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FYI Panguitch



The 193rd General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is over, and what a great conference it was. Oh, so many words of wisdom put in such a short time. Once again, after two years, a live audience was at the conference. It was limited to 10,000 Saints instead of the 23,000 that the conference center holds. At the end, the Prophet Russell M. Nelson spoke of the temples. Forty-two are under construction, and there are plans for seventeen more all over the world.

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“FYI Panguitch” is a weekly Insider column written by Panguitch resident Mack Oetting. Insider

The temple in Cedar City is giving you an option on wearing masks or not. The temple will be closed the week after Easter for their semi-annual cleaning effort.

Well, for the first time ever, I know someone that is running in the Boston Marathon. Danny Yardley has qualified, and our great cross country coach is running in this race. You have to run in a marathon under three hours, and that is akin to running at a 7.5 mile per hour pace. I used to run a lot of 10K races. I tried a half marathon and felt good, but where I made my mistake was running a marathon. At 20 miles, I was at three hours. But then my toenail came off, and my shoe started filling up with blood. I finally saw a cop that had a knife, and I was able to cut the toenail out of my shoe. It took me more than an hour and a half to finish the last six miles. I could only run uphill, and downhill was a killer. So, good luck Danny in the race. I don’t think there are many hills there.

March Madness has come to a close, and my two teams didn’t seem to do very well. I was hoping that Coach “K’s” Duke team would win it for the end of his long, long coaching career. But his players couldn’t make their free throws, and it killed them in the end. So, Kansas played North Carolina Monday night, April 4, 2022.

UConn, my other team, is getting killed in the game against South Carolina. UConn has been in the finals 12 times and were 11-0 and this will be their first loss. South Carolina’s defense just killed them. South Carolina has the MVP player on their team, and she certainly deserved the award. Her name is Boston. She ended up with 17 points and 17 rebounds. This is South Carolina’s 2nd championship. Their record is thirty-three and two, and they were ranked number one all season long.

President Biden has released 1 million barrels of oil from the National reserves. This is twice as much as we were getting from Russia. One of the great things that came out of his speech was that there are 5,000 open oil leases available for drilling. He said that he is urging congress to take away leases that won’t be used. Many times when leases come up, people will bid on the mineral rights and get them for very little with the hopes that the oil companies will buy them for a big profit. There aren’t any sunset clauses on these leases; they just go unused.

This extra oil should bring down prices. The price of oil is down $12.00 a barrel to below $100 as of last week. Gas prices are down in all states but California and Utah, but not by much.

Summer is coming on and like most small towns in Utah, we are highly dependent on volunteers. We have a fire department that depends on volunteers, search and rescue, EMTs, and Lions Club, which in the last 22 years has taken in and distributed over $200,000 back into the community. Many of the members have gotten old, and they are in need of new members. The Garfield County Fair is run by volunteers and always needs help. Many of the jobs at Meals on Wheels are needed. If you are newly retired or are one of the many new members of our community, this is a really good way to make new friends and help out in the community.

During the Quilt Walk Festival, Pat has a fundraiser for the Sub for Santa fund. She is looking for heritage homes, those that were built before 1930 out of red brick, and would like to show it at that time. Please, give Pat a call (676-2418) if you would show your home.

This next week is Spring Break, and the kids will be out of school all of next week, so be careful when you are driving. The Easter egg hunt will be on the day before Easter, Saturday the 16th, and will start at 11:00 in the morning. All kids 6th grade and younger in our area are welcome. Bring your camera; it is a fun time for the kids. It is in its 28th year, and it just keeps getting bigger, so don’t be late. The Easter Bunny will arrive in the big red fire engine, so make sure that your kids, grand kids, and friends’ kids come.

This next Sunday will be the Stake Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it will start at 10:00 a.m. and will be conducted by President Eyre. Find out what is happening in our area church-wise.

On the same day as the Easter egg hunt, there will be the annual car show down in Hurricane. It is my celebration of the start of spring. Pat and I usually go down through Zion, and it makes for a great day, with all of the works of art on display at the car show.

If you do something, somebody’s going to like it and somebody is not going to like it. If you do nothing, nobody will criticize you, but wouldn’t that be a terrible life?

Mack O.