Monday, February 27, 2012

'Core' of Santaquin Community Come Together for Thirteenth Annual Chamber Installation Banquet


Pictured above (left-right): Santaquin Citizen of the Year Bart Olson with wife, Yvonne, Andrew Goudy, and outgoing Chamber of Commerce president, Mandy Jeffs.

Pictured (left-right): Andrew Goudy, Chad and Sheree Argyle, and Santaquin Mayor Jim Degraffenried. Mr. Argyle was honored with the Mayor's Recognition Award during the 2012 Santaquin Chamber Installation Banquet.

Colby Stevenson (center) receives a plaque in honor of his grandma, Kathleen Williams, owner of the Santa Queen Drive Inn, named 2012 Business of the Year. Emcee Andrew Goudy (left) presented the award, along with 2011 Chamber President Mandy Jeffs.

KSL chief meteorologist, Kevin Eubanks (right), with outgoing Chamber President Mandy Jeffs (left), who presented a gift to the guest speaker as Saturday's banquet came to an end.
The fallibility in consistently forecasting Mother Nature's intentions became a narrative to recognizing the universal fallacies of human nature by Santaquin Chamber Installation Banquet guest speaker, Kevin Eubanks. The meteorologist and popular KSL Channel 5 weather forecaster proved infallible, however, when it came to consistently sparking laughter from the crowd of local business owners and leaders as he joined them in the Santaquin Senior Citizen Center on February 25.

Identifying the crowd in the room that night as the community's core, Eubanks highlighted the beneficial conditions made possible in of a society that works collectively through difficult weather.

Andrew Goudy, part-time cowboy and the evening's emcee, incorporated folksy charm through tales of Santaquin's past. Goudy recalled working in the very same room Saturday's Banquet was held, back when it was the cafeteria for the old Santaquin Elementary School.

He was employed as a custodian, he said, working alongside the late Doyle Crook, back when students' leftover lunches could be disposed of off premises. At that particular time, he added, the scraps were used to feed pigs owned by Crook and the late Don Kay, on Kay's property on the west side of town. Both were adroit storytellers, said Goudy, relaying activities as seen through their eyes of the characters who once played a role in the community. Divulging humorous excerpts from stories he picked up while slopping pigs with these local sages, Goudy proved as entertaining as any guest speaker.

Between the quips came the business at hand. And the business that evening was the installation of new Chamber officers and board of directors for 2012, along with award presentations to several in the Santaquin community. Sworn into the Chamber were Brad Horrocks as president, Nick Miller as president-elect, Carri Thompson as secretary, Angela Kay as treasurer, along with Mandy Jeffs, Joe Davis, Joanne Bingham, Gayliene Lund, and Brenda Shupe.

Bart Olson has been named Santaquin Citizen of the Year for 2012. Having lived in Santaquin for most his life, Olson has played a prominent role in the community through church and civic activities. More notably, perhaps, his business, Olson's Greenhouse, is among the area's largest employers, according to Goudy. During peak seasons, the wholesale nursery employees three hundred people.

Olson's Greenhouse has come a long way since it originated with homegrown plants tended by his grandpa, the late Roy Olson, in his Santaquin Center Street yard generations ago. According to Olson, Roy had worked for a time in the Tintic mines, where he recognized a market among the miners with whom he toiled. He began selling tomato starts to them and then watched as his own popularity began to grow.

Eventually the business would become the domain of Bart's dad and mom, Jack and Nola Rae Olson. The operation expanded into Payson, with a retail operation supplying patrons outside just a mining crew. In 1989, the business was divided between Bart and his brother, Brad Olson. Brad assumed the retail end with Olson's Garden Shoppe in Payson, while Bart took hold of the wholesale side, supplying interstate big-chain stores, both expanding the operations along the way. Olson's Greenhouse today has greenhouses encompassing thirty acres located in both Santaquin and Salem, said Olson.

Olson attended Saturday's banquet with his wife, Yvonne. They are the parents of five, Rachelle (Brian) Lloyd, Chad (Autumn) Olson, Summer (Cody) Swenson, Bobby Jo (Nate) Barker, and Brandon (Emily) Olson. They have sixteen grandchildren among them. Olson noted that all their children are involved in the family operation today.

A popular palate-pleasing eatery, Santa Queen Drive Inn was recognized that evening as Business of the Year. Goudy noted that the restaurant's owner, Kathleen Williams, opened the business decades ago, serving burgers, soft serve ice cream cones, and his favorite, the Malibu chicken sandwich.

Santa Queen has also employed generations of teens, said Goudy. Among these employees, Colby Stevenson was there to receive the plaque in his grandma, Kathleen's, honor. Colby, Goudy noted, started working for his grandma years ago as an adolescent.

Mayor Jim Degraffenried stepped up to the mic to present the Mayor's Recognition Award for 2012. The honor went to Chad Argyle, a well-respected principal at Santaquin Elementary. Argyle is a Lake Shore, Utah, native, whose work in education has included teaching the fourth grade at Brockbank Elementary, then as principal after earning a master's degree, first in Springville, and then at Santaquin Elementary.

Newly appointed Chamber Board Member, Brenda Shupe, sitting next to Argyle and his wife, Sheree, throughout the banquet, praised the local principal. “The kids love him,” she said, noting that there is a mutuality of respect among them, as the students feel he sincerely cares about their well-being.

Principal Argyle and his wife, Sheree, have five children of their own, ages six to fifteen.

Argyle's work in the civic sector is to be lauded as well. He has served with the Santaquin Volunteer Fire Department for the past fourteen years and maintains a position on the Santaquin Library Board, which includes him among the critical core of the community. His efforts, among others discussed that evening, contribute to a community that can sustain in unpredictable weather.

First pic from left to right: Brad Horrocks (President, Mountain Land Physical Therapy), Gayliene Lund (Board Member, Gayliene’s Salon), Nick Miller (Vice-President, M&M Landscapring), Mandy Jeffs (Past President, UCCU), and Angela Kay (Treasurer, Zions Bank).

Above, left to right: Carri Thompson (Secretary, Competitive Automotive), Brenda Shupe (Board Member, A Good Plumber), and Joanne Bingham (Board Member, Sweet Pea Quilting).

Mayor Jim Degraffenried swears in the 2012 Santaquin Chamber of Commerce officers and board of directors, including Joe Davis (above)
Bart (right) and Yvonne (left) Olson enjoy a nice meal prepared for the banquet by Fiesta Catering.


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