Campus and community briefs
Students awarded at competition
The Nevada Landscape Association recently hosted their fifth annual Career Day Competition as part of the Desert Green Conference. The event is patterned after the National Student Days put on by Associated Landscape Contractors of America. This year students from Brigham Young University, BYU-Idaho, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Utah State University spent a day of friendly competition, education, fellowship and career development.
The students, mostly landscape design and horticulture majors, competed in eight events including plant identification, irrigation installation and design, and landscape design/estimation. They also had the opportunity to tweak their resumes and put their best foot forward as they interviewed with industry representatives for entry-level career opportunities and internships in the intermountain area and desert Southwest.
BYU took first place in the competition, with the Community College of Southern Nevada taking second and USU bringing home third place honors.
USU students bringing home individual awards included Westy Pickup, first place in exterior maintenance estimating; Cable Jones and Joseph Peterson, first and second place in irrigation design; Sam Faber and Joe Petersen, first place; and John Esteimer and Aaron Layer, second place in irrigation assembly and Travis Christensen and Aaron Tennant with first place and John Estheimer and Nick Marston with second place in landscape maintenance operations.
New fee system for restaurants approved
The Bear River Board of Health approved a new fee system for food service establishments Wednesday, shifting the burden of costs to the businesses that require more attention from the health department.
Environmental health scientist Mark Stevens explained that current fees were based on the number of seats in a restaurant. The new system will establish fees based on the potential risk that a business may pose to the health of the community.
A restaurant, for example, that does a high volume of business and has been in low compliance with health regulations will pay a higher annual fee for a food service permit than a restaurant with lower volume and higher compliance with regulations.
The health department will begin notifying restaurants later this month about the changes and it will launch a year-long educational campaign before the new fees and inspection procedures go into effect in January of 2005.
Distinguished visitor to speak at USU
The International Studies Association, in conjunction with Utah State University’s political science honor society Pi Sigma Alpha, announces the visit of Kerry Kartchner, senior weapons of mass destruction adviser for the U.S. Department of State.
Kartchner is the author of numerous books and articles on weapons of mass destruction and acted as the chief U.S. spokesperson for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty Inspection Protocol Working Group, and Space Launch Issues Group.
Kartchner is currently the State Department’s Senior Adviser for the Strategic Missile Defense System, and will be presenting “The Rational Case for Missile Defense” on Jan. 22 at 12:30 p.m. in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium. The free lecture will cover the cost, technology, international reaction to and status of the U.S. Strategic Missile Defense Program. There will be a question and answer session following the presentation.
University announces holiday schedule
During Spring Semester, 2004, USU will observe two holidays falling on a Monday. Human Rights Day on Jan. 19 and President’s Day, Feb. 16.
During the week of Feb. 16, students will attend their Monday classes on Tuesday, Feb. 17 and follow their regular schedule for the remainder of that week.