THE UTAH SUMMER GAMES completed a highly successful 25th annual competition seemingly with nary a hitch, and everyone can rest easier now that it was able to avoid some of the foibles of previous years.

For example, there was the year when a disappearing tiger act to be performed at mid-field during the opening ceremonies garnered national headlines when the tiger got loose and ran down the field with its owner holding onto its tail and people in the audience running for cover.

Or the opening ceremonies act in which an entertainer juggled chain saws (it wasn’t until the act was over that it was discovered the juggler was inebriated).

Or when the opening ceremonies had to be postponed one year because a giant storm blew in, totally obliterating the huge stage (the width of the football field and 40 feet high) that had been constructed at the north end of Eccles Stadium using construction scaffolding. The postponed opening ceremonies became instead the Summer Games’ closing ceremonies that year.

JUST THE FACTS: Unemployment rates in Iron County for May totaled 8.6 percent. Washington County had an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, Utah was at 7.3 percent, and the United States was at 9.9 percent.

The highest recorded Utah unemployment rate was in March 1983 at 10 percent; the lowest was in April 2007 at 2.5 percent.

The number of nonagricultural jobs in Iron County dipped in May by 25 (from 15,990 in April to 15,965 In May).

The sales tax revenues (a good indicator of the strength of the City’s retail sector) for March 2010 totaled $382,962 or 3 percent less than March 2009’s total of $393,291 (which was itself down by 19 percent from 2008’s March total of $484,230).

RAP taxes for parks and recreation were allocated the past fiscal year to Healthy Iron County ($12,000) for asphalt for exercise equipment and stations along the Coal Creek Parkway walking trail; the Cedar City Leisure Services Department ($150,738) for furnishings and equipment for the new Aquatic Center and ball fields now under construction at The Hills; Cedar City Rotary Club ($5,000) to assist in construction of the new World War I monument in Veteran’s Park; and the Cedar Ridge Golf Course ($100,000) for a new maintenance and golf cart storage facility.

For the month of May there were 23 new business licenses issued. Worth noting are JJ’s Fish & Chips (going in out at the Providence Chevron where Bruno’s was located); Cedar Nut & Candy Co. at 1155 W. 200 North; Urban DAWGZ, 1420 S. Providence Center Drive (a pet store not opening until Aug. 1); and Yellow Rabbit, 5 N. Main Street (a restaurant currier service).

Motels in Cedar City filled 46.5 percent of their rooms in May, compared to 51.9 percent in May of 2009. The state of Utah reported average room occupancies for May of 71.4 percent.

PERSONS OF THE MONTH: Chris Vickers and State Rep. Evan Vickers are co-owners of Bulloch Drug and the adjacent Wood & Lace and Comforts of Home stores. They have made the three establishments potent tourist attractions.

From the black and white tiled floor to the antique soda fountain (you can get a cherry phosphate soda!), it is a tribute to their good taste and business acumen. I know of a family who travels through Cedar City every summer but pulls off at Cedar City so her growing family can “experience Bulloch Drug.”

Several years ago, Meg Whitman, then president of ebay and now the Republican choice to run for governor of California, was in town for a speech and took the first 10 minutes of her talk speaking glowingly of having visited Bulloch Drug.

The Vickers have made their stores the anchor of downtown Main Street and a fun place just to visit and admire.

REMEMBERING 1: The first American flag to fly over Cedar City was hoisted up a pole on July 3, 1852, in preparation for the next day’s Independence Day celebration. In the spring of that year, the community asked Ann Chatterley Macfarlane to make a flag, since there was none in Cedar City, with people requested to donate whatever cloth might be appropriate.

So the first flag contained Matthew Carruther’s red flannel underwear, an old blue petticoat, and some fine white linen that one of the settlers had brought with them all the way from Ireland.

The flag was sewn together by thread pulled from the unraveling of the linen. So the final flag was far from elegant, but no American flag in Cedar City’s history was so beloved as the first one sewn by Ann Macfarlane.

DID YOU KNOW? That SUU’s chemistry department has scored within the top 5 to 10 percent of all colleges and universities nationwide. That the first child to arrive in Cedar City in 1851 was David Dunn Bulloch, son of settler James Bulloch.

That the first sports played in Cedar City were shinny and rounders, both ball games. That Cedar City is warmer by 10 degrees every month of the year than the national average. That on February 23, 1851, in Parowan, a chicken was killed and approximately $2 worth of gold dust was discovered in its gizzard.

POLITICS. The number of times state officials agree to attend Cedar City events and meetings and then back out the very day they are supposed to be here is perplexing many.

The latest was a Utah politician who said he’d come for the opening ceremonies of the Utah Summer Games but canceled the afternoon of the event with the excuse his airplane was unable to make it (something about bad weather up north), driving down seemingly not an option. All of which proves the old adage that it’s much farther from Salt Lake City to Cedar City than it is from Cedar City to Salt Lake.

Utah’s Legislature passed a bill this year that required that at least two of the State Board of Regents be from rural counties. The legislature expected its new guidelines would be observed, but when an opening on the Regents came up recently, yet another Regent from Utah County was selected to join the two others from that county already there.

The legislature predictably refused to ratify the appointment since rural Utah is not yet represented as the Legislature had directed – but was ultimately pressured to back down and the appointment was finally ratified, which still leaves rural Utah out in the proverbial cold.

CITY PROFILE (latest information): There are 10,526 housing units in Cedar City of which 1,176 are empty. The average household size is 2.87 population (nationally: 2.61). People who are high school graduates or higher constitute 91.4 percent of the population (nationally: 84.5). College graduates are 33.1 percent of the population (nationally: 27.4).

There are 1,853 veterans in Cedar City or 9.2 percent. The medium household income is $45,398 (nationally: $63,211). Individuals below poverty level constitute 24.4 percent of the population (nationally: 13.2).

Of the total population 49.2 percent are males, 50.8 percent females. The median age in Cedar City is 24.6 (nationally: 36.7). Ten percent of the people living in Cedar City are minorities. The number of foreign born are 1,462 or 5.2 percent (nationally: 12.5).

Average time it takes to travel to work is 12.3 minutes (nationally: 25.3).

MORE FACTS: The Cedar City-owned Heritage Center Theater was completed in 2000, cost $8,543,860, and has an annual bond payment of $659,484 (which will end in June 2021) paid from the City’s General Fund.

The facility’s operations and maintenance budget for fiscal year 2009 was $312,419, its rental revenues totaled $96,300, resulting in a subsidy from the City’s General Fund of $216,119.

Compare these expenses from the fiscal year 2007: O & M budget, $358,667; revenues, $134,232, and subsidy of $224,435. The numbers from fiscal year 2008: O & M budget, $351,700; revenues, $108,041; and General Fund subsidy, $243,659.

Total expenditures from the City’s General Fund for the Heritage Theater in 2009 were $875,603 (bond and O & M).

AWARD SEASON: Salt Lake, a magazine for Utah, announced in May its 60 best Utah diners. Included on their list were two from Cedar City.

Under the category “Mainly for Lunch,” Dede’s Restaurant listed third in the state while Sullivan’s Cafe listed ninth.

Here is what Salt Lake said about Dede’s: “This is one of the few small-town diners that’s getting a clue about big city trends. How do we know? The menu includes ‘signature’ dishes, ingredients include sun-dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, and there were two kinds of quiche offered as breakfast specials the morning we were there... and their ‘sin-a-yum’ rolls are as big as your head.”

And about Sullivans: “He’s tall, buff and bald; there’s no ruffle on his apron; and he doesn’t call you ‘hon,’ but Jon at Sullivan’s Cafe is a 21st-century version of the archtypical diner server... The menu features liver and onions, and the meatloaf plate comes with Dutch-oven potatoes.”

REMEMBERING 2: This month also contains the annual Pioneer Days celebration, so we are reminded that the original settlers who came to Cedar City did so initially to carve out a living in the desolate wilderness and to construct an iron works.

They built three Cedar City’s on three separate sites, one after the other. The first was on the north side of Coal Creek in a cove in a knoll near where the Valley View Medical Center is located. It consisted of wagon box shelters and huts, surrounded by a 300-foot square enclosure of brush, cottonwoods, and adobe.

Located at the base of a hill, however, it was finally determined the site could not be adequately protected in case of attack, and another site was selected.

The second Cedar City was across Coal Creek just south and a little west of the original location. In a short time it became what many regarded as the most impressive settlement south of Salt Lake City.

It was a fort, a half a mile square, with contiguous houses whose outer wall formed the fortifications. But it was clear this site had to be abandoned, too, as boulders and debris near the fort testified that huge floods in times past had swept over the site and undoubtedly would again in the future.

A third site, near the mouth of the canyon on land free of flooding, was selected for the city’s permanent location. So, for many of the pioneers of our city, within a span of five years they had to build three separate homes and abandon two of them.

SENIOR MOMENT: A true sign of Old Age is knowing that the Lone Ranger’s real name was John Reid.