OCR Text |
Show PAGE 22 K I THE ZEPHYRJANFEB 1992 the canyon country watch dog Bookcliffs Road The Groene Report more money down the hole The Grand County Roads Special Service District approved Its 1992 budget of $350,000.00 last week. Jimmie Walker, road board administrator, announced that $250,00.00 of that amount will go to completing the Final Design on the Book Cliffs Road, once the Environmental Impact Statement is approved. What that means is that another quarter million dollars will go Into the coffers of Creamer & Noble for a road that no one but a handful of residents Is eager to see completed. Since 1989, over a million dollars has been budgeted or spent by the Road District and the residents of this county have not seen a penny come back to it. The board has insisted that the road will stimulate oil and gas development in the Book Cliffs area of Grand County. And yet, the current "oil boom" is dozens of miles away on Dead Horse Mesa and none of the companies Involved has requested a nickel from Grand County for road building. The simple truth is, when energy sources are found, roads will be built-the at company's expense...not ours. -- Jim Stiles LIKE EXXON CANT AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF ITSELF? Senators Jake Gam and Orrln Hatch and Representatives Jim Hansen and Bill Orton improperly Interfered with administrative appeal proceedings recently in order to boost the Interests of the oil end gas Industry. In a letter dated November 7, the politicians weighed In for the oil companies by asking the Department of Interior's administrative court to lift stays gained by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club against certain seismic work. SUWA and the Club had filed appeals to stop oil and gas development In arras proposed for wilderness designation on the plateaus east of Labyrinth Canyon of the Green River. Hatch, Garn, Hansen and Orton violated standards of conduct set out by federal regulations when they made their request to the administrative tribunal without notifying SUWA or the Club. The Federal rules require that any communication with the court or court officials regarding the merits of a'case must be made known to all parties involved. The rule simply puts fairness Into the process: all parties get the opportunity to rebut allegations made by any other interested person. The Director of the administrative court has since ordered that the Senator's and Representatives' letter be made available to SUWA and the Club so that the environmental groups can rebut the politicians' allegations. Utah AND ON THE HOME FRONT ... The chairperson of our own Grand County Commission also sent his own letter, on Grand County letterhead, to the administrative court, Just like the one sent by the Senators and Representatives. By contacting the administrative court ex parte the commissioner also violated the standards of conduct The administrative court has ordered that the commissioner's letter must be made available to SUWA for rebuttaL . I THELMA AND LOUISE CAN DRIVE WHEREVER THEY WANT ' t Mi tv' Grand County Speedtrap? Last week the Grand County Commission held a public hearing to review its proposed 1992 budget With expenditures exceeding this year's estimate by some $300,00.00 (general fund), how will the county pay for it? By hiring more staff for the Sheriffs Office to write more tickets. Under the "fines and forfeitures" account for fiscal year 1992, the commission expects revenues to increase from this year's $205,559.00 to $300,000.00. Commissioner Kuntson explained that with increases in visitation to Grand County, additional law enforcement personnel will be able to write a lot more tickets. Is this the county's response to the city's 1 sales tax on food? To place more of the tax burden on the transient tourist population? Will we, with local license plates, be allowed to exceed the speed limit by a few miles per hour, or will everyone get to participate in this g program? sort of reminds me of Alabama in 1959. revenue-generatin- It , XM C . -- Jim Stiles The Utah Bureau of Land Management has been roundly criticized for finding .. only 2.5 million acres of land suitable for wilderness study area (WSA) protection out of the some 22 million acres of public land the agency Is supposed to manage in Utah. First, the BLM's own administrative court agreed with citizens who filed appeals , BUM, and the court ordered the BLM to add almost three quarters of a million the against to acres raise the 2.5 million figure up to the current 3.2 million acres of WSAs. Then, In 1989 the chairpersons of the United States House of Representatives Interior Committee and four relevant subcommittees Joined to advise the Secretary of the Interior that congressional oversight hearings held in 1982, 1984, and 1985 had raised "substantial evidence" which showed that the Utah BLM had failed to designate deserving areas as WSAs. So Utah only ended up with 3.2 million acres of WSAs. Now If the BLM would at least follow the specific laws and policy written to protect the WSAs we do have. The BLM is required to provide at least 30 days for review and public comment before authorizing permits for activities such as filming in WSAs. On November 25, the Grand Resource Area office called the Southern Utah Wilderness Alllsnce to ask If SUWA would look the other way if the BLM Ignored the 30 day requirement and let a company film a Mountain Dew commercial in the Westwater Canyon WSA. The BLM explained the company could not be expected to film at another location along the hundreds of miles of river canyon outside of the WSA because the rocks were not the right color anywhere except Inside the WSA. wifh iaothY zPHVR. , To Xm sfyutfi) WHY WOtLO I A40NEY Rea ... Goi tie? main street broiler He... PEHD GOOJ) 606 south main &k. tfo Goop at all??? X Wr Cahsv 259-590- 8 m if . 0' h |