talked about the things the district learned over the pandemic in 2020 including the success they found with Digital Learning Days on Fridays. This targeted day allowed students intervention if they were falling behind in class or gave students extra time to work on projects. The district decided to go back to a full five-day schedule in the fall of 2021.

JHS had two winners, two runners-up in the Central Utah Sterling Scholar contest. Brooklyn Hunter (Dance) and Sydney Samuelson (English and Literature) placed 1st while Sara Winn (Agricultural Sciences) and Emileigh Painter (Trade and Technical Education) were the runners-up.

Mt. Nebo FFA Chapter placed 1st at state convention with their Conduct of Chapter Meetings team. On the team were Staten Shepherd, Andrew Woodland, Morgan Peay, Gage England, Trevor Hall, Sadie Winn, Joe Garrett and Tawny Cieslak.

Junior Prom royalty consisted of King and Queen, Jimmiy Williamson, Kloey Sessions; 1st court, Cooper Shaheen and Nicole Matheson; 2nd court, Eli Atkinson and Kylee Underwood; and 3rd court, Jared Dye and Hallie Worwood.

GROUNDBREAKING: Houweling’s Tomatoes broke ground for their new expansion project. The tomato growing plant also pledged to install better lighting so there would be less light pollution affecting residents in Mona City.

MISS NEPHI 2021: Taylie Isaacson was crowned Miss Nephi 2021. Her attendants include Emily Harris, 1st, and Madison Woodland, 2nd.

HEARTS AND HELPING HANDS AWARDS: Juab County held their first Hearts and Helping Hands awards for those nominated within the county for their good deeds over the past year. Forty-eight nominees were recognized at the event.

OBITUARIES: Emma Anderson, Veda Scoffield, Golden Mangelson, Doran Palmer, Larry Broadhead, Ronda Lange, Charlotte Greenhalgh, Grace Ostler, Burt Rowley, Berneitta Johnson, Martha Newton, Joyce McCaffery.

WEDDINGS: Sierra Fowkes and Anthony McCartney.

April

BACK TO NORMAL: Sand fans returned to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes over the Easter weekend after not being able to attend in 2020 due to the pandemic. No major injuries were reported and it was nice to get back to some form of normalcy.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE WOES • Neighbors of a proposed slaughterhouse west of Nephi on Highway 132 spoke out about their concerns at a city council meeting. Back in March, the city approved a zoning change to allow for the facility, but not everyone was on board. These residents pointed out that the slaughterhouse would restrict growth, affect their quality of life and would lower their property values.

WATER PROJECT: Crews continued replacing water lines in Nephi as part of the water improvement project. The 3-year project came to an end in early summer.

OUT OF CUWCD: Eureka City expressed getting out of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District to what they said was unkept promises. This sparked many discussions with former and current county commissioners and others about whether to stay or pull out. It was ultimately decided to stay and not lose the millions of dollars already invested.

MORE SOLAR: County commissioners approved a preliminary approval for a second solar power project west of Mona. Invenergy wanted to construct on 3,000 acres, larger than the Currant Creek Solar Project under construction.

OBITUARIES: Maxene Sweat, Myrleen Liddiard, Janice Parkin, Norma Bramall, Leatrice Joyce Pay

WEDDINGS: Shelby Garrett and Bridger Maxwell

May

DROUGHT: Residents in the county were advised to conserve water as drought conditions permeated the Utah landscape. A drier than normal winter and spring led to severe drought areas throughout the state.

SCHOOL: JHS Principal Jim Langford was named UIAAA Administrator of the Year. He decided to step down as principal and become the assistant principal at the high school.

Brandi Webster was named as the new principal of Mona Elementary School and Mary Wohlforth was named the new principal at the high school.

JHS graduated 196 students on May 26th. With so many uncertainties from the previous year, this was a great number. The graduation ceremony was held on the football field for the first time.

IDENTIFY YOURSELF: Nephi City leaders were hesitant to welcome and industrial plant to the area without being disclosed as to who it was. Nephi City was chosen as a proposed site but the business, code named “Bullwinkle,” did not want to disclose its identity until after a site was chosen. It would later be revealed that the business was Owens Corning and they would be expanding their operations and adding more jobs in the area.

MR. JUAB ROYALTY: Spencer Bonzo was crowned Mr. Juab 2021 with attendants Brandon Christensen and Nathan Saez. The event was postponed to the spring due to COVID-19 restrictions in December when the event was usually held.

SPORTS: Juab baseball earned its way to a region title, but fell short of a state title.

Boys tennis team nabbed a region title after an undefeated season. Kyler Williams, Quinn Belknap, and Levi Covington each took home region individual titles.

Boys track and field team took home region title honors. They missed out on the state title by 1.5 points to Morgan.

SHOOT OUT: After an intense standoff, law enforcement officers were able to apprehend a dangerous criminal and his passenger. The man had attempted to escape during a traffic stop by stealing a sheriff deputy’s truck, with a K-9 officer inside, which caused I-15 to be shut down and a manhunt ensued. James Klein, from Minnesota, crashed the truck, attempted to carjack another vehicle where the driver was injured. Klein then fled into the river bed and was later apprehended.

SPLASH PAD: Levan Town constructed a new splash pad at the city park thanks to a generous donation from the disbanded ambulance department.

WEDDINGS: Kip Reed and Ciera Alldredge, Isabelle Arns and Ashton Lyons, Jason Richards and Emily Bravo, Caden Bosh and Brianne Begay, Saige Cox and Quaide Richins, Kortnie Manning and Branden Petit.

June

RAISES: EMS director Mika Sperry said that the department was in need of some more help and that volunteers needed a raise.

SPECIAL VISIT: Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson made a special visit to the county and was given a tour of the county jail and Central Valley Medical Center.

WILDFIRES: A wildfire near Eureka destroyed two structures and quickly spread to other parts of the county. The cause of the fire was thought to be human-caused. Because of the severe drought conditions, fire restrictions were implemented all over the state.

A fire started on June 19 near Levan and was thought to be human-caused. It was held in control by fire crews and only burned 150 acres.

SPORTS: JSD officially added girl’s wrestling to the high school athletics programs. Billy Cox was hired as the new coach and as of December there were 21 girls on the team. They continue to make a name for themselves.

THE HIVE: JSD and Nephi City held an open house to educate the public on the new educational/recreational complex being constructed south of the junior high. The facility will allow for more room for extracurricular activities and open up rooms at the high school.

SANCTUARY: Juab County makes county an official Second Amendment Sanctuary. Commissioners said this ordinance allows law enforcement and people who legally carry guns to be protected from unconstitutional gun restrictions set by the federal government.

OBITUARIES: Robert McCoy, Ronald Taylor, Tasmyn Painter, J.R. Belliston

WEDDINGS: Tyler Evans and Samantha Marble, Aubree Memmott and Shawn Niesen, Anna Luker and Jason Gray, Chaylee Allan and Kayden Davis, MaKaila Kendall and Alan Anderson, Adam Truscott and Amanda Ostler.