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Show CR UT PRESORT -97 UIAII FRFT.R ASSOC I A'l ION 81.. C, UT tt41U--2606 WEDNESDAY, June 10, 1992 Vernal. Utah 84078 100th Year No. 24 22 Pages Single Copy 50 Inside Bungie jumping. See pagel8. Desire to play piano again. See page 12. Livestock show. See page 9. fin tnTDDDDncDDrQ jpimPGEl by Steven Wallis Express Editor A 1993 Vernal City tentative budget bud-get projects revenues at the same level as last year, but it includes a proposed water rate increase and a $5 million bond to make road improvements. im-provements. The city spends about $360,000 in capital improvements for roads on an annual basis. "The problem with paying as you go, is that as a road gets older it takes twice as much money to maintain it," said Mayor Leonard Heeney. Heeney was on the Vernal City Council in 1986 when a similar general bond issue was defeated by another member of the City Council. "I think that Council members would support the bond issue this time, if I explain it to them," Mayor Heeney said. The city Public Works Committee recommends the $5 million bond to complete the needed improvements to all streets in Vernal. It is anticipated antici-pated that the Community Impact Board would be approached for a no-interest loan to help with the funding of the project. The total annual payment for the bond issue would not exceed what the city has normally been allocating allocat-ing for street improvement projects in the past years, Mayor Heeney said. With help from the Community Impact Board, it is not anticipated that a tax increase would be needed to repay the bond issue. The bond issue would have to be approved by the public at a general election. If the issue is approved it is anticipated anticipat-ed that the issue would be on Ft. Duchesne man goes to prison on assault charges Zorro Tahreep Santio, 32, was sentenced May 14 in U.S. Federal Court in Salt Lake City by U.S. District Judge David Sam to prison for assault. He will sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, 3 years probation upon release and 50 hours of community com-munity service. Santio's sentence stems from an incident Dec. 25, 1991. He pled guilty to assault March 10, 1992. Santio and the victim are members of the Ute Tribe. i - Sky is falling VERNAL CHAMBER ping-pong ball drop at the ping-pong balls that were dropped from an ultra-Vernal ultra-Vernal City Park attracted over a thousand peo- light aircraft. Vernal merchants offered prizes for pie who scurried from place to place seeking each ball returned to their business. November's ballot. The city will present its budget to the public during a public hearing Wednesday at 8 p.m. Copies of the budget can be reviewed at the Vernal City Office building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Included in the budget is a 2.8 percent cost-of-living increase to city employees and a 7.5 percent increase in-crease in health insurance premiums. premi-ums. The city water fund is anticipated to be about $16,092 in the hole this year. City Manager Kenneth Bassett is recommending a $1.50 increase in water rates to offset the deficit Also recommended in the budget is a 10 percent increase in the water overage charge. The increase would give the city's water fund an ending balance of $26,138 for fiscal year 1993. The increase would up the city's monthly base rate from $16 to $17.50. Mayor Heeney said tnat trie city s water rate is already about twice the average water rate for Utah. Bassett said Vernal City's rate is high because of repayment of loans from the Community Impact Board and because the water system was built for 3,000 connections. Currently the city is serving 2,700 connections. In the past three years, the city has subsidized the water fund from the solid waste fund or general fund. This year the solid waste fund had a surplus of $52,132. Bassett also reported that in the Ashley area the city is losing 30 to 40 percent of the treated water. The council recommended purchasing a leak monitoring device to determine the location of the leakage in the water system. He was charged by FBI agents from the Vernal office for assaulting a Randlett woman causing serious bodily injury. The complaint filed against Santio said he whipped the victim with an arrow, pulled a blade across her hand, forced her to take a hot bath then poured cold water over her, forced her outside the home then whipped her again with a radio antenna an-tenna while she was still wet The complaint also stated he repeatedly re-peatedly burned the victim with a heated crutch. .r ,.."-,-- &:r w M ,-.'A v;Lf y"w mm mm& jbii I - A SW 1 3 cisssdSrr-jj 3 I M 'r "-" J. ;J, ..;. . ,. ' : . , V i - i S -' . ' - - ?a . - . ' . - ' . , ' ' . " - ,tm V - . ' ' - v ' ' ' , ' ' ''' Photo by Steven Cranney, DWR MERLENE FOLK inspects mountain lion she shot cat. The reason for the animal's unusual behavior after it showed no fear of humans and ate her pet has not been determined. WoDimaini hMs mraoiuiirDtiaiini lion affieir U eatts Dnesr peti cat by Steven Wallis Express Editor Thursday of last week Merlene Folks, 49, of Browns Park was aroused by a noise she thought was caused by a male suitor calling on female Siamese cat, Sugar. When she looked out her bedroom window, she was surprised to see a mountain lion lying in her roses just - two or three feet from the window. The lion was creeping up on her cat that normally slept outside the window. win-dow. "I was very calm and grabbed the first thing handy, a kitchen broom, to scare off the animal," Mrs. Folks said. "I was concerned for my cat" Mrs. Folks lives in Browns Park with her husband, Neil, who is the supervisor of the Browns Park Waterfowl Management Area, 35 miles northeast of Vernal. Her husband hus-band was in Salt Lake City on business. busi-ness. She approached the mountain lion and struck him three times across fy Ml Em f 3? r the back with the broom. The third blow broke the broom in two places. The animal, with the Siamese cat in its mouth, turned and came towards her showing no fear. She backed into her house. Mrs. Folks grabbed a .22 pistol, the first firearm she could find, and went out the front door. She met the lion around the side of the house. It still showed no fear or signs of exiting exit-ing the premises. She fired one shot and instantly killed the animal. "I was extremely concerned about killing the animal because I love animals," an-imals," she said. "But this one was sick or something because it did not act normal. I was very shaky after killing the animal." Mrs. Folks said she is familiar with the behavior of animals because be-cause she has cared for several wounded animals, including a bob cat She has lived in Browns Park for 24-25 years. After killing the animal, she reported the killing to her husband in Salt Lake City. Miss Uintah County fights over-the-counter drug abuse Having a close relative placed in a treatment center for over-dosing on cough medication has prompted Miss Uintah County to do something some-thing about the problem which affects af-fects many teenagers. Kristen Jensen, daughter of Dr. Doug and Robbie Jensen, is representing repre-senting Uintah County at the Miss Utah Scholarship Pageant, June 16-20. 16-20. She is the reigning Miss Uintah County Fair. Each contestant will complete a community service project. Jensen has nicknamed her project "Operation Robo Cop." She has done research to identify an epidemic epidem-ic level of abuse of dextromethorphan dextromethor-phan in her community. Her goal is to stop over-the-counter availability of the drug. Ninety-five percent of Utah's youth in rehabilitation centers arc there for dependence on dex Officers John Dickerson, conservation conser-vation Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), and Steve Cranney, furbearer manager, DWR northeastern region, investigated the incident the following day. They determined the killing to be warranted. war-ranted. "I don't ever like to see these animals ani-mals killed, but where it showed no fear of humans, it would have been a problem," said Cranney. "It is very unusual for a secretive animal such as this to come close to human habitation and even more unusual for the observed lack of fear of humans." hu-mans." The reason for the animal's poor physical condition was not determined. deter-mined. The animal was a male about 18 months old, Cranney said. An autopsy of the animal was planned, but because the carcass had been left in the sun for a day it had decomposed to the point that an autopsy could not determine the cause of death, Cranney said. tromethorphan, an antitussive ingredient ingre-dient used in 60 over-the-counter cough preparations. Its parent compound com-pound is morphine. Manifestations of abuse include nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, dizzi-ness, urinary retention, stupor, toxic psychosis, insomnia, hallucinations, hysteria and coma. Drug interactions arc understood for prescribed medication, but over-the-counter medications are less controlled and understood, she said. For instance, dextromethorphan, when used in conjunction with other oth-er routine over-the-counter medications medica-tions such as alcohol and acetaminophen ac-etaminophen in Nyquil, can cause severe tissue damage and poisoning. Individuals using such combinations combina-tions arc also particularly susceptible suscepti-ble to hepatius. The drug was available in tablet School fax increase to go to voters A one mill increase in taxes to reduce re-duce the number of students in the class will face public approval in November. The tax increase was approved by the Uintah School Board last March, but because opponents of the increase were able to secure over 901 signatures opposing the issue, is-sue, it will be placed on the ballot in November. Placing the issue on the ballot is bad news for school administrators who are already strapped with tight budgets and cutbacks. Because the issue will be placed on the ballot in November, "it means that the money will not be available for the next school year," said Dennis Judd, Uintah School District Board president. In grades K-3 the numbers of students stu-dents in the classroom have been held down, by using budget surplus to hire additional teachers, Judd said. At the secondary level, the number num-ber of students is as high as 34 per teacher. Because it is a School Board voted vot-ed leeway, the revenue can only be used to reduce classroom size. A public voted leeway, can be used for any purpose. The Uintah School District is one of five districts in Utah that have not implemented a voted leeway. In 1990 the Utah Legislature gave local school boards the authority to increase mill levies or taxing rates up to four mills to reduce the teacherstudent teach-erstudent ratio. The one mill increase is a $10 a year tax increase for a property owner with taxable property assessed as-sessed at $50,000. ($50,000 multiplied multi-plied by a taxing rate increase of .0002) "If people really understand the issue, I think they will support it," said Judd. Those opposed to the increase submitted a petition with 935 certified certi-fied signatures of county residents opposed to the issue which clenched it a spot on the November ballot "The one year delay of the increase in-crease is discouraging to teachers," said a Uintah District teacher who did not want to be named, "It doesn't look like there is any money for any increases this year." "The Utah Legislature did increase in-crease the weighted pupil ratio, this year, but it also took funding away from other areas," Judd said. The only way to increase the salaries of the 600 employees of the district is to cut the number of employees em-ployees or cut programs. "We won't cut the teachers, so we are looking at programs," Judd said. The school district is facing a 20 percent increase in insurance benefits bene-fits to employees which represents over $200,000. Kristen Jensen form about 30 years ago and was withdrawn from the ovcr-the- Continued on page 2 n |