Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

I have been part of the Chamber Board of Directors for 8 years. It has been a sometime long road. Last night I saw the board operating in a fashion that makes me proud. It isn’t because of anything I have done. Over the last couple of years a number of people have really taken their responsibilities by the horn and have been working hard on making the Chamber of Commerce a better organization. It is amazing what people can do when they put their hearts and their minds to work in behalf of an organization.

Today was a beautiful day. You would have never guessed it based on the weather. You would never have guessed it by whether the sun was shining or not. It was beautiful in a much different way.

Today was the groundbreaking service for the Payson Utah Temple. It rained all day Thursday, and even more and harder on Friday. One could hope that the heavens would have dried out after two days of soaking rain, but when I got up on Saturday morning the streets were wet and the skies were not blue. We had clouds, and rain, and not very nice weather for a groundbreaking ceremony that was to take place on a former wheat field.

We arrived at the site of the ground breaking and the rain kept on coming. In fact, I would swear that the rain was increasing rather than decreasing. The weather didn’t dampen our spirits however and we all waited patiently for the service to begin, knowing that in at least 26 Stake Centers in the central part of the state the majority of the members of the church had the opportunity to watch the service in dryness.

During the prayer, the supplicant pleaded with the Lord to temper the elements, and at that time, the rain stopped and only consisted of an occasional drizzle. It was a miracle. The service itself warmed the hearts of us all. The thought of a temple of the Lord being erected on this site was hear warming in the extreme.

Elder Oaks of the Twelve delivered an excellent talk and then used his Priesthood to dedicate and consecrate the ground to the building of a temple to the Lord. It was a spiritual feast for all of us that were in attendance. After his prayer, then the meeting ended and the breaking of the ground started to occur. First, the 4 general authorities in attendance turned over shovels of earth. That was followed by 26 Stake Presidents in attendance. My dear friend and associate President Wayne Pullan, whom I served with as a counselor when he was Bishop of the Page Ward that participated.

A personal experience of delight came when Elder Oaks invited the city officials, one of which I am, to come up and turn shovels of dirt and participate in the ground breaking. It was a neat experience to be able to participate in such a sacred ceremony, and do it as an official of Payson City. This will be a highlight of my service on the Payson City Council and as a member of the church. I look forward to the time, in 2.5 years, when the temple is finished and dedicated and I can walk its hallowed halls and participate in ordinances for the dead.

Finally, deacons were asked to come up and we also had many others, including my daughter Julie, who took the opportunity to get up and turn a shovel full of earth. It was a day to remember. It was a beautiful day.

It has been an interesting election season in Payson. We started with a field of six candidates that has been winnowed down to a field of four candidates due to the withdrawal of two candidates from the contest. You would think nothing is happening here. I am hoping that the electorate will demand that the candidates state what they believe and ask them to outline what they plan to do for Payson.

The citizens don’t realize just how much these candidates will impact what happens in Payson, at least you wouldn’t think that they care given no demands that we meet the candidates. Well, we shall just have to see what happens.

Payson once a year puts on a big feed for the rest of the valley. This event is called the Payson Salmon Supper. We have corn on the cob, a roll, a baked potato with sour cream and butter, Cole Slaw, and a cookie. A lot of these items alone could make a sumptuous meal. However, the star of the show is a huge slab of salmon cooked over apple wood fire.

The salmon is flown in fresh and taken care of by the fire department, which does the cooking. This year and last, I was involved in cutting the salmon up and serving it to the public. I did that for two hours and the smell of the salmon was driving me crazy with hunger. Then, I was relieved and I went and found my mom and dad and the rest of my family. We had the chance to sit down and eat together. It was a huge event, using 4400 pounds of Salmon and the city probably feed 4000 people.

The salmon supper is a wonderful activity. It draws a community together and is a great opportunity to showcase Payson. I am glad that I was involved this year.

I hadn’t really posted about what has been happening in Payson, but back in July I filed to run for the Payson City Council. A lot happened along the way, but on November 3 I was elected to the council, finishing second out of four that ran. Now, I am in the process of transitioning onto the council. There, is so much to learn and so much to do. There is just a lot of work. What have I got myself into. We shall find out.

Earlier this week I filed as a candidate for the Payson City Council. I must be crazy. That is in direct contradiction of my desires to grow old and retire to a nice quiet place in the suburbs. However, I feel passionately about some things, and my desire for public service seems to have been awaken later in my life rather than when I was more vibrant and younger. Despite my geriatric leanings, I do have a desire to make a difference and to serve my community. We will see how this campaign goes.

I have been noticing something that really is bothering me right now. This specifically I notice in family, but society has the same general problem. We just aren’t being tolerant of each other. We are too worried about whether we are right, rather than having compassion to each other. My recent foray into politics lead me into the same trap. I sometimes worry that I am getting to settled into one position or another and then believing that I am right and the other wrong, and never shall I compromise.

You see it in Washington. Our national government has come to a gridlock, with each side posturing and trying to convince the public they are right, all for the purpose of political expediency and not in behalf of the people. Both the President and Congress most recently have received all times lows in their approval ratings by the populace. The national media doesn’t help the matter either and we all take sides, shouting at each other, sure that we aren’t right, but not willing to compromise and get the people’s business done. This year, it will be probably the 5th or 6th year in a row that most of the national government funding will continue to be run on a continuing resolution rather than through the appropriate appropriation process. This has got to change.

Whether it is in a family where we might be intolerant of or make fun of another’s views, in a city where we stake out positions for ourselves and don’t back off, or whether we don’t get the people’s business done because we are ideologues more determined to be right and yell and scream, rather than work in behalf of the people we elect. I am just getting sick of this, and we are setting ourselves up as a family to fracture, or as a nation to elect someone (a devious man or a man like the German’s elected in the 1930’s to solve their problems, and see where that lead them) who will promise to solve our frustrations, just if we give him the power. Things have got to change, and we the people have got to demand the change, or as the Book of Mormon says, if the greater number of the people shall not choose the good, we will ripe for the fall of the government that we have cherished for all of these 230 years.

I had a surprise last night. I went down to the City Council meeting here in Payson for the purpose of listening to a discussion on recent filming that happened in the city of Payson. Since I am the Chamber President, I needed to hear and maybe make some comments about this event. When I got there, I found out that they were going to be approving the names of the new members of the Payson Planning Commission. My name was presented, which I think I kind of expected, but what I didn’t know was that they were going to swear me in as a member of the commission. I was thus officially sworn in as a member of the commission for 4 years. It was a surprise for me. I guess it was good I went.

I just received a call today from the City of Payson regarding serving out the term of Kim Hancock on the Planning Commission. Being the spirited Public servant I am I told her I would. I think I will do it since it is only to fill out Kim Hancock’s term, would be for three months only, and that would let me know if I want to do this full time by applying for a vacant spot. I must be crazy.

What a day is has been. The best, on Tuesday November 6 at 5:53pm, we were presented from God with a new baby grand daughter, Miranda Elizabeth Hardy, 6 pounds, 12 ounces, 19.25 inches long. What a wonderful gift. It was a tough day for Christie, but she did good work.

On a second front, while I wasn’t in the final election, the slate of candidates I supported, Jo Lynn Ford, Brad Daley, and Kim Hancock, were victorious in the Payson City Council election. I wish I had been there, but this is the next best thing. The results as reported were:

PAYSON CITY COUNCIL 8 of 8 precincts reporting: 100%
Brad D. Daley
19%
1,704
Brent Burdick
15%
1,312
H. Kim Hancock
18%
1,630
Jo Lynn Ford
21%
1,832
Larry Skinner
14%
1,270
Steve Hanson
13%
1,179

It was a great day.