Our most popular non-news area has been our Annual Events section, with the web page on the Mello-Daires being the most often searched (of our content) on Google – that’s amazing!   We averaged about 1,100 visits a month for the time we’ve been publishing.  Nearly 85% of our traffic were returning visitors. In our two best months, we received nearly 5,000 visits each month- those were the months when Willard D. “Bill” Beck resigned as mayor of St. Anthony, Idaho and the following month when Garth Rose was chosen by the City of St . Anthony, Idaho, City Council  to succeed him as mayor.

We carried a bit of hard news for a while, as well as live reports of City of St . Anthony, Idaho, City Council meetings.  But without the ability (i.e. advertising revenue) to hire people to help report and only one person being a citizen reporter, after 8 months we were soon only showing what few things people or organizations were sending us or that we could attend.  That’s where we are today.

We’ve covered local events that no other news venue has.  It’s also been happy because where other news venues did cover the same local events, we covered them more completely, with more photographs, interviews and story information about what was happening – and were often first to publish those stories. That’s the real happy part – those few who have helped did a great job!

The sad part is that the time has come to close South Fremont News and Views down.  We  just can’t afford to keep it running without the financial support and the citizen journalists we need.  I’m hoping to keep the site up until the domain names of sfnewsandviews.com and sfnav.com and hosting expire in late 2010. That way, anyone who may still be looking up stories on search engines will find them.  Also our Virtual Tour of St. Anthony, the St. Anthony History e-Museum and our great Annual Events section, will still be accessible, for a little while anyway.

I would like to thank a few people who helped make South Fremont News and Views great:

My wife Janelle Rhea, without whose support, nothing would’ve been possible.
My friend Blake Grover, who made the technical end work and work smoothly.
My wife’s cousin, Lorraine Crockett, who reported on the Greater St. Anthony Chamber of Commerce and helped with other stories, too.
Our friend Kathy Brokens, who helped with Fremont County School District #215 news and events.

Thanks also go to the people in the community who did help and also took part in discussions and gave suggestions.

With that said, the time has come to say goodbye.   I hope that those who’ve read and liked our web site will remember it with kindness.  As for the excellent content from the Virtual Tour of St. Anthony, the St. Anthony History e-Museum and our great Annual Events section, it may end up on another local web site at a future time.

Thank you for your support,

Will Rhea – Publisher
South Fremont News and Views

Cathy Koon, Sherri Jackson, Lynda Merrill, Wanda Moon,

Harry Halkar, Woody Allen, Marilyn Hathaway, Kathy Davis,

Sharla Riley, Haylee Paterson, Matthew Bates, Kathy Atchly,

Joyce Lewis, Karen Valenta.

Old business:

Flower budget is up to $3,600. Enough to pay for the flowers. Would like to get enough to pay Karen to do the work. Suggested also getting a grant to match the amount already donated. Asking for volunteers to help maintain flower beds. Churches, organizations, families, or whomever wants to help with weeding, watering, etc. Contact the chamber office if interested. Cathy suggested asking the BYU students of horticulture if the college would be interested in helping. If possible we need to let Karen do what she has done in the past. She has never let St. Anthony down when it comes to the quality and beauty of the flowers. Please help us keep her doing what she does best. Donate to the Bank of Idaho. Flowers need to be planted by the end of May. Don’t wait.

Billboard is done. Need to talk to St. Anthony Motors about sign we already have. Other option is Bob Bauer, who made an offer for another alternative. Will proceed with negotiations.

Mountain Man Rendezvous is having their bicentennial celebrations this year.  It has been suggested that a statue of a mountain man be placed by the greenway.  There would have to be a new path built.  Still negotiating with the greenway committee.  As a Chamber we are not able to donate towards a $30,000 bronze statue.  What do you think as a community?  They would also like to build a replica of Fort Henry along the side of the path.  This would be done mostly by volunteers and would have information inside and a bench to rest on.  Deon Davenport is to meet with the Chamber next meeting to discuss in full his plans.  He would like to put flags on the poles for the bicentennial, but we are undecided if it would be a benefit to us to spend the money for a flag that would only be used once.  We will discuss it more after we hear what Deon’s proposal will be.

The Rotary club has developed plans for a nice park by the side of the city hall.  There was some discussion on the possibility of putting a rest stop and benches there also.  Already have a veterans memorial at Keefer Park.  Will discuss more details later.

Chambers annual benefit banquet is being planned for Feb.  Tentative date is Sat. the 13th. at the High School.  We discussed having a sweetheart dinner and dance.  More details, (raffle, door prizes, live band, menu, cost) will be decided at the next chamber meeting.  Look for advertisments to come soon.  It will be a fun night for you and your sweetheart.

New schedule for Chamber noon meetings.  Meeting at the Chamber office, having lunch catered.  Quarterly having it at a restaurant.  This will be able to have more businesses participate.  Please send a representive from your business, or come as a private citizen if you are interested in what goes on in St. Anthony.  Business meetings are still at 5:30 the 3rd Thursday each month in the Chamber office.

It is time to renew the dues.  Businesses are $100.00 for the year and private citizen is $25.00 per year.  Send to Chamber office.

Next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 at the Chamber office on Thurs. Jan 21st.

Wana Rae Gardner Bloom - 63 Obituary

Wana was born April 5, 1946 in Rexburg, Idaho, the daughter of John Anthony “Dip” Gardner and Crystal Josephson Gardner. She grew up in St. Anthony, Idaho, attending Central Elementary, South Fremont Jr. and Sr. High Schools and one year at Idaho State University.

She married Wendell LaMar Bloom on Oct. 1, 1965 in the St. Anthony 3rd and 4th LDS Ward Church. The marriage was solemnized in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple in 1993.

They first lived in St. Anthony, Idaho, moving to Parker, Idaho, in 1974 where they have since resided.

Wana served faithfully in many Stake and Ward positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She worked as a secretary for the South Fremont School District for more than 20 years developing wonderful friendship with Chester Peterson, Regina Miller and many others. She loved gardening and reading, but most of all, spending time with her family. Wana was a truly selfless person, always putting the needs of others above her own. She was a beloved of her family and will be greatly missed by all who know her.

She is survived by her husband Wendell, Parker, ID.; Children – Brooke (Corey) Richards, Franklin, ID.; Kristin (Derek) Fullmer and Jill (Quinten) Hathaway both of St. Anthony, ID.; Halli (Joe) Bernal, Westampton, NJ.; and Brett (Danilee) Bloom, Preston, ID.;Her Parents – Anthony and Crystal Gardner of St. Anthony.; Siblings – Sharla Galbraith, Idaho Falls, ID.; Kim Gardner, Orem, UT.; Toni (Jon) Crapo, St. Anthony, ID.; Kristine (Mike) Sturm, Ashton, ID.; and Konie Pipes, Rigby, ID.; . and 14 Grandchildren with another expected in April. She was preceded in death by her grandparents and a sister in law, Vickie Gardner.

Funeral services will be conducted Monday Jan. 11, 2010 at 12 noon in the Parker LDS Church with Bp. Doug Hanks, officiating. Friends may call at Parker Church Sunday evening from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and again Monday from 10:30 until 11:30 just prior to the services. Burial will be in the Parker Cemetery under the direction of the Bidwell Funeral Home.

Ann Mickelsen - 89 Obituary

Ann was born February 24, 1920 in New Salem, Pennsylvania to Agnes and John Yandura. She was the 8th of 12 children. At a young age during World War II (WWII) she moved to Michigan and worked as a Rosie Riveter. She then worked as a cook for an Attorney in Detroit, Michigan. It was in Detroit that she met the love of her life at a Military Dance.

She married Martin Mickelsen on July 7th 1943. They made their home for a short time in Michigan. They later moved to Idaho, where she did many odd jobs to help support her large family.

Ann was a faithful member of the Mary Immaculate Catholic Church and loved to do volunteer work involving the church.

Ann and Martin had 6 children. She is survived by a daughter, Betty (Larry) Myers of Lake Dallas, TX; two sons, Keith (Joyce) Mickelsen, and John Mickelsen both of St. Anthony, ID; 14 grandchildren and several great-grand children. She is also survived by her sister Theresa Leitch.

She was Preceded in death by 2 sons, Paul Yandura and Kenny Mickelsen, a daughter Judy Nelson and her husband Martin Mickelsen.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. at Bert Flamm Mortuary (581 E. 1st N., St. Anthony). A Rosary Prayer service will be at 11:00 a.m. at the funeral home and the family will receive friends from 12:00 noon until 12:45 p.m. prior to the services. Burial will be in the Parker Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family online at the Flamm Funeral Home.

Donations may be sent to Mary Immaculate Catholic Church, 328 West 1st North, St. Anthony, ID 83445

She met and married Wallace Edwin Little and in the 1940’s the couple, with one cow, began a farming operation near Newdale, Idaho.

Helen and Wallace had two sons, Brandon and Dwight. They became part of the family and farm.

She is preceded in death by Wallace in 1987 and Brandon in 1994. She is survived by her son, Dwight Wallace Little of Newdale; siblings, Shirlene Tuckett of Rexburg, Maxine Higginson of Salt Lake City, Utah, J.T. Beech of Wilford; grandchildren, Dwight Little, Jr., Angeana Erickson, Richard Little, and MaryAnn Bennion; great-grandchildren Aaden and Tegan Erickson, Brandon and James Little.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 9, at Flamm Funeral Home in Rexburg. The family will receive friends Saturday from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. at the funeral home prior to services. Interment will be in the Sugar City Cemetery.

Daris Howard can be reached at daris@darishoward.com or by going to www.darishoward.com

It’s harvest time again and, as I watch the spud trucks rumbling by and see the diggers and crossovers moving up and down the fields, my mind returns to an event that happened many years ago.

It was spud harvest and school was out for two weeks. Everyone had lots to do. We were loading hay into the loft of our barn when the message came. The “Paul” family had been in an accident. Mrs. Paul and the children had been visiting relatives in Salt Lake when the accident occurred. Many of the family were in critical condition.

Mr. Paul dropped everything and headed to Salt Lake to the hospital, asking us if we could feed his cattle while he was gone. We wondered if there wasn’t more we could do. Dad said he would handle our chores if I wanted to go. We knew they still had potatoes to dig, as well as some late season hay that was sitting in the field. We didn’t have potato equipment, but I could work hay.

I loaded our hay piler onto our truck and headed on my way, not knowing who I would get to drive for me. I needn’t have worried. As I pulled onto the Paul farm, cars were coming from every direction. Down the road rumbled potato diggers, trucks, and every other imaginable piece of equipment.

A man who was a real estate agent volunteered to drive as I stacked the bales coming up the side of the truck. Other trucks poured onto the field, and, shortly after dark, the hay was all safely in the barn. A group of men helped me feed the cows before we retired for the night.

Back early the next day at dawn to take care of the animals, again I was not alone. I directed a whole crew with regard to Mr. Paul’s instructions on the feeding. After the sun warmed the air enough, the half dozen or so diggers started again to roll through the fields. I took the job of forking away the debris piling up along the edges of the conveyor belt in one cellar. When I would finish I would take my place picking through the potatoes. Standing by me on one side was a banker, on the other side was a school teacher. There were men from the sawmill, businessmen, secretaries, and people from every walk of life, as well as fellow teenagers. There were so many people and so much equipment that the biggest problem was trying to keep out of each others’ way. In fact, the potatoes were outpacing the cellars’ capacity to store them and some diggers were sent on to other jobs.

The variety of personalities in the cellar made for interesting stories. Some of the characters there were rough and some were highly refined, but I learned that each person’s heart was much the same. Some didn’t even know the Pauls, but came to help, overcome by thought of what it would feel like if the tragedy was their own.

In short order the harvest was in and the machinery moved back to the farms from where it had come. Farmers who had brought it still had to harvest their own fields, for they had chosen to help a neighbor first.

It was late at night, while our small group was finishing the feeding, when the lights from a car turned into the driveway. Mr. Paul emerged and approached us to thank us for our work.
“How’s the family?” someone asked.

Mr. Paul looked down in discouragement. “Not well, but some other relatives came so I could come home and try to get the harvest in.”

Another member of our group put his hand on Mr. Paul’s shoulder. “Perhaps you should look in the cellar.”
As Mr. Paul stepped into the cellar and flipped the switch, shining the lights on the huge mounds of potatoes, this tough man with work roughened hands started to sob.

The kind neighbor again put his hand on his shoulder. “You go back to your family. All’s well here.”
Now, more than a quarter century later, I still see these selfless acts of kindness occurring; and as long as I do, I know those words, embedded deep in my heart, will still echo true. “All’s well here.”

Joyce Furniss Nelson - 89 Obituary

Joyce was born to William and Rhoda Moulton Furniss Oct. 25, 1920 in Bates, Idaho. She graduated from Teton High School in 1938 and attended Ricks College for a year.

Joyce married Wayne Nelson Oct. 18, 1939 in Bates. They had a dry farm in Clementsville and were parents of ten children. Later they lived in Teton City. For the past four years, Joyce lived with her daughter Jeanne Jeppesen in Tooele.

If relationships equal riches, Joyce was wealthy indeed. She treasured most, her husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and there was ample room in her heart for extended family, friends and neighbors. She made each person feel loved, special and unique. She presided over an annual family reunion at their farm home and graciously received wildflowers from children of all ages.
She was the “Cookie Grandma” to family and generations of children in Teton City.

Preceding her in death were Wayne; two daughters, Holly Joyce and Brenda Nelson Anderson; three grandsons, Owen Anderson, Brett Anderson and Hyrum Clark; her parents; eight brothers and two sisters.
Joyce is survived by eight children: Judy (Glenn) Scoble of San Pedro, CA; Bruce Nelson of Shelley, ID; Ellen (Kerry) Frazier of Downey, ID; Jeanne (Alan) Jeppesen of Tooele, UT; Rex (SuLin) Nelson of Logan, UT; Debra (Norman) Holm of Nampa, ID; Andrea (Ross) Clark of Mansfield, OH; Shanan (Kelly) Cameron of Irvine, CA; a son-in-law, Sherrell Anderson of Mansfield, OH; 44 grandchildren and 63 great-grandchildren; two brothers, Bud (Jean) Furniss of Rupert, ID and John (Verla Jean) Furniss of Ammon, ID; and sister-in-law Marie Furniss of Blackfoot, ID.

Joyce was dearly loved and will be missed. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the F. Wayne and Joyce Nelson Family Living Trust for the purpose of supporting descendants’ labors as missionaries. (checks payable to Shanan Cameron, who is the treasurer.) FWN and JN Living Trust c/o Shanan Cameron, 4171 Blackfin Ave., Irvine CA 92620

Funeral services will be held Friday, January 8, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. in the Teton 2nd LDS Ward Chapel. The family will receive friends Thursday, January 7, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at Bert Flamm Mortuary (581 E. 1st N., St. Anthony) and Friday from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at the church. Burial will be in the Teton-Newdale Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family online at Flamm Funeral Home.

Daris Howard can be reached at daris@darishoward.com or by going to www.darishoward.com

As we traveled in Peru, I loved watching the children.  We stayed in the city of Agua Calientes (which means “Hot Water”) during the two days we toured Machu Picchu (“Old Mountain”).

Agua Calientes was built on the Andean hillside, rising steeply from the roaring Urumbamba River up the cone shaped mountain.

From Aguas Calientes we would catch a small bus up the mountain to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. Avenida Pachacutec, the street that our hotel was on, was paved with brick and cobblestone and slanted steeply downward for about 20 yards, leveled out for about five yards in front of a shop or hotel doorway, only to slant downward again. The street went this way from far up the mountainside where the hot pools were, all the way down to the Plaza De Armes at the City center.

When the children got out of school they flew quickly up the street in their little blue uniforms, and without even going home to change, would search out the empty 2 and a half liter water bottles left in the trash by the tourists. They would haul them up to the top of Avenida Pachacutec, sit on them and tuck their feet up tight. Holding on to the neck of the bottle, they would go scooting down the hill. They didn’t need any expensive Game-Boys or X-Boxes to have fun, but did as children have done for centuries, using innovation and the simple things of the environment around them.

They were very careful to make sure that no one was walking across their path before they started on their descent. Sometimes they would get up enough speed to make it past the level area and down the next incline. But often they would station a child on each of the plateaus to give an extra shove, helping them on their way. This the children did, sharing water bottles and trading positions, so each child had an equal opportunity for adventure. In this way they entertained themselves for hours.

It looked like so much fun I wanted to give it a try myself, but knew I could never tuck my legs up tight enough to fit on anything smaller than a lazy-boy recliner, so I just watched from a distance. In addition, I was deterred from any such activity when I realized it must be illegal. Every time one of the policemen turned onto the street during their walk about the city, the children would grab their bottles and dart into our hotel to hide. I know the policemen saw them at this activity more than once, because a person can’t stop themselves in mid-slide. But the policemen would just smile as they passed and continue on their way along their designated beats. I’m sure they probably did such things when they were young and might still wish they could give it a try if they could tuck their legs up tight too.

During the time that we stayed there we did a lot of walking around Machu Picchu. Some of us climbed to the Sun Gate and a very few of us made the trek up Machu Picchu Peak. The sun burned down hot on us, especially in that high altitude, leaving my throat dry and parched. I drank a river of water, and yet it never seemed to be enough.

And perhaps I am contributing to juvenile delinquency in the world, but as I lifted my pack to my shoulder to head to the train station for our journey to Ollantaytambo, I carefully set my empty 2 and a half liter water bottles by the hotel door – a gift to the children.

Jase David Rydalch

Jase David Rydalch was called on a mission to the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Mission. He left Dec. 2nd, 2009.

]]> http://www.sfnewsandviews.com/2009/12/17/jase-david-rydalchs-mission-call/feed/ 0 http://www.sfnewsandviews.com/2009/12/17/brandon-alan-willmores-mission-call/ http://www.sfnewsandviews.com/2009/12/17/brandon-alan-willmores-mission-call/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:10:32 +0000 Will Rhea http://www.sfnewsandviews.com/?p=6232 Brandon Alan Willmore of the St. Anthony, Idaho Fourth Ward, of the St. Anthony, Idaho Stake, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been called on a mission to the Japan, Tokyo Mission.

Brandon Alan Willmore

Brandon Alan Willmore was called on a mission to the Japan, Tokyo Mission. He left Dec. 2nd, 2009.

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