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Show c, PAGE 4 THE ZEPHYROCTOBER 1992 have to be dominated by ideological And it shows thit Issues of land use don't necessarily wilderness grazing, nd oil production ta Southeast warfare, the prevailingmelhod of discussing Utah. facts & opinions of the month's a summary fact Devil Football team lost to Park City on Friday The Grand County High School Red second half against a team of bigger and stronger September 18, despite playing an inspired a season record of one win and three losses. players. It gave the Red Devils i news by Ken Davey FACT The Moab Gty Council voted to accept a bid of about $6,000 for fencing to be erected at the local landfill. Council members expect the fence to be up by October. At that point, they hope to have a fee schedule ready, with emphasis on charging commercial dumpers (river companies, construction contractors, etc) and government entities, including the Park Service and BLM. The city has been operating the dump since July, when county crews were unilaterally withdrawn by the county commission. Moab allows local junk dealer Bert Swink to sort through the material for salvage, and has assigned city employees to record the names of dump users and what is being disposed, as well as sot out the material for future recycling. Over the first two months, the city paid about $20,000 to local contractor Jim Boulden to cover the trash with dirt each day, according to Utah law, and Boulden says future bills will generally be lower. OPINION Since July, foe council has been fumbling and stumbling toward a coherent policy at the dump. They've made mistakes!, and I've criticized some of them, occasionally utilizing the hyperbole so tempting and readily available to those comfortably watching decisionmaking from foe outside. But on foe whole, the mistakes have been understandable; and cured decisions numerous. It would have been easy for the city to reject the responsibility of the landfill, as foe county did. But instead, they saw a need to provide a dump for both dty and county residents, and have shouldered that burden admirably. That wasn't always foe case: a few years back the dty, regardless of their reasons, were wrong in just dropping payments to the county to help fund foe landfill without notice or public discussion. But this current council, through their work the last two months, have made up for that County officials chortle that they pulled (me over on foe dty, or since 4,000 of the 6,000 county residents live in Moab, pulled one over cm foe majority of their constituents. Gty officials, despite their arguments and hesitations and delays, haven't lost sight of foe need to provide a service to all of us. FACT The Gty Council voted unanimously to offer up for sale to developers just SO of a possible 120 acres of land next to and near the Moab Golf Course. The acreage removed from development indudes all foe property surrounding the course itself, and all of foe land where development could conceivably affect foe springs and wells that provide the dty with culinary water. OPINION It was a strange experience: listening to longtime dty council member Bill McDougald talking about "locking up" the land at foe golf course. ' McDougald is the most traditional of council members, the most skeptical of planning and development restrictions, the most Milling to do things as they've been done for years, because, well, that's the way it's always been. Yet here he was, saying restrictions are needed, that outright commercial development should take' a back seat to less tangible social considerations, that foe most profitable way may not be the "highest and best use" of a form of public lands. Decades ago foe dty purchased about 500 acres in that area, which now indudes the golf course and west to Old Gty Park. In foe residents proposed expanding foe golf course from 9 to 18 holes, and offering foe lots surrounding foe course up for home construction, providing jobs and a larger tax base, and that notion was part of foe presentation to the Community Impact Board when foe dty went to Salt Lake Gty for grant money. But now, many of foe same people who in the past demanded that foe dty not only allow foe development but begin it NOW, are saying, maybe there's a better use, maybe it's smarter to keep the land for future watershed protection and possible recreation. mid-1980- s, ALL-AMERIC- , OPINION the Red Devils, in their only home game so far this Though their record is far from stellar, before Juab came to town), put cm a marvelous display of year (press time for the Zephyr was is school football in a losing effort to Morgan High School. Morgan rated the best division testament to kids from a the Moab. in the state, and a loss by barely a touchdown was that adults entertainment be can football provided good And high school (invariably the the can in keep game perspective. biggest problem in youth sports sports programs) a delegation of concerned adults met with of the loss season, first Devils Red the Following new high school principal Lany Price, overflowing with critiques of the coaching staff. This was, remember, following just the second game ever with Steve Hren as head coach, and only one week after an opening game victory. Part of the pleasure of spectator sports is arguing over strategy: good move or bad, should have been a pass, should have been a draw, should have blitzed the linebackers. But by the time of the next play, we owe it to the athletes to shut up and watch and cheer, and if we can't get it out of our minds, at least keep it to ourselves. And after foe game, talk about foe powerful running of Lance Wakeland, the accurate passing and ferocious tackling of Blake Bohannon, the sticky fingers of Jarvis Robison, the strength and quickness of Colby Means, and not foe alleged mistakes of players or staff. And when we see Lany Price, point out to him that parents are more concerned with reducing foe high school drop out rate, or improving test scores, or the availability of a diverse curriculum, than with third down playcalling. 2-- A FACT School Superintendent Rich Averett reports that the construction at foe courthouse may have had some affect on Star Hall. Averett said foe door on foe west side of the building is more difficult to open now, indicating settling on foe side of foe building closest to foe digging. But he also painted out that he has been told foe building has been gradually settling in that direction, and that while the excavation may have exacerbated foe problem, it didn't cause it OPINION s The school district owns Star Hall, but really can't afford it. The school board turned down an offer from foe county to transfer ownership, largely because of residents' fears that foe historic structure would be razed. But Star Hall is in need of repairs and board members realize at some point in foe future they won't be able to justify spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars on foe building while needed educational programs go unfunded. Star Hall is a community treasure; but one that will be worse than useless if needed maintenance and refurbishing doesn't begin soon. Some hard decisions will have to be made, And those can't be decisions that, according to one county commissioner, the public doesn't know anything about, and doesn't want to know anything about . FACT ' '! Republican candidate for governor Mike Leavitt easily won his party's primary to run against surprise Democratic primary winner Stewart Hanson. Here in Grand County both Leavitt and Hanson gathered more votes than their respective rivals, Richard Eyre and Pat Shea. Grand County Attorney Lyle Anderson easily defeated Blanding Gty Council member Kede Johnson for foe Republican Party nod to run for state representative. . ' - OPINION j , V r t pro-choi- pro-dunc- AN Meet Our Real Estate Team AGENCY SOS No. Mo in 259-649- Doug McElhaney owner Norma Nunn Julie Bierschied "Moab's Oldest Real Estate Agency" 259-687- 8 259-727- 5 259-567- 0 Mike Steele 2 John Sensenbrenner 2 Joe D. Bierschied 59-65- 3 . Mike Leavitt is dose to a sure thing to be elected governor, if for no other reason than Republicans far outnumber Democrats in Utah. And Leavitt, a canservativemoderate (at least by Utah standards) comes across as friendly, intelligent, and reasonable, who won't rufo into ideological battles that could alienate large voter blocs. Stewart Hanson also projects reason and smarts, and has already proven he can win elections where political pundits and pollsters can write him off. But a big part of his success in foe stance cm the abortion question, and a statewide primary can be traced to a consistent e effort by activists to turn out the vote. But even with that effort, foe number of voters who chose Hanson was much lower than foe number of Republicans who voted for Eyre; and almost all of them will choose Leavitt The wildcard is Independent Merrill Cook; famous more for his dectoral failures than 43 59-89- 259-567- 0 08 |