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Show BANTAM HOCKEY WOMEN'S SELF-DEFENSE Marshal arts instructors seek to Thu Kn 221 222 3419 3319 V few snow Snow show- howers. ere at lime. Highs in the Highs in the mid Mh tiid low .10 ami lows in the lows in the upper teens. upper teem. Weather by n ('- ft' V,,:,i,iiVli:,i4,l,Jli!'!'vW''i-i.i.i..iii...i.i.i . uifla rRESS ASSOCIATION E 39 0 0 S e 4 i vercome feminine instincts. n ftf.MTY.INC. QHLI LAKE CITY t'T 64124-6705 B " SeeA7 ' Lf k-.t'm. A Ki il a li itjf 11 5th Year No. 8 Vernal, Utah 84078 50 CENTS www.vernal.com Wednesday R&m&ry 20, 2C03 X i I J Your Hometown Newspaper 1. ; f f -if' I - -----v J y . y : - y . ' 4f K -s.z'- 1 : ' 4 i . , f rWi f . i Kzy 4 ' ! 1 E FIRE IN RANDLETT LEAVES ONE DEAD, STATE FIRE MARSHAL INVESTIGATES Uintah Fire District Executive Director Jeremy Raymond (left) and Uintah County Emergency Management Director Mechelle Miller walk in front of a Randlett home destroyed by fire early Sunday morning. The fire, which began around 4:15 a.m., killed one person in the home. Fire officials, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs police and the FBI had not released any information about the victim at press tim, pending notification of the individual's family. The state Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the blaze. M onument paleo By lis Bowes Express Associate Editor Dinosaur National Monument Monu-ment administrators decided to eliminate two key positions last week. Both jobs - a geologist and a curator - have supported the monument's paleontology program pro-gram for the past seven years. But the most essential part of the program, a full-time paleontologist paleontolo-gist with a doctorate degree in paleontology, remains intact. "We're not getting rid of the paleontologist and we're not getting rid of the paleontology program," Dinosaur National Monument Superintendent Mary Risser said in a phone interview last week. The cuts are another step toward curtailing labor costs at the monument, according to Risser. "This is the first time we've reached into the paleontology work unit to make changes," she said. Risser explained one of her first actions to cut workforce costs was to eliminate the superintendent's su-perintendent's secretary and the Busy year scheduled By Mary Bermard Express Writer State'transportation officials plan to install several traffic lights this year in Vernal, Naples and Fort Duchesne. Two traffic lights will be installed in Naples at the intersections of U.S. Highway High-way 40 and 500 South and at the Utah Highway 45 (Bonanza Highway) junction. Utah Department of Transportation Trans-portation plans to install another signal Highway 40 and 1000 South in Vernal. Engineering and construction is scheduled to begin on the projects in the spring or summer of 2008. Fort Duchesne will also receive re-ceive a traffic signal at the intersection inter-section of 7500 East and Highway 40 adjacent to Ute Petroleum. UDOT also is working with the tribe to acquire additional land on the south side of the intersection intersec-tion to extend a passing lane. Each individual traffic signal sig-nal is estimated to cost around $275,000 with an additional cost of $1 million for the Fort Duchesne Duch-esne passing lane. UDOT Region 3 provided an update to the Uintah County commissioners in a letter dated Jan. 17. M - ' ! I " half-time concessions positions, taking those responsibilities on herself. And over the past four years, the pattern has continued. A full-time chief ranger - primarily responsible for law enforcement - and a full-time administrative officer - responsible respon-sible for budgets, purchasing, procurement, personnel, information infor-mation technology and other areas - were combined into one position. The chief of research and resource management was combined with the head of the cultural resource program. The human resources specialist and purchasing agent were combined into a single administrative technician. And the chief maintenance mainte-nance officer was asked to do the job of a foreman, whose position was eliminated. Since 2004 the practice of combining job duties has allowed the monument to cut more than $700,000. In general, when the National Parks Service cuts a position, the individual filling the position posi-tion is reassigned within the parks system. Risser said the o for iiitah f m B lfejg SUP New traffic lights, such as these at 500 South have been an asset in slowing the rate of traffic through town and increasing traffic safety. Crews will also work to complete Beveral chip-and-seal projects on Highway 40 including a project underway between mileposts 58 and 68 in Wasatch and Duchesne counties coun-ties and between milcpost 58 to SR 208, or the Tabiona Road turnoff. Planned development also includes chip-and-seal on U.S. Highway 191 from Vernal to Steinaker Reservoir, mile-post 353 to 357, and the Red Cloud t'3 h m program public scrutiny over cuts in the paleontology program is due to a narrow vision of the monument by outsiders. "We have abigger responsibility responsibil-ity than just paleontology," she explained. She pointed out that Dinosaur National Monument oversees more than 2 10,000 acres of public land and is responsible for fire response on a half million more acres outside the monument - largely in the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. When the monument was created in 1915, it included just 80,000 acres. In addition, the monument oversees 90 miles of river along the Green and Yampa rivers, a resource that Risser said monument monu-ment staff is taking a closer look at. And the monument is also home to some 280 bird species, 66 mammal species, 33 fish species, spe-cies, six amphibian species and 18 reptile species-each requiring management, with some appearing appear-ing on endangered species lists. Several cultural resources SEE MONUMENT onA2 County Road to the Uintah-Daggett county line, mileposts 372 to 378. Chip-and-seal projects on State Routes 45, 87 and 35 are also anticipated in the coming spring. All totaled, chip-and-seal projects are expected to cost around $3.5 million for all locations. Resurfacing and road improvement im-provement projects at Daniels Summit, West Roosevelt, Gusher SEE TRAFFIC LIGHTS on A2 n .-;- remains i Unused for more two years, the visitors center near the fossil quarry face at Dinosaur National Monument is slated for replacement. Officials said last week the preferred alternative is to move visitor facilities to more stable ground and rehabilitate the quarry face. Grim forecast for water supplies across the West By Mary Bernard Express Writer Despite this winter's appreciable appre-ciable snowpack, environmental scientists are sounding alarm over dwindling fresh water supplies sup-plies in the West. Jon Gertner, of the New York Times, reporting on a mutli-agency mutli-agency study of Colorado River hydrology, says that situation so severe that water wars could erupt. Conflict, he writes could develop among municipalities, farmersranchers and industry in seven Western states. All it seems will be vying for an ever-decreasing ever-decreasing water supply. The study comes from a group of environmental engineers who measured Western snowpack and precipitation data between 1950 and 1999. While they found no significant decline in precipitation, precipita-tion, they did find a steady 4.3 percent decline per decade in the average snowpack. Warmer temperatures combined com-bined with long-term drought in the mountain west has contributed to the decline in snowpack. Yet even in the face of dwindling supply, Western population growth and demand has increased. Evidence of the crisis can seen in the declining water levels of Lakes Mead and Powell. Both, are barely filled to half capacity. capac-ity. Scientists Tim Barnett, a marine gcophysicist, and David Pierce of the Scripps' Climate, Atmospheric Science and Physical Physi-cal Oceanography division at the University of California, San Diego; authors of the report, say that declining river flows will make Lake Mead a "dead pool" School officials to review west side boundaries By Les Bowen Express Associate Editor Uintah School District officials offi-cials said last week they plan to look at boundaries on the west side of the district. The district has been unable to enforce boundaries for several years at West Middle School while it was on school improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act. Prior to changing any elementary elemen-tary school boundary lines, the district has to conduct a public hearing. "I would hope we don't have to go that route, " said Board Vice President Perry Taylor. "Back in December, we talked about boundaries," said Ute representative Ramalda Guzman. Guz-man. "We're not talking about any types of changes. I think we're pretty much satisfied with what the boundaries are right now." Board President Rodney Anderson added that the school district is not required to provide transportation, and the responsibility respon-sibility for transportation falls on the parents. Anderson said he'd prefer to avoid disruption for students. If intact despite cuts Flaming Gorge Reservoir, part of the upper Colorado River basin reservoir system, is one of several important water storage undertakings un-dertakings in Utah. in 13 years. In light of continued water shortages, the US Bureau of Reclamation re-crafted the agreement among the seven Colorado River Basin states last November. This agreement re-evaluates the water sharing system in the West by amending amend-ing the 1922 Colorado River Compact. The agreement obligates river flows from the upper Colorado Colo-rado River basin states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico to California, Arizona and Nevada, the lower Colorado River basin states. 1 Under the original compact the Colorado River System divides 15-million-acre-feet of water per year evenly between the basins. Runoff comes out of the upper basin snowpack and flows into the arid, highly populated popu-lated lower basin. By sustaining Lapoint students are assigned to attend the new K-8 school, they would attend kindergarten through sixth grade in Lapoint," then seventh and eighth in Fort Duchesne, and ninth grade at Vernal Junior High before going to Uintah High. Yet there are other issues that will weigh in on the board's decision. deci-sion. Board Member Scott Ruppe said boundaries may have one carry one set of concerns before the new building at in Fort Duchesne is built and a whole separate set of concerns after. Having restructured West by combining it with the elementary, elementa-ry, the district can again enforce boundaries. "Enforcing the boundaries does not put chains and shackles onanyone," explainedAnderson. "You can live in Jensen and if you want to petition to go to Lapoint and Lapoint has not been called closed, then your child in Jensen can go to Lapoint." The district sent letters to parent of Lapoint Elementary students notifying them that starting next year, the district SEE BOUNDARIES cm A3 water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead's reservoir system the lower basin's water is conserved. The BOR defends the existing reservoir system, but acknowledges acknowl-edges that some unevenness is occurring in Colorado River flows. Barnett and Pierce, the Scripps scientists, say that lower flows forecast disaster for western west-ern waterusers. Recurrent water shortages in the upper basin will bring insufficient flow into the reservoirs leading to system failure. Peter II. Gleick, of the Pacific Pa-cific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California, recommends that water managers manag-ers change the way they operate. Deferring from adding dams or other expensive water projects, "SEE WATER SUPPLY onA2 |