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Show I otters from our readers.. ,j Dear Sam, The meeting of the Economic Development Committee this morning that you and I attended prompted me to write this letter. We have heard quite a lot about the problems miners and drillers are having with the BLM and I am personally aware of increasing problems the livestock industry is having hav-ing with BLM management manage-ment of the rangelands. It has been particularly difficult dif-ficult during the last two years of drought. The Forest Service and the State Land Board have been very helpful and understanding, while the BLM has added to our problems with arbitrary reductions and closures of some ranges while issuing news releases indicating that the restrictions were voluntary. Enough said about grazing gra-zing problems I am get- ting away from the subject I of this letter, which is to I point out that I think all citizens of the western states need to be concem- ed about the growing I problem of the BLM. A I perfect example came out of our meeting this morn-! morn-! ing when Del Baccus of the Grand Resources area j made a report of the I progress the BLM is ' making on the environ-! environ-! mental assessment for the I Mill Creek Project. He reported that things I were moving along well I with little critical com-j com-j ment and only one major I requirement was left to be done. However, this one I loose end was a dandy! I The BLM is insisting on ' "adequate" planning and j zoning for Spanish Valley before they will issue a i permit. I tried to point out I to Mr. Baccus and Mr. J Day (Gene Day, BLM Moab District Manager) that Federal Land Use j Planning has not yet I passed in the national I Congress and State Land ! Use Planning was soundly rejected by the citizens of j Utah on a ballot referend-I referend-I um, so this leaves it strictly up to local elected ! officials. i I am the first to agree j that Grand County's zon-I zon-I ing ordinances need to be J up-dated, but it is not the ! responsibility of the BLM i to plan or zone our private lands or to resort to blackmail to force others to do it by holding our vital water project as a hostage. I wrestled with the zoning issue during the four years I served on the County Commission and I know it is a sensitive and difficult problem to solve. As soon as you classify the future use of a piece of land, you also establish its future value. As you can see, this favors some, while penalizing others. That is why I feel very strongly that decisions of this importance must bo made by "elected" officials, offi-cials, not appointed bureaucrats. bur-eaucrats. Mr. Day excused his stand by saying that the BLM has been criticized in the past for contributing contribut-ing to the disorderly growth of Spanish Valley by small tract sales. I am glad to hear that Mr. Day is sensitive to public criticism, but it seems to me he is much more concerned about the feelings feel-ings of the preservationists preservation-ists than he is about state and local officials or user groups. I think it is time that the BLM begins to listen to all groups and give some special attention to those of us who live in the rural areas and must depend on continued multiple use of our public lands. If the BLM doesn't begin to listen, they may find there is a limit to the amount of harassment the American citizens will tolerate from an arrogant and arbitrary absentee landlord. We are the descendants of the Boston citizens who threw the tea in the harbor. D. L. Taylor Dear Sam, Not all that long ago, I was amused to notice what seemed like an increase in-crease in the downtown area of restricted parking signs, particularly on Main Street. More recently, I was confused by the sudden appearance on Main St. of that camival-fun-house-parking-lot paint-stripe job down the center of the street. I haven't yet figured fig-ured out if I should or should not cross the solid yellow line (and I wonder how I can get into the area where there is a dotted line that I could cross, if a dotted yellow line does indeed mean crossing is permitted). I guess many others have ceased trying tc figure it out since we al go on about our driving and turning business without much respect foi that paint job except for the left turn lanes. Does anyone really know what behavior those lines are supposed to regulate, ii any? And if none, how come they were so dulv painted? Now today I suddenlj note that Main Street near City Market is red-linec on both curbs. From m past experience, that is supposed to mean "Nc Parking." If it does, ther folks touring in trailers must now park in the parking lot (resulting ir traffic jams and some skillful maneuvering instead of easing to straightforward stop parallel par-allel to the curb. And i: the red-lining does mear "No Parking." then thai great stripe job which indicated with a solit white line that the flowing traffic lanes were separate from the parking lane-that lane-that demarcation is of nc consequence. Thus Main Street now has three lanes in either direction neai City Market. How are such decisions which attempt to regulate our behavior on the road; decided? I don't re-call an public notice of such in tentions being considered let alone legislated, ex cept perhaps the questior of parallel parking nrounc the ball field last summer which decision was ro versed after experience indicated the wrong doci sion was made in the first place. Perhaps this who question of how traffl behavior suddenly gT more and more regulated would be a good topic fot y your recently propose 'i "crossfeed" feature jj which some represents f tive of government dis! '.! cusses with intelligent S i some current aspect of the .1 public process. fl'm jUs( ? waiting for some sign 0 ''i intelligence about the paint-striping!) Cordial, Dumbfounded Roger Darhrm. ' -uue yy Dear Editor: U I would like to publiclt'? give Coach Allen a patoj1 the back and a thank y01j;' : for his work with the girls' basketball team, and J '' would like to commend;'1 the girls on the team fot their sportsmenlike plav4 ing I watched during f final game of the 2A Sta' playoffs at Snow College this last weekend. How disappointing 4 me as a parent (and I've , heard the same from thei other parents) to see st,l few people at the ginvlk basketball games. And biff few, I mean 35 at tiifj most. And so little in the paper about the gace and who is playing wha and where. The jouiri. ? ism class is doing a fa? job reporting on schcd ' events, but I'd like to s 2 some of those aspL-j " young reporters in pers-oi at one of next year''' games and a basket b ' basket description of tat , i game with even a picture! ,; i And how about tit r. i i companies that pay iu broadcast the Red Den-i 1 games. I'd love to hea:H"' girls' game not one f ' the home ones because II' E be there in person t ' watch the excitemer.-': but one of the away-frca home games when I cd go as many other pare ! can't either. Do itl companies volunteer a , their own to pay for tit : r broadcast time or ix : r someone from the sdi'-r sdi'-r contact the companies does the radio station J : ' the contacting? Everyai'r I ask always has the sot T I comment, "I don't fcu,'( ' how you go about eni ' something like that dca, , And. let's not forfec 'i: ; 1 coach's wife and ' well-behaved very tch children who are ate? ' right there cheering "!': . girls" on to victory. r ' Danny Wiri.eJ ' ' |