Avalanche on Utah's Highway 14 and Mile Marker 8 could have been true disaster

There is a saying that goes “The road to heaven is paved with good intentions” that with a little editing would seemingly fit the recent avalanche that closed Highway 14.

You see, Highway 14 from Cedar City, Utah east to Duck Creek and then to Highway 89 is the road to relief for so many people. It serves as our getaway route complete with beautiful scenery and cabins that serve as respites for weary souls.

However, what came down the south wall of Highway 14 at mile marker eight on the evening of Monday, Jan. 5, the road to Duck Creek and beyond could have very well been the disaster that most never thought about before.

The people of Cedar City and Duck Creek had just celebrated a glorious New Year’s weekend and as usual, the areas were the perfect escape for gatherings. Some headed for Duck Creek days before New Years to spend the time relaxing while leaving behind the previous year and praying for a better ’09.

Thankfully, most headed home Sunday and workers had already headed down the route earlier in the day.
The avalanche let go at least a day after most had headed home for the holiday. Its magnitude was measured by the fact that boulders were as big as cars and houses and the dirt was a deep as 10 feet in some places in a massive fall of earth, dirt and trees that covered an estimated 1,000 feet of roadway.

Photos of Highway 14 after the avalanche are evidence that this was not an ordinary landslide. This was serious as major media outlets rushed to the area that overlooks a deep canyon to record the scene of what could have been much worse than it was.

As many times as we all travel Highway 14 during our escapes to Duck Creek, I could not help but think about what could have been. Thankfully, the slide did not occur when people were going either east or west on Highway 14 especially after a busy holiday weekend.

“We came down about 3:30 in the afternoon headed for St. George to make a Costco run,” said a relieved Cindy Allen, who along with her fiancé Rudy Delapaz traveled Highway 14 headed home at about 8 p.m. “We had dinner at Milt’s. Thankfully, we didn’t wait any longer before heading back up the mountain.”

In fact, two of Delapaz’s employees were among the first at the scene. They immediately retreated and headed back to Duck Creek. But had they been even minutes earlier, it end result could have been deadly.

The road is heavily traveled even during the slower periods and with both visitors and workers counting on the route constantly, most are traveling during the daylight hours. Those heading back to Cedar City from Duck Creek generally leave on Sunday sometime, so if an avalanche was supposed to occur, thank God it did not happen during “rush hour” on Highway 14.

I shudder to think what could have happened to many good, hard-working people who frequent Highway 14 throughout the year. While workers certainly have their hands full even having to dynamite boulders so big that they can’t move them with the biggest of heavy equipment, the end result could have been news that made headlines all over the nation and even the world.

When driving Highway 14, I spend so much time relaxing that I can only imagine what would have gone through my mind along Mile Marker 8 when the avalanche started. I have had my share of scares in my life ranging from brain surgery to a house fire, but an avalanche would undoubtedly surpass the other challenges.

I worry about snow storms while traveling to and from Duck Creek, but this could have made a blizzard seem like no big deal. Truth be known, an avalanche could have been tantamount to what people experienced when the Titanic went down.

So for every one of us who either travel Highway 14 or know people who do, it’s time to reflect and be thankful for what happened and what could have been.

And cross your heart every time you drive the area again because this particular avalanche could have been disastrous.
Thank God it required only heavy equipment to repair the damage and not emergency personnel responding to what was very close to being a disaster of monumental proportions.

Mike Henle is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer and the author of “Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted via email at mhenle@aol.com or through his web site www.mikehenle.com

Plain and simple, greed has taken this country to its knees

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, it was the belief of those in charge that our country was preventing against future attacks by terrorists.

Surely, this country and its allies would find weapons of mass destruction while also preventing against future attacks on our soils. More than five years since sending thousands of troops into harm’s way in what has proven to be expenditure worth gazillions, we’re discovering that the real land mines are in this country.

Our greatest dangers are dressed in three-piece suits with flashy shoes. They drive expensive cars, talk a good game and make regular trips to the bank with armloads of cash stolen from fellow Americans.

You see, the terrorists taking this country to its knees right now are actually Americans. They operate using deceit as a weapon while stealing billions from thousands of people who have placed their trust in fellow-Americans.

Look no further than Bernard Madoff, a so-called Wall Street powerhouse who has ripped off more than $50 billion from clients that include some noteworthy folks who are now seeing their retirements disappear.

Madoff’s actions have taken people to their knees, but he is not alone in his actions. You see fraud and theft unfortunately seem to be a part of our country that has become everyday behavior.

But Madoff’s reported actions certainly are not alone. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been implicated in another mess and still other politicians are being hammered for everything from cheating on their spouses to racketeering.
Look around you. Politicians in virtually every corner of this country are in trouble for everything from selling votes to abuse of power.

From one end of this county to the other, we have so many politicians and high-ranking officials going to prison that they could start a fraternity featuring stripes and numbers across their chests. Sadly, it’s almost a way of life and the common folks are getting their life savings ripped away from them in droves as the politicians and Wall Street types scam everyone from little old ladies to the owners of professional sports franchises.

I mean the continued reports of leaders in every position conducting themselves in startling and dishonest ways is so endless that we seem to take the developments for granted. Sad to say, but we don’t seem to have many credible leaders anymore.

In fact, I have a very good friend who has refused to run for office in some cases because the trail of misdeeds left behind by the previous administration was so corrupt that a once respected level of government had become the laughing stock of the country.

In virtually every case, the offenses are based on greed with total disregard for those who are being affected. The mere fact that the offenders can sleep is mind-boggling considering that they have victimized good, honest people by combining an element of deceit and theft with heartless behavior.

I still say we could have stayed out of Iraq and instead concentrated on our own problems right here in our country. Lord knows we could use a little help here in what has become a battlefield of financial and political terrorists born and raised right here in the United States.

Ron Futrell cleared of all charges

Dec. 17, 2008

From Future Vegas Media

Former Channel 13 Sports and News anchor Ron Futrell has been cleared of all charges relative to his accident on July 25th. There were 5 charges against Ron and they have all been dropped. In the end Ron will pay no fine and not even have a traffic ticket on his record because of the accident.

Ron had been removed from the anchor job on the morning news and told that his contract would not be renewed about a month before the accident, then Channel 13 fired Ron after the accident. He had worked 20 years at KTNV as Sports Director and the last 5 years as morning news anchor. He covered many of the great sporting events in Las Vegas history. Boxing through its glory days, Rebel basketball through its National Championship and the rise of NASCAR, just to name a few.

In a statement Ron said: "I am happy that this has all been cleared up and ready to move forward. I love Las Vegas, my family is here, my life is here and I will stay here. I have gained a new perspective on the media that very few have. After 30 years of covering sports and news stories, then BECOMING the story and being exonerated, I have seen the media from a point of view that few have seen. That certainly could be valuable no matter what I do in the future."

Ron has been doing a number of things since he left KTNV, he has done news consulting for a Utah TV station, public relations for Comprehensive Financial Services in Summerlin, he hosts a national sports talk show on the Sports Byline USA Network and is building a web site for locals here in Las Vegas at: www.localslovevegas.com

You can contact Ron directly at: ronsports@yahoo.com or (702) 743-2000 or attorney Andy Leavitt at (702) 382-2800.

The Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas has memories that willl live forever

The Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas is undergoing changes, but no one will ever be able to erase the history of the hotel casino.

I know since I was employed as everything from a busboy to a warehouseman and finally a bell hop from 1969-74 when the money was good and the times were beyond belief in many ways.

It was in the early years that the Sahara was owned by the legendary Del Webb, who had real estate holdings including the Sahara Tahoe, the old Thunderbird and Mint hotels along with ownership of the New York Yankees, to name a few.

A pleasant and humble man whose demeanor made him a friend to everyone from the front desk clerk to the maid and the valet parking attendant, Webb represented an era in Las Vegas when the corporate element was virtually non-existent and the times were fun.

And the Sahara was a fun place, as evidenced by the unending memories within the grounds of the 1,000-room layout.

Probably the greatest memories stemmed from the personalities who performed at the Sahara ranging from comedian Don Rickles to the singing group The Kim Sisters and singer Teresa Brewer. Add Sonny and Cher into the mix along with Buddy Hackett and Johnny Carson and it’s easy to see why the Sahara was the class of its field more than three decades ago.

Truth be known, one of Rickles’ funniest moments came when the young Kim Sisters were in the audience at the old Casbar Lounge in the Sahara.

“None of us knew English,” recalled Sue Kim many years later. “So when Don started ranting and raving at us, we all left. We didn’t know what to think at the time.”

The employees of the Sahara loved Rickles, who before leaving for the Riviera spoke freely with the staff and always left behind tokens of his appreciation upon completing his engagement. He would hit the door of the Sahara teasing an old bell captain from Louisiana named Les Garrity and patrons and employees always welcomed him back when he returned.

In the same breath, Carson was a highly-private individual who while well-liked, didn’t mix often with the help. Word had it that while Carson was one of the best entertainers ever at the Sahara, he shied from the public when off-stage and cherished his quiet time when not performing.

Sonny Bono, whose career was skyrocketing during the 1970s at the Sahara thanks in part to the glowing performances of his wife, Cher, created a memory that will forever live in Sahara history while strolling through the warehouse.

In his day, Bono was a fitness freak – so much so that he took every pound seriously. That said, he stripped to his bikini underwear in the warehouse and jumped on the Toledo scales, which just happened to be situated smack-dab in front of the office windows and in full view of the women in the office.

When confronted about his near-naked attire while standing in front of the eyes-wide-open female employees of the Sahara purchasing department, the brazen Bono said in part that he could not have cared less about the view he was offering.

When it came to Hackett, there could not have been a more despised individual in the hotel than him. In fact, during a break between shows one evening, several waiters and waitresses fumed about his comments to them during a previous show, and threatened to dump all of their trays and dishes in unison during his show.

In fact, Hackett even reportedly shot out the headlights of a vehicle he claimed was parked in his reserved parking space.

Then, there were the countless conventions that the Sahara attracted over the years ranging from morticians to the Tail Hookers to gun collectors and the rest. In addition, Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy telethon fund raiser every year started at the Sahara before moving on.

In the case of the Tail Hookers – which were former members of Navy air craft carrier crews – there was not a bigger party on earth each year when the partying was intense and furniture was thrown out balcony windows and into the Sahara swimming pool before moving to the Hilton where they gained national notoriety for their antics.

And in its day, the Sahara was host to the PGA Sahara Invitational when the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez headed a field of folks who were not only good golfers but good tippers at the same time. During a time when the current PGA tournament is struggling for spectators, the Sahara Invitational drew thousands each year.

The Sahara is about to be upgraded into a new look that will bring it up today’s standards.

However, I’ll take the old days of the Sahara when an element of surprise combined with the class of Del Webb created the old-time fun of the Las Vegas Strip.

Okay, so who's responsible for this particular letter?

Homeowners associations were introduced many years ago presumably so residents would work together. Mini governments were created so that neighborhoods could watch over one another.

The idea was good, but the end result has been one of endless battles. I mean, Iraq hasn’t got as many war zones as those that have been created by homeowners associations and their property management teams not to mention the attorneys that prey on them.

So, curiosity immediately got the best of me as I quickly opened the letter from our property management firm which oversees our community in Duck Creek, Utah. I knew that my homeowners association bill had been paid, so I wondered if recent queries about a myriad of issues had prompted a response.

Upon opening the envelope, I found a letter advising me that a sign belonging to my builder Greg DeMille had to be removed from the property. If I didn’t remove the sign, I was facing a $100 fine for refusing to follow the rules.

The only problem was that the sign had been removed in July following an HOA meeting when it was deemed necessary that signs such as these were not allowable following the completion of a cabin. It all sounded good to me, and the free advertising I had allowed on a tree was removed following our meeting.

To me, all was handled until the third week of November when I received a letter telling me to either remove the sign by Jan. 1, 2009 or face the consequences for violating the order. We had just returned from three wonderful days in Duck Creek, where a sign on our mantle says “The only bad thing about Duck Creek is the drive home.”

Mind you, I received no phone calls asking me if the sign was still up and apparently nobody bothered checking my property to see that the sign had actually been removed. The simplest way to handle such a dispute (if there had been one in the first place) was to give me a call, and I would have either ordered the sign to be removed or taken it down myself.
The first thing I did was call my builder.

“Hey, have you been putting your sign up in front of our cabin after we leave and then taking it down before we return,” I asked in jest to our dedicated builder.

DeMille was about as dumbfounded by the question as I was by the letter I had just received.

I then called the property management firm near Salt Lake City only to be told that the homeowners association had ordered distribution of the letter four months ago although it wasn’t sent out until November.

Uh okay. But the problem is the sign was gone only a matter of days after our meeting. And while we’re at it, did anyone bother checking to see if there was still a violation before spending money to write the letter and send it in the mail?
I kept thinking to myself that we have two lots in Duck Creek amounting to annual fees of $400 – and this is what I get for paying my bills time?

The next call I made was to long-time friend and Nevada State Sen. Mike Schneider, whose long battles with homeowner associations has led to major revisions of homeowner rights thanks to his work in Carson City. His efforts have been lauded all over the country and other states have even ratified laws enacted through Schneider’s help.

I told Sen. Schneider that we might want to expand his authority into southern Utah, where a very basic sign belonging to my builder had turned into the threat of a $100 fine even though it hadn’t been on the tree in front of our cabin for months.
Considering that Schneider has testified all over the country for homeowners rights, he listened to my plight. Knowing that HOAs and their management firms have started long battles over things as silly as a basketball hoop being left in the driveway, I wanted this misunderstanding cleared up with the same vengeance that president-elect Barack Obama has tackled the economy.

Not a problem, Sen. Schneider assured me. This issue will get cleared up before the Utah State Legislature meets again. We’re not going to have to worry about our escape in Duck Creek turning into a chapter of the Stepford Wives.
Whew. Thank goodness.

I had been in fear that my next letter would center on the fact that needles were falling from the trees and I needed to clean them up before the first snow storm.

And to think all of this could have been handled with a phone call.

Mike Henle is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer and the author of “Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted by email at mhenle@aol.com or through his web site www.mikehenle.com.

Will someone please tell me the role of an efficiency expert?

It goes without saying that anyone who works for someone else is worried about now. Cutbacks are running rampant as the economy spirals downward and our retirement funds disappear like water during a drought.

And about now, there is a special breed of know-it-alls that raise their heads during bad times about like real estate agents surface during good times.

They are called efficiency experts, those well-dressed individuals who carry expensive brief cases and show up to put the fear of God in every business where they suddenly appear.

Efficiency experts resemble vultures circling wounded or sick animals in the middle of a field waiting to strike and remove the prey. You may have worked for decades in one place when all of a sudden, a stranger with a sharp pencil and a convincing voice shows up and is instantly worshiped by management as an expert.

Mind you, in many cases the efficiency expert actually has good advice, although we all kind of wonder why it takes a new guy on the block to disclose a weakness that has been evident for days, weeks or even years before.

I mean, why did the boss have to actually hire someone to outline a weakness recognized by everyone from the janitors to the CEO? Just when we’re supposed to be cutting corners, management spends big-time bucks for someone who not only doesn’t know his or her way around the building but could not possibly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the inner workings.

So, as frightened employees sit in their cubicles, they begin to fear that they are in the crosshairs. Or better yet, we all wonder just what it is about an efficiency expert that makes him or her knowledgeable about a topic he or she hasn’t been involved with until only the past few days.

About the time you get settled into your desk, there is that new face sitting in the boss’s office reviewing paper work and obviously studying the employee base. You start to feel like a rookie on a pro football team and cuts are about to be made.
Paranoia begins to set in and just when you should be concentrating on that deal you need to close, you start worrying about the fact your shirt may be wrinkled or your hair might be out of place. You don’t know the efficiency expert, so you don’t know what that individual is watching, what he is saying or what is expected of you.

But you know the hammer is ready to fall while also realizing that reaching your full productivity is stymied by an economy so ill that politicians are saying we are on the brink of another depression.

You have personal issues in your life that need to be addressed and now the efficiency expert is circling the office with a move so slow and smooth that you’d swear you’re hearing the music from the movie “Jaws” in the background.
Just when you start to relax, the efficiency expert is back on the grounds again. You see this same individual walking down the hallway, so you instantly duck into one of the backrooms or exit out a side door.

The government is bailing out the financial system in this country and you begin to wonder who is going to help you when times get even tougher. You’re an honest, hard-working soul who is simply trying to make ends meet, and it’s difficult to understand why the big boys take the money and go on expensive junkets while you are not sure you could even get unemployment benefits were you to get terminated.

Oh well, maybe I’m ready for another job change anyway. And while we’re discussing the future, I think it’s time to become an efficiency expert so that I can see first-hand just what these people do.

Mike Henle is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer and the author of “Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted via email at mhenle@aol.com or through his web site www.mikehenle.com.

Insurance more important than sprinklers

Home fire creates memories that live forever

The date Jan. 14, 2002 will forever live in my mind as the day we survived a horrific experience.
It was on this day that we all started out our typical daily routine. My wife was preparing for work, our youngest son was readying to attend his high school classes and I decided I would head for the gym.

All was fine until about three hours after we had all left. It was at that point that I received a frantic call from my neighbor with the mind-boggling line “You had better get home quick. Your house is fully-engulfed.”

I cannot tell you the panic that instantly ran through my mind, as I attempted to gather my senses while walking through the parking lot about 15 miles from home. Surely, this had to be a big joke, I thought, as I headed back to my car.

Heading west up the I-215 beltway in Las Vegas, a gazillion things ran through my mind as I looked toward the mountains to see smoke, which was the result of our 3,800 square-foot home custom going up in flames. Phone numbers started rolling through my mind ranging from my wife to my insurance agent and my neighbors (I had remembered that we left our Schnauzer, Blitz, inside in his kennel in an uncharacteristic move because my wife had feared he would get cold outside).

I called my wife’s boss to get him to drive her home. I then called my insurance agent (I accidentally called my former insurance agent first leading me to wiping egg off my face while driving like a mad man) before calling the neighbors to save Blitz along with our cockatiel, Steve.

The closer I got to the home the weaker I became. When I took the final two-mile drive up the road to our home and entered the cul-de-sac, there were countless fire trucks, an indescribable level of fear running rampant all over and the God-awful feeling that we were actually homeless.

Within minutes, a bus-load of individuals was loading burned and smoke-filled items out of our home. The front yard looked like a massive garage sale was taking place as the reality that our home was burning slowly set it.

A short time later, our insurance adjuster showed up assuring us that we would be taken care of. At the same time, he handed us a check for $2,000 for the essentials (like toiletries, clothing, etc.) and reiterated that he would have living quarters for us soon.

Just about that time, a little boy walked up to us with a handful of change to say “Hi. I don’t know who you are, but I want you to know that we are here to help.”

At that point, he dropped his change into our hands as nearly everyone within earshot wiped away the tears from their eyes. It was one of those moments that will forever live in our minds.

Our insurance adjuster found us a furnished home that evening, although we did spend the first night in a hotel. To borrow a line from the company, we were “in good hands,” although we truly had no idea until tragedy turned our beautiful home into a burned-out mess.

The fire had apparently been burning slowly all night long between the floors of our two-story home. Had it broken through to the second floor in the middle of the night, we might not have escaped.

Ironically, I had been involved in a struggle with the Clark County Commission working against the mandatory installation of fire sprinklers in single-family homes, a controversial issue that has raised its head again nationally. The commission reversed an earlier ruling and instead chose not to enforce the sprinkler ordinance.

Our fire was electrical in nature, and fire sprinklers would not have helped. In fact, the only key to the fire sprinkler issue was that they would have added $2 a foot to the construction of the home.

Truthfully, the maintenance aspect relating to fire sprinklers along with the possible water damage concerned me more than the fire itself. Many will agree that fire sprinklers are being encouraged simply because of the efforts of special interest groups, and not specifically because of the so-called safety issue.

However, the bottom line was that we were prepared for our disaster, although we didn’t know it at the time. We were dealt with fairly by our insurance company and because of that, we were able to carry on with our lives.

We survived the house fire while resurrecting our lives, but not without dedicated help from friends, family and yes, our insurance company.

But the fact remains that we could have been in dire shape were it not for the fact that we had an updated insurance policy with coverage we didn’t even know we had.

Fire can hit anywhere and at any time. The key is being properly prepared and frankly, I think the investment of my insurance policy was more important than the money I almost had to spend on fire sprinklers.