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Show f Community Comments "There's going to be the biggest motel you've ever seen built right downtown, and they're going to have to tear down a bunch of old buildings to build it," I heard this week. I also heard that three large shopping center complexes were coming, a large savings and loan association, and other mind-boggling additions to the community. Some of the rumors circulating with electrical rapidity throughout the town have, I am sure, some basis for truth. Many, however, are just plain rumors, but in the best Moab tradition, they are kind of fun. Back in the 1950's, when Moab was really having a gay old time trying to cope with a mushrooming growth brought about by the uranium boom, the old saying was, "If you haven't heard a darn good rumor by 10 o'clock, then start one." It's kind of like the good old days are back. sjt Despite the fact that all the "smart" folks in the state and nation don't give Jake Gam much hope for success on his new bill to divest the federal government of much of its western land holding, you've got to give the Senator an A-plus for trying. Whether or not Jake carries it off is academic. But the attempt should be made, and a real effort given to passage, for a number of reasons. First, it's darn hard for a state government to chart its own future, when the bulk of its land area is controlled from Washington. And those Wasbingtoni-ans Wasbingtoni-ans have proved pretty hard to deal with over the years. For example, the feds actually OWE us a bunch of land, but just try to get it. The owed land is that which the federal government agreed to give us for State-owned land it snatched when it created all the national parks, forests, Indian reservations, defense installations, and other purely federal facilities. In Glen Canyon and Canyonlands, for instance, literally dozens of sections of state land were gobbled up with the understanding that the feds would give us back lands "in lieu" of those they had absorbed. The task of making those trades has fallen on the Utah Division of State Lands, and their track record in getting the boys in Washington to live up to their "in lieu" pledges by giving Utah land selected by the Utah agency, has been pretty dismal. For one reason or another, the federal agencies just can't agree that the lands selected by Utah are the lands they really want to turn loose of. And that ain't fair. They really didn't ask us when they surrounded our State sections, and they should have. If Sen. Gam's bill, which I obviously support even though the easterners and environmentalists and bureaucrats don't, doesn't have much of a chance for passage, so be it. At least h might shed enough light on the sad state of affairs between Washinton and Western States, that our "in lieu" transfers might at least be made In good faith by the feds. That In itself would be a big step forward for Utah. Hang in there, Utah Land Board troops. And don't let 'em wear you down, Jake. Keep on plugging for what is rightfully Utah's. |