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Show th';E I J j.1. le -- I ; ; :r Serving East Juab County - A Nice Place To Live! Volume 94, No. 35 Commission explores ways to cut fire costs By Myrna TVauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent There may be a way to save Juab County from not having enough money to pay the cost of fighting the expensive fires which have occurred in the area. The way it is now, we may just as well shut the county down and go home, said Gordon Young, Juab County Commission chair. Blake Walbeck, Range Conser- vationist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Richfield Office, told commissioners he was hopeful an emergency program might mean the county would only need to pay 25 percent of fire costs on private and state lands. The 25 percent might come from services or cash, he said. This is the only help I have been able to find for our county, said Ike Lunt, commissioner. Assistance, technical and otherwise, might come from emergency water funds. The program was set up during the early 1980 flood disaster years in the state. The organization is and was set up fairly loose-kn- it to deal with emergencies like in-ki- . floods, said Walbeck. One of the first steps, is to get the fires all listed under one heading, such as the Juab County Fire Complex, said Walbeck. He said this would include all of the fires, even the Leamington Fire Complex, which had occurred in the county. Reconnaissance of the fires had disclosed the hundreds of thousands of acres and grazing lands which had been destroyed in the past three months. Walbeck said, in order to get the assistance, the county commission would need to send a letter to the request the assistance of the Natural Resource Water Conservation Emergency Funds. The agency helps with cost of rehabilitating lands, he said. The fires in Juab County have created a danger to animal life and property. We expect serious problems because the ground cover has been destroyed, said , Walbeck. Later in the fall, he said, the fire area needs to be reseeded. We will plant locally adapted plant species and will work with the Bureau of Land Management to plant species that are the same or are compatible, he said. Ranchers who normally graze animals on winter range located in the burned-blac- k part of the for in will be a tough county I have of those Most winter. talked with have no idea what they are going tq do, he said. Reseeding has a two fold purpose, said Walbeck. "First, it will protect a valuable resource and will have tremendous public benefit, he said. New plants will be needed to prevent floods and erosion. Secondly, the new grasses will provide better feed and will help with the animals both domestic and wild which forage in the area. Wednesday, August 28, 1996 10 pages Single Copy Price 50tf City Council suspends subdivision applications foir 90 days By s Times-New- Myrna Trauntvein Correspondent said. ter users will be upset, said Jim The two water users on the lower Wilkey, council member, Id go talk to suit for hundreds of thousands of dol- ditch were given the opportunity to be them before laying the pipe. lars if something tragic happened, said part of the pond irrigators but refused, In fact, said Chad Brough, council Valencia. he said. Contineued on page 2 The city council did agree to write a If there is not enough flow, the wa- letter in support of the Valencia request to have the water users work with the Valencia family to have the project designed to handle the necessary volume of water and to bury the pipe all along the route to the two water users properties. Who has the liability? asked Milt Harmon, city council member. We have now identified the irrigation ditch as dangerous. By doing so, he said, the city council had, then, recognized the general liability which the city, the users on the ditch, and the irrigation company have. We should have our city attorney evaluate the liability for us, said Harmon. Thd problem, explained Randy McKnight, city administrator, is that there were only two irrigation water users on the open ditch. For a time, city staff had thought there might be plans to have the ditch covered with the help of the irrigation company. However, such an occurrence would probably be forthcoming. The irrigation system traveling from the pond system located nearby cannot be used by the two water users who use the ditch by the Valencia property, said McKnight. That belongs to a separate system and there is not another way available, he said. Richard Paxman, city council memIRRIGATION DITCH Open irrigation ditches like this one on Nephis ber, said he had discussed the problem side are a concern to parents living in the area. David Southeast with the water users. When the pond Valencia and his wife shared their concerns with the city council last defew who was of the culvert, get caught, and drown. We would all get slapped with a law Nephi City Council agreed to suspend subdivision applications for 90 days. The general plan and the zoning ordinance was recently completed, said Mayor Robert Steele. The subdivision ordinance is now being updated, he said. As a result of the updating process, the staff of the city needs time to work on the changes now required. No subdivision plans are near enough to receiving approval to be affected by the suspension, said Randy McKnight, city administrator. Council members agreed they would not need to impose another lengthy moratorium on building. However, while the new requirements are made ready for availability to those planning such projects, it would be best to stop the application process long enough to complete the paperwork. It may be, said McKnight, that 90 'days will be more time than is needed, but it was better to plan for the estimated time of completion of updating. An irrigation ditch problem has a local homeowner worried that some child will die before a covered concrete irrigation water culvert is completed. David Valencia and his wife constructed a home at 535 South 400 East and bonded for piping the ditch as required by ordinance when he built the home. Valencia said it does him little good to try to keep town children out of the rapidly flowing water. If a culvert is placed underground just by his property, what is to keep the children from washing under the culvert at his property? He asked. He is afraid one water users built the of them will wash under the buried part veloped it paid for the development, he week. Mona Town Council holds hearing on proposed increases in landfill charges, postpones decision until September By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent Mona Tbwn Council members held a public hearing on proposed increases in landfill fees btit were unable to determine what those fees should be and decided to postpone making a decision until September. It was planned that the Juab Rural Development Agency would take over running of the landfill in August, said Kevin Young, mayor. Plans were that it would cost approximately $2 more per month to have landfill and garbage hauling service than it does now, about $12 per month. Only $1 of that will go to Juab County. Darlene Fowkes, a former council member, attended the hearing to pro- test increasing the charge to each household for having garbage service. Prices keep going up and up, she said. While she was a member of the council the price had increased. Some people are on fixed incomes, said Fowkes. It made it difficult for the prices which they must pay for services and other items more difficult because those prices kept going up. Fowkes said the present price was as much as the community needed to pay. One benefit is that the city will not have a dumpster to worry about, said Young. He said the dumpster had become a source of irritation because it always had garbage on the outside around the dumpster. If the city did not have the advantage of doing away with the dumpster and using the landfill near Nephi, the price would still need to increase for the city. We would have to charge more to clean up around the dumpster, said Young. One thing we know, we cannot operate our own bulky waste. If we do not become part of the agency then there will be a charge for each pickup load which goes to the landfill. Duran Kay, council member, said the city had tried fencing the dumpster in town but it didnt work. Garbage was still all over around the dumpster. In addition, he said, the Goshen landfill which the community has been using because their contract hauler, Coun-tr- y Garbage, took it there will not always be available. Goshen will close, he said. The garbage hauling contractors will be forbidden, eventually, from taking garbage across the county lines. However, without the final figures needed by the council, it was determined they must table the decision oh what charges needed to be made per household. "Without those numbers we will just have to table this item until next month, said Young. Mona City will order new bills for utilities in the city. The new bills will differ slightly from the old ones, decided city council members. We will charge 1.50 percent as a penalty on any unpaid balance over 30 days past due, said Kevin Young, mayor. The city is no longer just charging a $10 penalty on these bills but is going with the percentage fee. It used to be, he explained, that the city charged the $10 late fee as a penalty if the bill was not paid by the 25th of the month. In addition, if a bill remains unpaid to the point of having utilities shut-offee is required as a dea posit before the utility is reconnected. In addition, the previous balance must be paid as well. Council members agreed to have the new policy printed on the new utility bill forms which will begin going out to homes as soon as the old forms are used. Insurance companies look at a community and its services before they provide home owner coverage for those living in the community. How well a community measures up to safety factors and services determines the cost of insurance to each individual home owner. Frank Robinette, city building inspector, told town council members the community would do fairly well as far as many items of expectations were concerned. One item such companies must consider is the building codes required by the community. The state adopts some codes for communities but those deal- f, Pleasant Grove man killed in one-ca- r rollover on 1-- 15 Center by East Juab Ambulance. He was pronounced dead s Correspondent on arrival at the facility of massive head injuries. old Pleasant Grove man A Both men were wearing seat belts was killed Saturday morning in a one-c- at the time of the accident, said Wilrollover 25 miles south of Nephi son. on Interstate 15. The pair were traveling northbound Beau Roger Cornell died of head when Julander lost control of the veinjuries after his 1966 Mustang rolled hicle, swerved into the median and 2 12 times, said Charlie Wilson, Utah rolled the vehicle over into the southbound lanes of the freeway. Highway Patrol Trooper. The accident occurred at 8:30 a.m. It appeared Julander fell asleep at when the vehicle, driven by Justin the wheel. Wyoming, rolled at mile post Julander was treated at the hospi197. tal for minor injyries and released. Cornell was transported to Central Valley Medical By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- 21-ye- ar ar Ju-land- i ing with one and two family dwellings are codes set by community leaders. We do look pretty good, said Robinette. The town, however, does not have a e engineer or architect but does have access to such specialists when they are needed. We could pick up some points by having some education for our residents, said Robinette. The public awareness education would include printed handouts to help residents know how to respond in a natural disaster. Robinette said he did structural plan reviews, checked calculations, and held finally building inspections for occupancy. We do a final building inspection but we need to keep people from moving in before we do a final inspection for occupancy. That is the reason we have a certificate of occupancy, he said. Dangerous cqnditions could occur if people moved into new homes without first having a final inspection. I have seen electric wires which were not installed the way they should have been, he said. Others used temporary power, a dangerous practice, which could lead to the home catching on fire and could lead to loss of life. The law reads, said Robinette, that if a fire occurs and the town council is aware of the problem and does nothing about it, the council can be held responsible. full-tim- Such temporary lines can lay across the ground and get brittle with time and weather, he said. In the rain, the lines can short out. The kids at the home could step in a puddle and be juiced. We have issued a few stop work orders on projects, said Robinette. His experience and training were also a help to the community. I have been at this game for 17 years, he said. The city found their insurance rating had been lowered recently, said Young. We had to do some things to gain the better rating, he said. The changes, however, consisted of |