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Show Proposition 5 Continued from page 2 Supporters of Proposition 5 claim that this is about "outsiders" messing mess-ing with Utah's hunting privileges. That claim is a smokescreen. The people I know who oppose Proposition 5 are Utahns with little sympathy for animal rights groups. They take pleasure in their backyard birdfeeders, they walk the foothills in the evenings, they car-camp on weekends, they fish whenever they can; or they just take pleasure in knowing the animals and plants are out there, prospering. Some of them hunt. These folks have always supported sup-ported hunting. They have supported support-ed hunting because they know that educated hunters have been leaders on conservation issues. Hundreds of thousands of these nonhunters are affected by the state's wildlife decisions. Hunters are an increasingly tiny minority in this increasingly urban state domi- . nated by the city folk of the Wasatch Front. Can we afford to make these people peo-ple feel like second class citizens where wildlife issues are concerned? con-cerned? This is how we got to this point; the State Wildlife Board has made some highly unpopular decisions. deci-sions. Now there is a move to raise the bar, to limit citizens' protest (and the only citizens that can vote in this matter are Utahns). If this succeeds, I predict that it will weaken weak-en the RWACs, because nonhunters are going to correctly perceive that the system is rigged against them. The intent of the RWACs is to solicit public involvement on wildlife issues. Proposition 5 will only erode the public's faith in them. There are two groups that defend Utah's wildlife; hunters and nonhunting conservationists. Both groups need each other. At a time when Utah's wildlife is facing unprecedented pressures of urban growth and habitat loss. Proposition 5 promises to pit these two groups against each other. Wildlife will lose. Get the Utah Voter Information pamphlet, inserted in last week's Express, and read the pros and cons of Proposition 5, pages 34-37. Decide for yourself whether this is a smart move. TOM ELDER Vernal the cougar, coyote, fox, and prairie dog. Lets keep our symbols for the West for the generations to come. Let's maintain a proper balance for all our animals. Hunting is a wonderful won-derful sport. Let's keep it as such. The politicians already have what they need. Don't give up your voting vot-ing rights to anyone. You don't need someone to speak for you. This is why we live in America. The land of the free. So we can have and practice our right to vote on issues for ourselves. We hold dominion over all creatures. Be the voice for them. Let's enjoy what we have: the beautiful land with its magnificent scenery, the joy of seeing see-ing our wildlife, living in it and being able to hunt, strong, healthy animals. We must teach our children to treasure and enjoy all wildlife, and the jobs they each play out, in maintaining main-taining balance. Teach them how important they really are in this world. God put them here, the same as he did with us. Enjoy them. I do and always will. Teaching the children, chil-dren, also, that it is quite all right to kill an animal and take its life if it is needed for food. (I was taught this at an early age.) Let's not turn hunting hunt-ing (a sport), into a money making machine, by handing out too many permits. Maintain a proper balance on all our animals. The good and supposedly the bad. I am voting no on Proposition 5. I still want to be the one in control. JOAN POLITTE Vernal Remain in control Dear Editor, I want to voice my opinion on Proposition 5. Just why does the Utah Constitution concerning wildlife have to be amended? Doesn't our politicians have enough to say in this matter? We the people do not have to give away more of our power to the politicians. They already have enough power to do as they want. The people have to have some say in the matters concerning wildlife. Please vote no on Proposition 5. The state should listen to the biologists biol-ogists and scientists when it comes to limits on wildlife. They don't. They feel free. Handing out too many permits, for over-kill on our predators. Which are badly needed for a balance in our herds of elk and deer. If they listened to the biologists, biolo-gists, they would know, our predators preda-tors cougar, bear and etc,. maintain healthy animals to hunt. Kill off the predators, you start having hav-ing diseased deer and elk. I would not like to go hunting and come home with a diseased animal that I could not eat. There isn't any excuse for overkilling, over-killing, then having to close the hunting down to bring back the species. Animals don't have rights; but we sure do. Let's keep our rights to be able to vote by a simple majority, not a two-thirds majority. Let's help ourselves, not the politicians. politi-cians. Keep hunting healthy, and stop the overkilling of any of our wildlife. Be proud of your heritage here in Utah. The symbols for the West are; Slice... Continued from page 2 last reminder about keeping his safety on but decided against it. At some point you've got to let go. Sleepy eyed, the 1 1 -year-old stayed and slept in the back seat. The hunt progressed as it does every year: lots of hunters, lots of deer, mostly does, a few bucks but too far away for a good shot. After walking for a couple of miles the game seemed to grow more scarce. Not wanting to be late at the rendezvous ren-dezvous spot, I got back into the truck, aroused my sleepy 11 -year-old and headed back. It was getting wanner and our thoughts and conversation con-versation centered around what we were going to do for lunch. Mid-sentence I glanced over to a meadow of pale yellow wild grass and saw a herd of seven deer, six does and a buck. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of showing my youngest boy what it is really like to be hunter, I whirled out of the truck, walked over to a fence to brace myself while I took careful aim. Click. While the buck was in the cross hairs of my scope the only reaction I received from pulling the trigger was "click." Frantically fiddling fid-dling with the rifle, I looked down and saw that the safety was still on, and there was no bullet in the chamber. cham-ber. Rapidly I jammed a bullet in the chamber and took the safety off, but before I could take aim, a volley of 4 to 5 shots came from nowhere spooking the herd. As the deer herd sped away in the distance, I looked over at my 10-year-old. He had a disgusted look on his face and said, "Safety first, Dad?" "Safety first," I nodded. Vernal Express Wednesday, October 21, 1998 3 School District Dear Editor, The last four years the School District has faced many difficult challenges, especially the best use of the taxpayers' dollars. In trying to do this, we reduced the Early Retirement Benefit package to our employees. This did not affect what is contributed to the employees' regular retirement funds: that is 14.16 percent into the state retirement retire-ment fund and l.S percent into their 401Ks. The previous Early Retirement Benefit allowed them to take early retirement after working for us for only 10 years and gave them full group health coverage for five years as well as 23 to 30 percent of their ending salary for five years for the teachers and classified employees and higher for administrators. This was put into place many years ago and was enhanced by a previous Board 10 years ago. The current School Board decided we couldn't afford to continue this way. The benefit was changed to have to work for our district 20 years before requesting early retirement and the retiring employee pay for their own health coverage at our group rate. Also, the percentages of salary paid for five years of early retirement were lowered to 25 percent per-cent for the teacher and 20 percent for administrators and classified employees. Normally, Early Retirement options are offered by companies for the benefit of the employer as well as the employee and for a limited lim-ited "window" of time. The policy that was in place overwhelmingly favored the employee and left little if any savings for the district. As a School Board, our primary responsibility is the education of children. We value our highly competent com-petent teachers and want to provide fair wages and benefits. It is also the district's responsibility to find out why some students aren't learning learn-ing and to help teachers teach more effectively. This is not an easy task and we are having a struggle in achieving this goal with our employees but that is what we are accountable for to you the voters vot-ers and hope you will support us in that. FRANCES HARDING School Board tfeKDCIteCa &3QCD The fastest, most convenient and least expensive way to view, annotate and print the highest accuracy topographic maps. Every 7V4 Minute USGS Topographical Map. The entire State of Utah. 1,520 high resolution, full color maps on 2-CDs. About $110. www.lgage.com Available at Bitter Creek Books 672 W Main Vernal 789-4742 See your stuff. See your neighbor's money. Civ! s'i fcA1 See your neighbor give you money for your stuff. $$$ SELL IT in the I VERNAL Express Classifieds 789-3511 Pharmacist gives doctors earned credit Ken Gagnon, pharmacist at Ashley Valley Medical Center, taught a class for the physicians in this area on Thursday, Oct. 15. The class entitled "Community Acquired Pneumonia, Guidelines for Management," was held in Lapoint at the Stockman Restaurant. Approximately 17 physicians and their wives from Vernal and Roosevelt attended the class. The class was designed to give physicians more information on the treatment of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) and offered the physicians who attended CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits. The presentation covered the etiology of community acquired pneumonia, dosing strategies for treatment, an over view of oral versus ver-sus intravenous therapy, patient cri teria for the switch from intravenous intra-venous to- oral therapy, recent guidelines from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and discussion of current controversies surrounding the diagnosis diag-nosis and management of CAP. Ken Gagnon, who made the presentation, pre-sentation, has a Phar-D degree which he received from Idaho State University. He is assisted in the pharmacy by Dave Bestenlehner, who also has a Phar-D degree. "This is just the first of what we hope will be many joint education ventures," stated Jan Young, Education Coordinator for AVMC. "We hope that the rural hospitals in this part of the state will be interested interest-ed in getting the best education for their medical professionals, which many times will involve having classes attended by employees from several facilities." Ken Gagnon teaches class designed to give physicians more information on community acquired pneumonia (CAP). Stand Up For Your Right To Vote VOTE E3Sj0N PROPOSITION FIVE Why you should vote NO on Proposition 5 this November The passage of Proposition 5 would set a precedent that could enable future legislatures to establish similar requirements for other issues they feel the voters are too incompetent to deal with. Some examples might be education, taxes, or transportation issues. These issues are important to the people of Utah, and have a major impact on our quality of life. If our elected officials are allowed to start restricting our right to vote on issues they don't want us to deal with, then the ballot initiative process itself is at risk, and power will begin slipping away from the people who elect them. Proposition 5 is a radical constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by arrogant special interests attempting to restrict your right to vote. " f Proposition 5 demonstrates a total lack of faith in the votelability ' ' to decide issues of concern to them. Proposition 5 sets a dangerous precedent leading to trie erosion of our right to express our will through the practice of direct democracy. What the Newspapers are saying about Proposition 5 (formerly known as SJR 10) "Constitutional amendments on the state and federal levels are nothing noth-ing to be taken lightly. They especially should not be passed in attempts to micro-manage policy matters. Yet that is the impetus behind Proposition 5." Deseret News Editorial Opinion, 21098 "A two-thirds vote normally is reserved for constitutional issues involving individual liberties and positive rights... It even can be argued that Proposition 5 undermines such civil rights, including the right to petition the government, the right to free speech (at the ballot box) and the right to equal protection of the laws." Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Opinion, 2498 Paid for by Utah Voting Rights Coalition (801) 596-3299 www.xmission.commsteitzuvre Vote for a proven leader... BEVERLY EVANS Utah State Senate District 26 A W WO dE November 3rd For BEVERLY EVANS "Beverly has always shown great support for what goes on in our communities. She has worked hard to upgrade and improve our area. Beverly has my full support as a Utah State Senator. " Craig W. Collett, Daggett County Businessman "Representative Beverly Evans has worked very hard to represent her district in the Utah House of Representatives. She has held key positions posi-tions and has worked well with other legislators and local officials. She will do an excellent job as Senator for District 26. " Senator Alarik Myrin, District 26 "Beverly Evans did an outstanding job as Representative for District 54. Let's elect her as a Utah Senator in District 26. We support her and urge you to support her. " Leonard and Nell Heeney, Vernal "I have never known a harder working legislator than Beverly Evans. She is tenacious when she sets her mind to a project. " Gayle F. McKeachnie, Attorney, Vernal "Beverly is a well-informed, knowledgeable, effective representative. She represents her constituents well and will be an effective Senator. " Representative Jack A. Seitz, District 55 " have worked with Beverly Evans for several years. If you want something done and done right, call Beverly. She will do the job and keep you informed. She is not bashful and will always "step up to the plate". She is one who thinks things through and looks at both sides of a question before making a decision. Beverly is a joy to work with. I support her 100 " James M. Briggs, Daggett County Commissioner Paid for by commlflM to elect Beverly Evans COPY |