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Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield, Cedar Fort and Lehi
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November 22-December 5, 2014
One Year Down! By Wendy Visser Lojik
On November 1st, 2013, I embarked on an adventure on the fast track. I closed on the purchase of The Crossroads Journal. This year the whole Crossroads team has worked hard to improve the entire paper. We started last November printing 8,000, expanding to now over 12,000 copies printed twice a month. The smaller black and white newspaper changed to full color this summer and our size is now published as a broadsheet. The delivery of our paper has expanded to Cedar Fort and the Fairfield area which, in addition to keeping up with the growth in our area, has been quite a task. The motivation for this progression stems from my deep-rooted love for community. I grew up in North Eastern Utah County in what was the farm town of Highland in the 1970’s and 80’s. This little community was a small, one business (Country Corner gas station) town, mainly traveled through by individuals traveling to and from Alpine or to the American Fork Canyon entrance to visit Timpanogos Cave, or the camp grounds. We shopped in American Fork for our groceries or drove to Orem or Sandy for other shopping needs. Our local town paper was called “The Citizen”. Lehi had “The Pioneer”, while other towns throughout Utah County had their own town newspaper. The county has always enjoyed the larger coverage of The Daily Herald, but the smalltown news was covered by each of the town papers. Before the internet, the town newspapers provided the “Facebook” type connection with individuals. We could look up everything from wedding announcements to births at American Fork Hospital. According to Josh Walker, a former ad sales rep and resident of Northern Utah County, the smalltown papers were purchased in 2000 and by the larger paper, and then for budgetary reasons closed in 2010. Many feel that this was a loss to our communities. In the new and developing areas of Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs, in approximately 1999, a few neighbors got together and put together the beginnings of what would evolve into The Crossroads Journal. Some of the issues of the first papers were very similar to a neighborhood newsletter. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga each had a few different papers start and end over the first few years. By 2005, when I moved to Eagle Mountain and began to notice the small rolled newspaper in my driveway twice a month, The Crossroads was proving to be a consistent and valuable part of our area. You could open the paper and read about what was happening in our town meetings and the new businesses in the area. This was how I personally came to know more about the names and faces of the people in our area.
Community News and Information for Northern Utah County
I appreciated the efforts of the individuals that put together the paper. Business that advertised in the paper became familiar to me. I enjoyed the paper from the comfort of my home until a couple of years ago when one of my children asked about a newspaper route. I contacted the owner and joined the group of families that deliver the paper to each home and business in the area twice a month. I felt the contribution to the community, as my child was learning the responsibilities of a job. Delivering newspapers twice a month takes a lot of dedication from the whole family. Under the coordination of Annette Heaton, the Klingonsmith, Spalding, Schlesinger, Anderson, Brown, Hauer, Willis, Clawson and Lojik families receive the newspaper, roll and place each paper into the weather protective bag and deliver them directly to your driveway. The two editors Danielle Palmer and Jo Wilson work to coordinate writing assignments, communicate with writers and edit articles for the paper. Writers Jeniffer Klingonsmith, Danielle Palmer, Matt Schauerhammer, Danielle Dimond, Erika Douglas, Jon Handy, Matthew Gary Milam, and Sharon Erickson, contact local individuals and attend events and local meetings in an effort to share the information with all of us. In addition, business owners, students and other members of the community submit articles to share information and news with their neighbors. In a fast growing area, it takes a lot of contribution from many individuals to create The Crossroads Journal. Personally, I would like to thank every individual who has stepped forward this year and contributed in each and every way. Each of you has contributed to our area and it’s residents. This year we have experienced new mayors in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. We continue to grow and change in our communities and with the recent election we will also experience a change in a utility provider for Eagle Mountain residents. Saratoga Springs resident Mia Love has been elected as one of the state’s newest congress members. Our transportation byways are changing in the redesign of SR 73. Construction continues to thrive in our community. We enjoy more schools and family and community parks and buildings. We will continue to work hard to improve and to publish the local stories for our neighbors. We are committed to connecting our area with the best information we can. It is our hope that our efforts will not only be appreciated, but also inspire individuals to submit stories and photos about the community. We love to publish news about the people in our community. We are always in need of additional writers, delivery families and support staff. Please feel free to email me wendy@thecrossroadsjournal.com.
Vol 014 No 22
“Too Much Fresh Air? --Another Side to Utah’s ‘Happiest’ Reputation” By Matthew Gary Milam
Although more research might be needed on the matter, aside from Utah’s reputation as being the “happiest” place to live, University of Utah neuroscientist and researcher Perry Renshaw believes there just might be a connection between Utah’s very high ranking in depression and suicides and Utah’s geographic location and altitude. Utahns love recreation and the outdoors. Whether it’s hiking or boating in the summer, or alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, or snowshoeing in the winter, getting outside and moving is one very big factor, it is believed, in why Utahns seem to be so happy. But it just might be those fresh-aired, beautiful outdoor settings, and Utah’s high elevations, in general, that are working against this happiness, according Renshaw. Renshaw says that Utah has disproportionately high rates of suicide and associated mood disorders compared to the rest of the country, and is the number one state for antidepressant use. These polarized feelings of Utah residents between happiness and depression is what he calls the “Utah Paradox.” Renshaw believes that our brain chemistry is affected by altitude. He says that altitude changes our levels of serotonin and dopamine. These two chemicals are key in regulating our feelings of happiness. Antidepressants control the level of these chemicals in the brain. States in the Rockies have a reputation for high suicide rates that falls just behind those of the state of Alaska. Renshaw was involved in a study conducted in 2011 and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, that claimed that out of all the study’s analyzed factors for high suicide rates (i.e., population density, poverty, and available psychiatric care), altitude was cited as having the strongest link to suicide. Renshaw has used “CDC violent death data” to support his findings that the elevation at which people live is a predictor of mental health. Renshaw says that studies of other countries, such as Korea and Austria, have come up with
similar results regarding mental health and altitude. Based on Renshaw’s findings, it would appear that the farther one gets from sea level, the more depressed that person might be. Maybe that’s why a lot of people dream of being at the beach during wintertime. Renshaw cites reports from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He says the academy reported that out-of-state professors were hard to retain and that cadets from other states did not perform as well as those hailing from within the state. Renshaw says that despite the results of these studies, there are plenty of reports of those who were born and raised in states such as Utah and Colorado having moved out of state, then reporting a “longing” to return to the “mountains where they grew up.” Also, Renshaw cited reports about the LDS Missionary Training Center in Provo. It was reported to him that missionaries diagnosed with ADD stopped taking their medication within a few weeks of arriving at the MTC. Also, the rate of diagnosis in Salt Lake City is 50% lower than New York City, for example, Renshaw added. Too much fresh air, then? Renshaw believes that oxygen-poor air affects brain chemistry, lowering serotonin and increasing dopamine. He says, “Serotonin, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, helps stabilize emotions. Dopamine, an excitatory neurotransmitter, plays a vital role in our ability to focus. Too little dopamine can make us scatterbrained, whereas a dopamine increase causes hyper-concentration and feelings of euphoria.” He goes on to say that people with an existing mood disorder, or a predisposition to mental illness, would be more sensitive to the effects of low serotonin levels, and that women have half as much serotonin as men and are more likely to develop a mood disorder as a result of living at high elevations. Renshaw has faced opposition to his theories on altitude and mental health, but says that he is not willing to dismiss his findings as a mere flukes, but that more research will be needed.