From Deseret News archives:
Sandstrom bids adieu to council
Mortified, the other members of the Provo City Council watched their small, fragile-looking matriarch somersault through the air and land on her back.
Ever unflappable and dignified, Sandstrom popped up, brushed off her clothes, straightened her hair and primly said, "I don't think I'm going to ride anymore."
Several years later, at the end of two terms and eight years on the council, Sandstrom is riding off into the political sunset against her will, having lost a strange election in November.
Almost cruelly, the final meeting of 2007 concluded with a vote to establish the council's 2008 meeting schedule.
"I'll be wishing I could be at those meetings," she said. "I know I'll be missing out."
She didn't know she'd feel that way back in 1999 when her son Stephen, then an Orem city councilman and now a state legislator, compelled her to run.
"I said, 'No, I'm not going to do that,"' she recalled. "He said, 'All right, I'm coming to pick you up."'
He knew her interest in politics. She used to read newspaper stories to her husband and children at the dinner table, where they hashed out the issues.
The bloodlines were strong, too. Samuel Clark and William Pace were aldermen on the first Provo City Council in 1851. Utah women wouldn't have the right to vote for another 45 years, so it's pretty unlikely Clark and Pace looked ahead 150 years and imagined a shared great-granddaughter following in their footsteps.
They also couldn't have anticipated the mountains of paperwork, but Sandstrom was notorious for reading every document given to the council, Mayor Lewis Billings said Tuesday as he honored her with the rare Mayor's Award of Excellence. During the ceremony, nearly 100 people gave her two standing ovations.
"I know that this ...," she said, stopping to push back tears, "is not given very often."
The Sandstrom legacy may be most felt at the quarterly joint lunch meetings of the Provo and Orem councils. The meetings were the brainchild of mother and son, who wanted to end what was nearly a feud between the two councils.
They succeeded.
Comments
- Tiger opens with a 66 in Australia 1:18 a.m.
- Crash kills Utah County man 1:12 a.m.
- UCAT cheaper education option 1:12 a.m.
- Post office to be named for Rex Lee 1:11 a.m.
- Police probe synagogue vandalism 1:09 a.m.
- New charges added in fraud case 1:09 a.m.
- Mom takes plea deal in girl's beating 1:08 a.m.
- Drug trafficking operation busted 1:07 a.m.
- News yule writing contest starting up 12:59 a.m.
- Alpine District school honored 12:59 a.m.
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
- Utah Jazz have a problem at point
- 'Love story' of crash victim ends
- BYU football recruit turning heads
- Alta's Ohai is Ms. Soccer 2009
- Prep football: Felt's Facts Week
- 12 Utes return to Texas
- Cougars' defensive hoops clinic
- Wyoming writer amazed by BYU
- Civilians help S.L. officer make arrest
- House passes health care bill
287 - SLC council OKs gay rights policies
246 - TCU showdown has big implications
193 - Senators want food tax restored
157 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
155 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
119 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
109 - Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
101 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
92
This week, I'm compiling my annual list of restaurants serving...
Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh get the audience they deserve and vice versa. ...
I find the rule,very discriminitory. I am not gay, I don't understand what...
I understand we were outmanned last night. However, this effort was awful....
My advice to Jonathan is shoot it when they pass it to you as soon as you...
Maybe they should try drafting a shooting guard who can shoot from outside ....
The sad thing about it is that there are actually people out there that are...
Thank you TCU and BYU. Your wanting to beat Utah so bad has to drive you...
Play fes and koufos. Look to the future. It looks like we will have two...
Oh come on. Obama's a horrible president, but I couldn't care less which...
"We had the best soccer of any place in the state. There's no disputing...



You can be the first to comment on this story.