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Show f JyirlsdlBCtDOini ' I The Supreme Court down the State of ; has turned Utah and Counties of Uintah and Duchesne appeal on the Ute Jurisdiction Case. The announcement was made Monday morning, December 1, that the Supreme Court conference committee denied the writ of eer-- . tiorari (request for review) that was the last legal step in the decade' long battle. This case began in 1975 with the expansion of power the Ute Tribe undertook when they revised their Law and Order Code. They sought, in this revision, to exercise jurisdiction over the original bounduies of their historic reservation. After the suit wu filed it took until 1982 for the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City to give their decision, which found for the 73rd Year No. Tribe. It wu appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and wu reversed (they made a decision in favor of the state and counties position). But the Tenth Circuit granted a rehearing motion, due to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ease Solem versus Bartlett. known The rehearing wu conductd en banc by the entire bench of judges which make up the Court of Appeals in Denver. They came down with a decision that wu more favorable to the Tribe than the District Court decision. The case wu appealed to the Supreme Court And they announced they would not hear the case. Last spring, in May, there were congressional hearings scheduled and then postponed on this issue. t , "The Tribe has said all along that nothing would change . The people in Duchesne County have no reason to feel the Tribe is a threat. Vile will not arbitrarily assess taxes or do anything like that." Lester Chapoose u The Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs set a date for hearing the two sides of the iuue but then decided to postpone the hearing until the Supreme Court has decided' what they would do. Now that the Supreme Court hu decided it is the turn of the state and county to decide what they will - Duchesne County Attorney Dennis Draney said that he wu deeply concerned over the decision. He aaid the eounty will have to examine the options available to them now. There is a substantial possibility for continued litigation on related issues to this case, Draney aaid. do. Wednesday, December 3, 1986 49 - . e Shar Lynn Benson, Uintah County Justice of the Peace, has filed suit in circuit court in Vernal against a Lapoint man for "causing iponetary. and emotional damages which added' to the loss of her election when he tore down her campaign signs. Benson, who is suing for $550, filed the suit against Homer Lee November 19. According to the complaint filed, Benson accussed Lee of removing her "political posters along the Lapoint High- way. Lee told the STANDARD he did remove the signs. He said they were blocking the traffic view and in "wanting to save some taxpayers some money, removed than without notifying . Most of the children that went to see Santa Claus in the First Security Bank last Saturday morning were of the wide-eye- d variety. Hearing stories about him are one the was and legend actually seeing quite another for most youngsters. However, thing when they get older they almost expect to see 'him every year, don't they. Youngsters stayed in line from an hour before the doors opened at 1 1 a.m. until 3 p.m. just to sit on Santa's lap and get one of the 1 200 bags of candy. D Farm Bureau fights water filing increase state water filings, will critically effect agricultural production in the state. Raising the fee by as much as 1000 percent will cripple agricultural producers at a time when farmers are striving to put their industry back on its feet, Bingham said. Agricultural users are the state's main water users, and u such will bear a unrealistic and unequal burden if this proposal comes to fruition. Bingham said Farm Bureau had serious concerns about this concept when it first came to light in June of 1985. "We expressed serious reservations at that time to the practical. Bingham added. d increase on "Clearly a fees filing by the Division of Water Rights is neithersonable or . ten-fol- practical. Bingham said the Act seeks to recover some of the costs of issuing permits. While he said Farm Bureau wholeheartedly supports that concept, it is vigorously opposed to efforts to attach all the costs associated with the operation of the Division to the filing fee. "The function of the Division, . . while - non-Indian-s, given jurisdiction over. Pages 50 Cents Benson files suit for fearing down signs west-sid- sponsors of this act, but were assured time and time again by them, as well as the Governors office, that there was no intent to substantially increase or alter these regulatory foes through implementation of SB-5- , he said. "In spite of these assurances, it now appears our fears were well founded, and there will be an effort to push these foes far beyond what is reasonable or morning did do, according to Chapoose, ia make it possible for the Tribe to make the decision to go forth from here and see what we all can do to accomplish something together from here." He restated he uw no impact on Duchesne County government and the Tribe doesn't want to overstep state authority to do anything that would impact the County. We are not going to go out to Chapoose regulate said. He does plan to regulate Tribal members hunting in the expanded area the Tribe hu been 20 Roosevelt, Utah by Tom Brennan Officials of the states largest farm organization are blasting a proposal which would raise water filing fees in the state by 1000 percent.. According to Thomas E. Bingham, director of public policy for the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Senate Bill 5, which vides for a new fee structure on Tribe's side Lester Chapoose, chairman of the Tribal Busineu Committee aaid he learned of the decision and is "quite .happy. He said he has been optimistic about the court decision all along and this just made his day. The Tribe hu said all along that nothing would change Chapoose uid. The people in Duchesne County have no reason to feel the Tribe is a threat. We will not arbitrarily assess taxes-o- r do anything like that" When asked what the BIA Law Enforcement Officers will do to cover the expanded territory he aaid he didn't know the answer to that but that there ia the feeling they are understaffed already." One thing the decision Monday $500 DAMAGES V- WIDE-EYE- Ruth Ann Story, from the Governor's Offiee, when asked what the atate planned to do uid, we just don't know yet We had hoped for review (by the Supreme Coiurt) but now we will have to diacuu the optiona with the people out there about what can be done. it is a valuable and necessary one, is in the public interest and benefit and therefore, the cost should be borne by the public through legislative appropriation, except for the cost of actually issuing the permit, he said. The Act also provides for a recommendation by the Division of foes less than full cost if, in their judgement, foil cost is unreasonable, Bingham noted. He maintained the 1000 percent increase proposed, or anything like it, is totally unreasonable. Bingham said Farm Bureau urges the Division to seriously evaluate the cost of issuing these permits before going to the Legislature for authority to proceed. "Farm Bureau will vigorously oppose any fee proposal before the appropriations committee of the Legislature which goes beyond the actual costs of issuing these permits, he stated. ova losing the election and decided to take ha frustrations out on him. Arda Mansfield, who beat in Novemba, Benson 500-38- 8 said she doesnt believe Lee taking down Bensons signs cost ' Benson . the election. She said Benson lost the election by . hoself. Heavens no, Mansfield said when asked if the signs being taken down cost Benson the deed on, I dont think it was Number of burglaries solved by county the state or county authorities. It is against the law to hang campaign signs on county or state property. Two Duchesne City individuals were arrested and charged with 12 felony counts between them in connection with a number of Current Creek Mountain Summer Lee said Benson found out about him removing ha three signs October 20 when he removed one from a home of Bensons relative. Uintah County Sheriff authorities gave Lee a warning on October 21. Benson told the STANDARD Friday she would not comment on the case before it goes before a judge. I can not make any comment right now. I want to leave it up to the judge, Benson said. I just prefer to make no comment.. However, Benson did tell KVEL radio Tuesday she believes there has been damages caused by Lees action. Its the principal (of taking down the signs); the money is really not the problem, she said. But when you say its a four-yejob that he has helped cause me too lose, I think there are damages. There is the cost of the posters, damages fa the loss of the election. He owes me something for damaging my personal reputation and my personal property. Lee said Benson should have known the signs were hanging illegal. He said with ha being a Justice of the Peace she should be knowledgeable about the law. She knew they were illegal there, but she put back more signs afta I took those down, cabins that were broken into, according to Duchesne County Sheriff Deputy Joe SummeralL Paul Stratton and Jason were both arrested and e each charged with three e and three burglary felony theft charges. Summaall said the investigation Lee said. The Lapoint man said he was Benson lost the Novemba election, because of she some "unfair practices Lees to did daughter, aUedgedly when die came up before Benson's court I wasn't happy with ha in both cases. My daughta would have been hung if die wouldnt have had a jury trial, in my Lee said. "She was opinion, found not guilty on both charges (the daughta was charged with assult ami assult with a deadly weapon, Lee said). Lee said Benson is just upset dated when Homers doing at all. Mansfield said it was a total surprise when she learned about the controversial signs. She said she was too busy running her own campaign to worry about what Benson was doing. ' Lee has 20 days from the time of the summons to give a formal response to the court He told the STANDARD he has turned all the problems ova to his lawyer, Alvin Nash. Wes-tagar-d second-degre- third-degre- is still continuing. He said if everything goes as planned, 10 to 15 eases will be solved. He said some cabin owners were unaware they had even been robbed. Summaall said Stratton was arrested with Driving Under the Influence by Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Heber Smith Novemba 22. Aha gathering some evidence from Stratton on an overheard conversation about the burglaries, officers in tero gated him about the Current Creek burglaries. I A number of items were stolen from various cabins including wood burning stoves, heaters, sleeping bags, Coleman Lanterns, boat motors, tools and a number of other items, Summaall said. Summaall said a number of Mickey Mouse burglaries are along with going to be solved some major ones. Summaall said other arrests are likely to come in the future as the investigation continues. Summerall, along with Chief Deputy Doug Horrocks, Detective Gerry Ivie and Sargeant Ralph Stansfield, along with Utah Highway Patrol and Roosevelt City Police waked on the burglary cases. Sheriff Clair Poulson said he would like to publicly thank the support his office received from other law enforcement agencies in the area. Tax collection high but down from 1985 With Friday's receipts, Duchesne County Treasurer office has received dose to 49 percent of county taxes, according to Treasurer Maxine Taylor. Taylor said the county is expected to receive $11,323,098 total monies with the state picking up the majority of the tab with $8,547,130 and the counties total is $2,755,968.91. Taylor said the receipts, which the office goes by on the number of claims which have been processed, is down 1,000 from this time last year. However, she said, mortgage companies, which total quite a bit of money, has yet to be processed. We still have a lot of mail to still open too, she said. December 1 was the last day county taxpayers could savor their money in their wallets, checking accounts. saving Afta Monday, a $10 late fee 2 percent of the taxable amount, whichever is area teat, will be a a assessed. The names of delinquent taxpayers, who do not pay will be before January 15, published in the STANDARD. "Most people are waiting fa the last day to do their taxes, Taylor said. We have a real good attitude from county taxpayers. We dont generally have a lot of problems in this office about taxes. Taxpayers seem to want to pay their fair share of taxes. One business, who had dose to V. of the total county taxes, is Utex. Tayter, who is expecting Utex, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, to come through with their $2.5 million tax bill. As. far as I know it (Utex money) is still coming," Tayfor said. I haven't heard anything differently. If residents are feeling their taxes are high this past year, a possible cushion will be caning next year. |