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Show r UTAH PKKSS ASSOCIATION sir., ur A'tUW.4A WEDNESDAY, June 26, 1991 Vernal. Utah 84078 99th Year No. 26 46 Pages Single Copy 50 rv Inside Bluegrass to come to town..... page 9 Queens to reign over rodeo page 13 Vipers host splashout page 18 Discover Dinosaurland Insert Mssfi Park toaBDBD m DdqQ)& ft aura Saturday will culminate Uintah County's estimated $4.5 million investment in-vestment in tourism and recreation Western Park. At 12 noon Saturday Lt Gov. Val Oveson will cut the ribbon to the facility. Uintah County Commissioners see Western Park as the gateway to economic development develop-ment by attracting tourism dollars. The project was built with $1.9 million in grants from the Community Impact Board. It was built without a tax increase specifically specifi-cally for the facility, said Nyle Bigelow, former Uintah County Commissioner and member of the Western Park Board. Uintah County has placed about $1 million in' an interest bearing fund to pay for the maintenance and operation of the facility. Also the: county has diverted a third of the transient room tax, about $33,000 a year, to Western Park. User fee will pay the rest of the Maintenance and Operation of the facility. The Western Park is really four major projects built at the old Uintah County Fairgrounds: multipurpose multi-purpose facility, amphitheater, museum mu-seum and grandstand. The multi-purpose facility is 57,000 square feet of a indoor arena and convention center. The facility has an in-house concession area, Runoff exceeds even positive projections This year's runoff "has been better bet-ter than ever hoped for," as Steinaker Reservoir is 3,500 acre feet from full and Red Fleet Reservoir filled two weeks ago. Steinaker is presently at 29,500 acre feet, said David Rasmussen, Uintah Water. "The most I hoped for was 20,000 acre feet of water." The reservoir is at capacity at 33,000 acre feet of water. Steinaker is still receiving water, mosUy from Dry Fork, but it is also releasing more than it is taking on. The Central Canal washed out last week in Maeser and had to be shut off. There is currently water in the Central Canal and most users are being served by the Steinaker Service Canal. "This year's runoff has been excellent," ex-cellent," Rasmussen said. "There have been no real high flows and no trash in the canals. This is an example exam-ple of what can happen with a slightly below normal snow pack, and a slow runoff." Red Fleet is currenUy dumping water into the Green River with farmers getting their share from the full reservoir. Last week the Uintah Water Conservancy Board voted to allow a 100 percent allocation from Steinaker. Last year the board could W ' jtk 4, i) Ji';c i CLIFF WARDLE, far right, helps crew unload dinosaur di-nosaur bone which will become part of a new dis kitchen and ticket booth. The arena will seat 2,500 to 2,700. The convention con-vention facility will seat 900 people. peo-ple. Already the facility has been used for wedding receptions, cutting cut-ting horse competition, Jr. Livestock Show, rodeo school, seminars and banquets. The facility is slightly larger than the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden. The amphitheater is home to the Outlaw Trail annual musical production. pro-duction. This year's musical will spotlight Ann Basset!, queen of the rustlers. The outdoor facility will seat 670 with 100-150 possible, seating on a grass berm. The Western Heritage Museum is 8,000 square feet and will feature the artwork of western artist Valoy Eaton. It also includes a gift shop, country store and numerous antiques an-tiques donated by local residents. Also in the museum will be the Western Art contest entries. Also included in the project is the construction of a metal grandstand and bleachers to seat 5,000. The volunteer work on the rodeo arena is near completion. The grand opening of the facility will begin at 10 a.m. with barrel races. Following the ribbon cutting at noon there will be entertainment, refreshments, calf roping, doggers and a quilt show. only allocate an 80 percent share. Concern that water in Steinaker might have to be dumped in the fall of 1992 because of repair to the earth-fill dam has been alleviated. Recent core samples show that the liquifiable materials at the base of the dam are not as bad as once believed, be-lieved, Rasmussen said. Because of the new findings, the 800,000 cubic foot berm to be placed at the toe of the dam can be reduced to about 500,000 cubic feet. The material for the berm will be taken from the Bureau of Reclamation pit on 1500 West, from 80 acres near the Thorneburg diversion diver-sion and from some lands north of Steinaker. No private lands at this point are being considered, Rasmussen said. The construction will require the reservoir to be drained three to four months during compaction of materials mate-rials placed in a trench around the base of the dam. The berm will be placed on the trench after it is filled with compacted material. Rasmussen said that the berm will require the Conservancy District to move some of its buildings build-ings and equipment located near the toe of the dam. The project could begin in the fall of 1991. play of dippy the diplodocus at the Utah Field House of Natural History. I SlLSLL. K:, CZ . - e fi& (3b m 1 k J 1 : I I O llil IV V I" v" ' ' T'' WESTERN PARK amphitheater, and grandstand will be formally county hearing ezDin) The J-West Oil Service Company was granted a zone change to allow the 17-year-old business to continue operating at its present location. About 50 persons crowded into the Uintah County Commission Chamber to voice an opinion on the proposed rezone to allow the industrial indus-trial business. J-West was established in 1974 before the adoption of the Uintah County Master Plan which designates desig-nates future land use. County Planner Robert Hugie said the County Planning Commission recommended rec-ommended that the Master Plan be amended to allow the 75 acres of industrial in-dustrial zone and to rezone 20 acres near 4000 South and 1500 East to allow J-West to continue to operate. Weston Serrano said his company which has a payroll of 33 employees, employ-ees, plans to expand in the next three years in response to an increase in-crease in development of natural gas. . ' If the company was required to move to an industrial zone it would cost over $300,000 and any expansion expan-sion would be delayed three to four years. Serrano told commissioners that he wanted to get the company zoned correcdy before the expansion. expan-sion. J-West also owns some tanks multi-purpose facility, museum opened to the public Saturday. alDvjs BD on 1500 South which are in an incorrect in-correct zone. Serrano said he would move the tanks if a legal zone was made available, r - Those attending the rezone hearing hear-ing were equally divided for and against the rezone. Gilmer Chivers, speaking for his mother who lives near J-West said he objected to the rezone because it was a spot zone to legalize a company's location. He also objected to the noise and dust problems caused by the company. On the other side, Mary Ann Kay Davis said 'This is an oil field town. It makes no sense to pinpoint this one company." AccoGQemitt Amanda Dee Mashburn, four year old daughter of Wayne Allan and Kathlyn Price Mashburn, died Friday, June 21 in a freak accident involving a horse she was riding. The family was attending a church outing at Iron Springs north of Vernal She asked to ride the horse so her father put her on it as her mother was putting the bridle on and holding the reins. Something Dippy the diplodocus is back and will be given a place of honor inside in-side the Utah State Field House of Natural History. Actually the diplodocus skeleton model that arrived at the museum last Thursday was not the real thing, bqt a fiberglass and plaster copy. The cement diplodocus, commonly called dippy, was removed from the south end end of the Dinosaur Gardens two years ago. Dinolab in Salt Lake City made molds of the skeleton and cast the 50-100 pieces of the dinosaur. The new dippy will be placed in the main hall of the museum, but it will not take on its whipped tail pose until this winter when curators have time to work with the new display. dis-play. Once in place the head of the dinosaur di-nosaur will be over the reception desk and the tail will curve upward, said Sue Ann Bilbcy, museum curator. cura-tor. The original dippy remains in a back room in the fieldhouse. It cannot can-not be reassembled because when it was taken apart linking material had to be cut. Outlaw Trail scenery is in place at amphitheater as the cast has been practicing for several weeks. comnipaiDDy to sftay County Attorney Harry Souvall said that the county could not require re-quire or deny a rezone if it caused "undue hardship" on a company to comply. Jamie Searle said she just didn't want to look at it. "They should build a fence so I can enjoy the view." Virgil McMickell said he used to live in the area and the dust and noise didn't bother him one bit. "I now live by Western Park and the wind blows a little dust and it smells, but I like it." Commissioner Max Adams said the business had been operating as a cDaomnis 4 spooked the horse and it reared up, pushing her mother out of the way and fell on top of Amanda. The family said that a couple of things could have spooked the animal; there was some shooting in the. distance dis-tance or another horse with a rider close by but actual cause has not been determined. Tim Reynolds, a Vernal EMT and picnicker, administered adminis-tered emergency medical care to the victim before transporting her via personal vehicle off the mountain. They met the ambulance on U.S. highway 191 betwesn Steinaker and Uintah schools above state norm in core testing The Uintah County School District released the state core testing test-ing results on Monday, June 24 at' the regular district meeting. Superintendent Grant Drollinger as well as the rest of the board were very pleased with the high scores, especially after receiving the SAT scores last spring. "State core is the emphasis in the schools," said Drollinger. The teachers are teaching state core requirements re-quirements and that is why there is such a difference in the state tests compared to the nationally given SAT tests. In the elementary level for core reading the Uintah School District , was above average or equal to the state average in first through sixth grades. The best averages were fourth and fifth grades which were seven percent higher than the state. In core math for the elcmcntarics conditional use since 1974. J-West will have to secure proper building permits and a business license which puts some guidelines in place. Commissioner Glen McKee said the company was built when costs of property was high and it was built in a low density area. Commissioners approved the rezone re-zone after closing off public input. "Those (commissioners) are good people who understand what it takes economically to keep people in work," Serrano said after the commission's com-mission's approval. - yeir - Dd Red Reel reservoirs and she was transported into Ashley Valley Medical Center in Vernal where she was pronounced dead in the emergency emer-gency room. Mr. Mashburn said, "Tim Reynolds did a fantastic job. He kept her air ways open and her throat clear as we came down the mountain." Amanda is the granddaughter of Vernon and Ermadee Mashburn and Representative Dan and Clara Price, all of Vernal. in the district, Uintah was higher than the state average in every grade first through sixth. In the sixth grade, their math scores were 13 percent higher than the state. In secondary education district wide, core secondary math competed compet-ed well with the rest of the state. The scores in Intermediate Algebra were 15 percent higher than the rest of the state while trigonometry scored 9 percent lower than the state. For core secondary science in the district the scores were above or near state average. Biological Earth Science scored 35 percent higher than the state while the Chemistry scores were 11 percent lower than the state. So far the state is only testing in these areas of the core requirements but Superintendent Drollinger said the state is getting other core tests. |