Utah State News Service

By Kelcey Hook  For the first time in seven years, the Intermountain Winter Classic Figure Skating Competition will be hosted by the Cache Valley Figure Skating Club and the Eccles Ice Center. The two-day competition, which includes 108 skaters and more than 160 routines, will begin on Friday. While it has been several years since the Cache Valley club has hosted the event, organizers said they are prepared and ready to go.  “The kids are really excited,” club president Jennifer Lyons said. “It's an amazing chance to showcase their skills. "It is really a neat experience to have the Winter Classic back at the Eccles," said Teresa Burns, the manager of the Eccles Arena. "We have a lot of different clubs and outreach programs here.” More information about the competition can be found at  ecclesice.com .  

By Matilyn Mortensen Logan residents who suspect their neighbors may be violating city rules for how many people can live in one home will be able to find answers more easily with a new interactive map on  loganutah.org . The map, which Logan officials hope to launch in the next few weeks, is part of a city attempt to better reinforce zoning and occupancy laws. The map comes in response to resident complaints that many landlords choose to rent homes to multiple individuals — often students — rather than one family. Such rental agreements are not legal in all areas of the city. “I think it’s of concern to the city that there are people that are violating the law in their occupancy," Logan councilman Tom Jensen said. "And so, if people are aware of it, the city has a better chance to enforce the law." When residents have concerns about occupancy, they can use the map to identify how many people may live at a particular address. They can then use that information...

By Alison Berg  On Jan. 19, a Cache County Animal Control officer responded to a complaint about Kitty Haven Sanctuary — an animal sanctuary in Trenton which takes care of abandoned cats. Officer Floyd Powell, an animal control officer, said the woman who called in the complaint said she planned to adopt a cat from Kitty Haven. When she arrived at the sanctuary, though, she was horrified at the site of 86 cats crammed into one room. Melissa Cowley, the owner of the sanctuary, said the woman who filed the complaint was worried she would catch a disease and visited the sanctuary at an inconvenient time. “She came at a bad time because the house was messy and she just didn’t understand everything that was going on,” Cowley said. Cowley said when Powell arrived he also voiced his concerns about catching a disease. “I couldn’t believe it," Cowley said. "You’d think animal control would know what they can and can’t catch.”  However, Cowley said in her 16 years of own...

By Ford Rasmussen  For the first time in years, those who attend Utah State’s Opera Theater will hear the performance accompanied by a full orchestra. The USU Symphony Orchestra has teamed up with the USU Opera Theater to perform Mozart’s “La Finta Giardiniera,” starting Feb. 2. “It’s the first time in my stay that it’s happened,” said Benjamin Krutsch, one of the students who will be appearing in the opera, of the collaboration between the school’s opera theater and symphony orchestra. Krutsch has been at Utah State since 2013. The orchestra will be directed by Daniel Helfgot of San Jose, California — a perennial guest director at Utah’s Opera Festival in Logan since 2006. Helfgot’s repertoire includes more than 220 productions, including six other operas by Mozart. “This is the first production I’ve done at USU with a director of his caliber,” said the department’s musical director, Dallas Heaton. The cast has been practicing six days a week in preparation for t...

By Matilyn Mortensen  Logan residents who weren’t sure who to call for sandbags and other assistance during recent snowstorms only had to remember three numbers to get help: 3-1-1. In the wake of the storms, Mayor Craig Petersen said he received positive feedback about the new non-emergency informational number, which the city launched in December. Residents typically know what to do when they witness a crime being committed or when a life-threatening emergency occurs. 9-1-1 is the logical response in those situations. But in implementing the new number, city leaders wanted to give residents a way to get help with more day-to-day concerns, offering “a little more ease in calling someone who can make a difference,” city councilman Tom Jensen said. 3-1-1 is a number designated by the Federal Communications Commission for non-emergency calls, and different communities across the United States use it in different ways. In Logan, residents can use the number to file complai...

By Hannah McDonald Cache County residents are now covered by Smart911, a service that enables cell phone users to create online profiles accessible to dispatchers in an emergency. “It allows the public to have more involvement in what’s available when an emergency happens,” said Shelley Peterson, the director of 911 communications at the Logan City Police Department, which announced the new service on Tuesday. “It’s another really good tool in the dispatch toolbox.” In a typical 911 call made through a mobile phone, the dispatcher usually only receives a phone number and a general idea of the caller’s location. With Smart911, dispatchers receive any information registered users decide to include in their safety profiles. Users have the option to upload medical information, household information, emergency contacts and property details. Logan is only the second city in Utah to purchase the service. Layton was the first Beehive State municipality to subscribe, beginning use of S...

By Spencer Burt It has been a noisy, dusty and sometimes confusing return to school for students and faculty at Logan High, where a major renovation is expected to continue through the academic year. While a lot of work was completed over the summer on the project — funded by a $55 million bond passed by voters in 2013 and underway since the fall of 2015 — district officials said there’s still plenty to be done. And although the renovation is welcome and necessary, Logan High photography teacher Roger Rigby said, it has caused some inconvenience. “Sometimes it’s so noisy we can’t hear each other,” Rigby said of the construction, much of which is currently taking place directly above his classroom. Some teachers didn’t have enough time to move into their classrooms before school started, Rigby said. While he is staying in his same classroom, many teachers had to move everything out after the end of school this summer, and were only able to move into their new classrooms a wee...