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Show STATE OFFICIALS IN ATTENDANCE Newcastle Reservoir Dedicated in Short, Impressive Ceremonies Following Over Half Century of Effort A dream of over a half a century has been realized. The completion of the Newcastle Reservoir and the dedication of that edifice Friday afternoon at the site, one mile up Newcastle canyon, was the realization of nearly 70 years of effort by promotors and foresighted individuals individ-uals of that small community just 30 miles west of Cedar City and on the eastern edge of Escalante Valley. Members of the Newcastle Reservoir Company, who saw the earthen dam completed were elated and expressed their beliefs that the runoff from the Pinto Creek would more than justify the construction of the dam over the years. Alonzo C. Christensen, secretary of the board of directors di-rectors of the Newcastle Reservoir Company, conducted conduct-ed the program at the base of the dam on the reservoir site and he introduced a number of outstanding men who helped accomplish the construction of the 5240,000 project Warren Bulloch, Iron County commissioner, talked briefly on the project and discussed the Importance Im-portance of water in our area. Members of the Utah Water and Power Board were In attendance attend-ance and chairman of the board, Charles Redd,- commended the foresight and the Integrity and fortitude of the people of Newcastle New-castle - In seeing the project through to completion. Water Expert Talks George D. Clyde former member, mem-ber, of the Utah Water and Power Board, talked briefly, clearly pointing out "the importance of bringing water into the southern portion of the state to help develop de-velop an economic stability of this area (southern Utah)." Other speakers at the dedicatory dedica-tory services included Gordon Clark member of the state water wa-ter board from St George, and John C Boyden, who served as atorney for the reservoir com-pany com-pany and helped to get allocated funds for the project. Richard Jones, president of the reesrvolr company, detailed the history of the company of the reservoir, explaining that the Newcastle Reservoir " Company was a consolidation of the old Desert Reclamation Company and the Grass Valley Irrigation Company. Area Served The new reservoir was built by Industrial Construction Company headed by Laliff Wood. The water wa-ter storage capacity of the reservoir res-ervoir is estimated at 3400 acre feet and the land that the water stored will irrigate Is estimated at nearly 5000 acres. Farmers and ranchers of the area have worked continuously since the late nineteenth century to r!s fuiids foni!i program under which the reservoir reser-voir could be built The bid for the construction was let In November, No-vember, 1955 and although. the contract called for a completion date of December of this year, in December when actual work was began, the contractor indicated indi-cated a completion date of July, which was met ! The reservoir, a multiple storage stor-age project will be filled by winter flow of the stream. Pinto Creek, and by spring run-off and flood waters during the year. It Is expected that water stored during the winter months can be used for early irrigation and the reservoir can again be refilled re-filled from flood run-off for later lat-er irrigation use. Initial Filling Much speculation as to when the reservoir could be filled was made at the dedication with those closely associated with the project expressing the belief that winter and spring waters of 1956 and 1957 would nearly complete the initial filling of the reservoir, depending of course on the degrees and number of storms. The base contract was $230,-000, $230,-000, but allowable overages brought the total up to approximately approx-imately $10,000 for a total construction con-struction cost of $240000. A grant of $159,000 was made to the pro-ject pro-ject by the Utah Power and Water Wa-ter Board, and the stockholders have agred to raise the balance needed by assessment of water stock .over a period of 20 years. The reservoir company must finance fi-nance the difference betwen the grant and total cost and of course must reimburse the pow. er and Water Board for the inlt-itl inlt-itl $159,000 grant Officers of the Newcastle Reservoir Res-ervoir Company who brought the project to its completion include Mr. Jones, president; Mr. Chris-tensen, Chris-tensen, secretary; Glen Heaton, Gordon Knell. C E. Hart, Albert Harrison and Leo Knell, directors. Three views of newly completed Newcaste Reservoir dam which was dedicated Friday, July 20. Top is side view of the downstream down-stream side of the dam taken from new road around site. Middle Mid-dle is a full length picture oi down stream side and bottom is a partial view of the front or water side of dam showing the dedication services. This is area that will be covered by water. f ... " ' " .'. .f " - '. s- "V. s : : :. ;- ' fc ' ' '' - : I i ' 1 4 'IS - . . fv Tr , I x - , , r , j . ''4 --'---------- --'-.'- .. - . . f t- |