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Show Arif Brothers seeUxs eightf for Boncinzci energy ire Deseret Generation & Transmission officials are vexed with Mt. Bell's refusal to provide telephones to their $1.2 billion power project south of Vernal, Ver-nal, according to Art Brothers. So Deseret installed their own microwave to get phones to the project. Now, Art Brothers Beehive telephone company has asked for State approval to take over the territory and allow him the rights to provide switching necessary for telephones to the area, which includes in-cludes oil shale developments and housing hous-ing to be required as employees locate nearer local places of employment. Mountain Bell spokesman Steve Linton Lin-ton stated, when confronted with Brothers charge, "We have not refused telephone service to the Deseret Generation & Transmission power plant. The reason they may have felt that way is, earlier (a few years ago) we were not able to give additional service ser-vice because there were too few connections connec-tions out there to justify additional equipment." "Now the picture has changed. With the additional growth we are going ahead with a nearly $3 million expansion expan-sion project. The business customers in the Bonanza area will have to shoulder some of the expense of this expansion," pointed out Linton. A DG&T spokesman stated, concerning concern-ing the telephone problem, "Mountain Bell was too slow and their costs were too high, so DG&T was forced to install its own telephone microwave system." "We have not sided with Art Brothers and his plans to compete with Mountain Bell. If Mountain Bell will come in and provide the necessary equipment and meet the growing demands of the area DG&T would probably sell its existing system to them, reported Claron Ashby, DG&T public relations coordinator. coor-dinator. Tiny Beehive telephone's ongoing battles with Bell and other established telcos in the west have been gist for many stories, but the company shows no sign of slowing down and being content con-tent with the status quo. In recent months mon-ths it asked the State for authority to serve Caineville, in Wayne County and withdrew its application only when Bell promised they would serve the town as well as cooperate with Beehive so Brothers could provide service to Fish Springs and Callao in Juab County. Beehive now provides service to rural . western Box Elder and Millard Counties Coun-ties and the new town of Ticaboo north of Bullfrog on Lake Powell in Garfield County. The company founder, Art Brothers, plans on spending over a million dollars next year providing phones to eight small Utah towns in Tooele and Juab County. "My entire history" says Brothers "has been of battling the established companies and bureaucrats so they will get out of the road and let me provide service to areas that nobody else will serve." The NBC Today show filmed Brothers at work in Garrison, Millard County, last month, and that 44 minute segment was scheduled for release in October, but was postponed to November where the release date should be Friday the 13th. "Oh well" says Brothers when speaking of the release date. .."that's the story of my life." Brothers operated his one man company com-pany for 14 years, but in the last two, growth now sees four people working to continue extending service in the five Counties where Beehive is authorized to serve. When asked why the State should grant his company rights when Bell is on both sides, Brothers said "Bell's refusal to serve is the only reason! Where companies sit on their hands and won't serve if able, the spirit of today's regulatory climate is that competition should be permitted." Brothers went on to say that his company was ready to provide service anywhere, and about the only requirement needed for the j p, -. . . PROPOSED ROAD and bridge to the White River Shale oil leases, Ua and Ub will come over the mountain and through the middle of the re , . ; - ---- -- J . .. - '-. ' ....... . . ..' . .1 FUTURE BACHELOR quarters and recreational vehicle park will be located on the brush flat at user is to be turned down by somebody else first. "Although," he continued, "it might be nice to have somebody come to me first." ' Officials of the State Public Service Commission acknowledge the Beehive application and say that if not protested, pro-tested, they could grant the area to Beehive without hearing and let the tiny company "get it on" without further delay. Deseret Power officials say they could use Beehive's equipment in 30 days and lacking that might install their own which won't be as good as that obtainable from a telephone company com-pany interconnected to the national telephone network. Brothers, 50, in relating his background said, "I was a ward of the state and was placed in foster homes from age 5 through age 17, then I joined the Air Force. Part of the time I resided out in Uintah County, for a year with Delbert Horrocks in Whiterocks and Lapoint, and for a time in Maeser, this at age 11 and 12, and I don't have the slightest idea of whom I lived with in your town, other than I was allowed to drive a pick up and skated at a roller skating rink which was somewhere up there and which I have fond memories of and kept it up for a number of years after leaving the area." "I painted one of the signs the hospital put up when the one that was built back then announced its construction, construc-tion, or some such thing at least my memory tells me this." "We will be doing a tour of the plant site on Tuesday next, when I and two of my workers will fly over and land at the site and confer with project people there to determine which type and what exact equipment we should place for switching equipment at the site. We should have a factory man with us as well, and would hope we could have first switching to local phones through our equipment in 30 days," Brothers responded. mains of Ignatio near the present White River Bridge. the entrance to the plant site for the White River Shale Project. |
