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Show Page A8 (The fchmg-nhrpm&- Thursday, July 18, 2002 mt OUR TOWN & He ut Community Comments by Sam Taylor When Utah legislators messed with the initiative petition law a few years ago, they were asking for trouble Now, they may have it. Lawmakers, feeling they were the only body smart enough to make law, made it more difficult tor citizens to make law through the initiative process I editorially opposed those changes, which require signatures from 10 percent of the voters in the last gubernatorial election in 20 of Utah's 29 counties My opposition was that the general public isn't dumb. It has just as much right to enact laws under the initiative provisions as do legislators And voters probably have just as much mtelli gence as many m fibers of our legislature This year, a petition was circulated limiting and taxing radioactive waste dumped in the state It would have made it tough for one particular industry in Tooele County, and other collectors of radioactive waste in Utah. They, of course, could have raised their rates to cover the increased taxes, even though they may have lost business to other states who bury these toxic substances It may have even resulted in a decrease of such products coming into Utah The petition, had it been allowed, would have merely placed the issue on the General Election ballot, for all Utah voters to decide Even though petitioners gathered 95,974 petition signatures, it was rejected by Utahs lieutenant governor because the names came from only 1 4 Utah counties. Only a total of 76,180 signatures were required, had they come from 20 of Utah's 29 counties. In six rural Utah counties, a combined 147 signatures would have qualified those counties, and satisfied the requirements of the dumb bill passed by the legislature. am glad the matter is now before the Utah Supreme Court. The 95,974 petition stitutional rights of free speech and expression. We are asking the Supreme Court to declare the initiative as sufficient and compel the lieutenant governor to accept and file the initiative and prepare it for appearance on the 2002 general election ballot,' said Mickey Gallivan, one of the major backers of the petition. want a chance to vote on this proposed law look forward to the wisdom of Supreme Court members to nullify this legislative mandate, allowing the initiative to be placed on the November ballot jt m pleased that the Utah Legislature managed to come up with a compromise budget in special session last week, that didn't include an increase in taxes and fees. Although the document utilized funds taken from some areas that are one-timitems that will not be available in future years, the bulk of the savings needed to meet declining revenues came from reducing payroll and tightening the belts in a number of state agencies. That is as it should be. When you have not got the money, you cant afford the payroll. That goes not only for state government, but for local government and private business as well. We published an employment article a few weeks ago showing that the only segment of Utah's economy that hadnt shown increases in unemployment was the government segment. According to the Utah Taxpayers Association, Utahs state and local tax and fee burden as a percent of personal income is the 9th highest in he nation up from 11th place last year. Utahns pay 15.2 of their income in state and local taxes and fees compared to 13.5 in other states, based on figures derived from the recent census. The report went on to say that Utahs tax and fee burden, which is now 12.6 higher than the national average, increased 1 .5 from last year while the average for all states decreased slightly. For a state that is attempting to attract new businesses and industries, those are pretty sorry statistics. Trails by Adrien F. Taylor The Grand County Fair will be Sept. 1 this year. In spite of the unfortunate conflict of dates with Green Rivers Melon Days, I do believe the decision to hold our county fair in September rather than August was a wise move. August heat was, of course, a major factor in the change, and the fact that school will be back in session will give new opportunities for student and class involvement. The revival of the Miss Grand County contest is also creating new interest. As of fair board meeting last week, there were 1 1 candidates signed up. The pageant will be held Aug 9, and tickets are now available to attend There will be five certified judges, so this pageant wont be just some home grown items in canned form. This year there will be lots of contests. Already set up are the following: wheelbrrow push, egg toss, pie eating, race, dutch ovens for outfitters, horseshoes, frog run or toad jump, arm wrestling, posters, baby crawl and teddy bears. Carl Dixon has arranged for a Little Britches rodeo for the fair, and there will also be oxen, draft horses and buggy, and hand carts. All of these events, plus the Saturday night concert by the rockwestern group Firefall, will be outside the arena. Inside will be exhibits, food and other type booths and displays, a fish pond, a petting zoo, entertainment, demonstrations, a beer garden showcasing locally-mad- e beers and wines, and more. Everybody had lots of fun on July 4 at the park. This will be another such event, so mark your calendars now, and start thinking about how you are going to take part in the fair. 19-2- affair. Much that is traditional with our fair will be home grown, however. Most gardens will still be producing well in September, and fall harvest plants will be in their prime. While summer fruits will be pretty much gone, this will be a great chance to show off those nii ) (UPS) ISSN 8 Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act of March 3, 18! Second dass postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 Eaat Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 address: editor 6 moabtimes.com Postmaster: Send changes cf address to: The Tmies Independent, P.0 Box 129, Moab UT 845; 6309-2000- 1538-183- ail Member or FAX )JljMNATIONAL A 7 435-259-77- and PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Sena T. Flanders, Editor -l HAYBTHEH . should rename n WWCANY 9 YUPPIE cm CAHYON iuyl NOovlic wyn. ircix NO NOcottuc n: iyci NO co Bcxycnu ocuvt NO cv cowic NO C15IO WblAlO IID ft r V Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas by Ollie Harris Family reunion survival Well, that's two reunions down and one to go. 1 have done pretty well. I have been cool under fire. I have ignored problems when that seemed the beat thing to do. I've been occasionally helpful. I've put up tents and canopies, filled propane bottles and Berved as gofer. Mostly, I have kept out from under foot. And, I have hardly cussed at all. There was that one time when I caught myself saying, &!!, I gotta get that kid a shock collar But, that was about it. I am learning I only have one new rock ding in the side of my pickup door. The broken window down in the shed is patched with a piece of Plexiglas. A little grandson whose language is still emerging came to our trailer door with one of my yellow wheel-chock- s and said, Gammy, look what I found under your dumpster. And, if you have a ladder going up to the roof of your trailer you ought not be surprised when you find a couple of little kids walking around up there. One survival strategy that I use is to withdraw when things get too hectic for me. At the second reunion I picked up my chair and went looking for a quiet place. I first tried the other side of my pickup where there was shade in the creek-sid- e willows. There was a faucet near there where little kids were riotously filling water balloons and water guns. I moved down to the end of my trailer but there was a nearby horseshoe game going on. I moved to the shaded overhang at the front of the fifth-whetrailer. It turned out to be a raceway for the continuous water fight. I ended up returning to where I began, in the shade of the bowery, and kicking back there for a few minutes of relative quiet. The second and third reunions are only a couple of weeks apart so our twin daughters who married brothers left their homes just east of Show Low, Am., and are staying here from one reunion to the next. It is interesting to have so many little kids around again. They are good little kids mo6t of the time, but Dorothy Anderson Valerie Brown, Jed Taylor, Ron Drake Ron George Oliver Hams Jose Churampi Mail Room Supervisor Jose Santana.. .Backshop Castle Valley columnist Columnist Columnist Distribution am occasionally reminded that damned kid" i redundant. The best things about having our daughters here is that Joleen, who lives here, and who Barbara says should have been a triplet, conies to the house to be with them. They are digging into accumulation of photographs, separating, rata loging and putting them into albums. I sure am glad that they are doing it. The pictures have serioush needed this sort of attention. It is fun w hen the tw ms themselves cannot tell which is which in some of the old photos. Another daughter will be lu re soon and I know that she will enjoy helping. I just sort of skirt around the edges of everyI So far, tin-hug- thing, doing what I do best which is to stay out ol the way. A couple of days ago the women took the Iittlest ones with them to Cortex. At tunes I had eight kids here to care for. 1 sought solitude in working on the old VW van. I removed the left front axle because the CV joint was trashed. It is no longer four wheel drive. The unwelcome stream of tattlers abruptly ended when I snarled at the m like a cranky old dog. They may have been surprised to see that side of their granddad but it gave me peace. At our most recent reunion one of our nieces, a girl in her twenties, took her guitar from its case and came over to where I was sitting alone. She sat next to me and began to fine-tunthe guitar Site told me that she had written a song about the family and proceeded to Boftly sing it to me. Her husband was sitting nearby holding their baby. We spent an hour talking about music, poetry, love and children, and her hopes and dreams as a young wife and mother. I shared a couple of my poems with her. It was all very touching to me. The next day, as we were breaking up to go our separute w ays, that little family came over to say good bye to us. The young mother embraced us with tears creeping down her cheeks. That's how you survive a family reunion. e High Country News Writers on the Range Journey down the San Juan River turns into a slog by Larry Warren It's early summer and Im just back from a backpack in Southeastern Utah's canyon country. No big deal, you say, but these packs weighed a halfton each. They were four rafts left high, dry 20-mi- and heavy. We also had one lightweight daypack a kayak. I never got to carry it, and by trip's end I locked at it w ith lust. Weve been through four years of drought now in the Southwest, and some places haven't recorded a raindrop in over a year, So I was skeptical of the invitation to join a Coat trip down the San Juan River to Lake Powell. Even in a good year, the San Juan is a dirty and thick river, Cowing with the sand that cuts ever deeper into the erodable sandstone of the Colorado Plateau. But phone calls brought reassurances that the San Juan was runnable, as the Navajo Dam upstream was releasing a steady, floatable flow. Soon our party of 13, four rafts and a kayak were loaded. We pushed off and caught the fast current, quickly taking us past Mexican Hat and into the Goosenecks of the San Juan, a landmark I d seen many times from the canyon rim, always wishing I were on the river instead of cooking on the rimrock. We enjoyed friendship, beer, scenery and more beer. The rafts allowed us the luxury of ice cream for dessert and a hand-crsnke- d blender for margaritas on Mexican night. The great San Juan was in full swing. For three days the current carried our party effortlessly. We laid over a fourth day to hike the side canyons. Then we loaded up (or the final 20 miles to the Clay Hills takeout on Lake Powell. Soon our paddles started hitting bottom. Then we hit our first sandbar and I started learning in a hurry about sedimentation, and how Glen Canyon Dam, still so far away on a map, was killing our trip this week. We hsd run out of river. Lake Powell had dropped 58 feet by the end of June from its highest level The last time it dropped this low it revealed a dirty little secret, in which the main park concessionaire was using the lake as its dump, sinking everything from barbeque grills to lead batteries to float-and-blo- at NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION UTAH Tom Taylor Circulation Manager, T- Maps Zane Taylor Press, Production Manager Ron Flanders Systems Manager Lisa Church. Janet Lowe Staff Writers Jeff Richards Contributing Writer Sadie Warner Office Manager, 'Sates'Design . J e' multi-count- 435-259-75- BlAs I I signers represent counties containing 3Itmes-(3Jnhcpmh- CULTURAUY I 87.14 of Utahs population. If the Court looks back at the U. S. Supreme Court actions in the 1 960s, upholding the rule of one person, one vote, there is little doubt that y Utah's requirement imposes severe and discriminatory restrictions on the initiative process and on a petitioners con- - (Elfr bCRPATORy I I Many I Resent that NAME-- rri broken lawn chairs, thinking all out of sight and out of mind. The public was outraged. The concessionaire cleaned up the mess and paid a fine. That was fixable. Sedimentation this far from the reservoir is a different matter. As our boats bogged down, we sent our daypack the kayak to scout for floatable channels. We'd generally find them on outside curves, which then turned into inside curves, forcing us to cross the river ceaselessly. And with every crossover, a sandbar blocked passage. All out, push and pull, all in, paddle paddle, aU out, push and pull, all in, paddle paddle. Twenty miles! The Benior citizens among us couldnt handle it anymore, leaving fewer hands to pull more weight At one point our stoic trip leader stopped at a midchannel sandbar and yelled upriver We camp here! Theres no more river! Some upstream believed him for aw hile. The fact is, the San Juan isnt dead yet, but the great desert river, draining from the west slope of Southwestern Colorado's high country and cutting deep gorges through Utah, is in trouble. When Lake Powell is at full elevation, the current of the incoming San Juan slows and the sediment it carries begins to settle out. It sinks out of sight and out of mind, like an old boat battery. Then a severe drought comes along, and like that battery, the sediment is suddenly revealed. Tw enty miles of river now lie as a sandy mud bog, with braids of water trying to create a new channel. Opponents of dams like to point out that sediment will eventually fill every slack water reservoir and render it useless. This is true, more or less. The Bureau of Reclamation, quoted on a F riends of Lake Powell website, likes to point out it will take 700 years of sedimentation to fill Lake Pow ell. Maybe that reassures and power-boaterBut out at the farthest reach of the reservoir, the San Juan's upper 20 miles, sedimentation dam-builde- rs s. is killing this river right now. Today. Larry Warren it a contributor to Wntcrt on the Range, a tervice of High Country AVu s in Puoma. Colorado1 hcn.org). He is an environmental newt reporter for KUTV m Salt Lake City, Utah. m - |