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Show XCK III' IMUWl.W I -XO'-t ' ',' S 'iV 1.1 r All IMU-'.iS A'-ilUJCtAl'IDM 467 t 300 ii WEDNESDAY, Aug. 14 , 1991 Vernal. Utah 84078 99th Year No, 33 22 Pages Single Copy 50 Inside Vemal teens compete Internationally ....page 7 Rare flower makes appearance page 9 Babies, babies, babies page 15 County Fair ends in destruction page 18 Taxes The acquisition of American Gilsonite became official this month as Stratford Enterprises acquired ac-quired all the shares from the Chevron Corporation. Chevron Resources has been at least a 50 percent owner of the gilsonite operation in Bonanza, southeastern Uintah County, since 1946. Terms of the sale to Stratford Enterprises were not disclosed. Earlier this spring, Stratford acquired ac-quired the DeRidder Chemical Corporation, an Alabama-based processor of wood rosin and gilsonite resin production. American Gilsonite will retain its name under the new company and Stratford Enterprises Company will change its name to American Gilsonite, said Clark Christensen, operations manager. American Gilsonite is the world's largest supplier sup-plier of gilsonite resin. It mines, processes and markets about 30,000 tons per year of the glossy, solid hydrocarbon resin that looks similar to coal or hard asphalt About two-thirds two-thirds of the gilsonite is sold on the international market The largest purchaser is in Germany, Christensen said. Gilsonite is used in more than 160 products including printing inks, foundry sands, road-paving asphalts, as-phalts, oil well drilling fluids and cements, and building products. Finding new "value added" products prod-ucts for gilsonite will be the goal of the company, Christensen said. Two new products are now being introduced intro-duced by the company. American Gilsonite's headquarters headquar-ters will remain in Salt Lake City, where the company's marketing, administrative and research and development de-velopment facilities are located. Jhexompany controls 85 percent of the world's known commercial reserves re-serves of gilsonite. ' Christensen came to Vernal in 1976 when he was hired at American Gilsonite as a plant helper. He worked up to plant supervisor. su-pervisor. He later transferred to the Salt Lake City office in the marketing market-ing department He was instrumental instrumen-tal in the development of Bore-Plate Bore-Plate a product made from gilsonite used in oil and gas wells; " Currently American Gilsonite employs 58, 48 from the Uintah Basin. Under the new company, employees were offered similar benefits to what was offered by Chevron, Christensen said. The workforce at American Gilsonite was reduced by 16 before the sale of the company. Christensen said the new company compa-ny "doesn't not have deep pockets like Chevron, but we will support the community and ask that the community supports us." Board cuts projects to keep taxes down The Uintah County School Board trimmed a proposed tax increase at a public hearing where patrons expressed ex-pressed opposition to any tax increase. in-crease. The Board had advertised a 4 percent per-cent increase in its budget for capital capi-tal improvements. The board eliminated elimi-nated several programs in order to reduce the tax increase. A major program that was eliminated elimi-nated was $20,000 for the Community Youth Orchestra program pro-gram during school time. Now it will be after school and part of Community Schools Program. Also cut was $100,000 reserve for the construction of the Ashley Valley High School. . ' "What it comes down to is the dollar sign and each tax notice I get shows an increase in school funds. I think we should hold back," said Meril Snow in opposition to the 4 percent tax increase. "I made a very conservative request re-quest as a principal in capital outlay items," said Frank Andreason, principal prin-cipal of Ashley Elementary. "What does this mean to the school." Board member Dennis Judd said that their first concern was for the children and their education. Judd also expressed concerns over equal J -it v j it b I f : . ,v ;.; n : v 1 1 rT.' NEW OWNER of American Gilsonite is benefited Christensen, . 15 years, operation manager, and by the years of experience of Neldon Kunz, 21 Mike Haslem, 12 years, maintenance and opera-years, opera-years, mining and engineering supervisor; Clark tion supervisor. Christensen spoke at the noon meeting Tuesday of the Vernal Chamber of Commerce. ' He said that expansion is projected project-ed at the plant as a resin extraction facility is moved to Bonanza. American Gilsonite's Paris office, under the direction of Joseph Baldassare, manager of exporting sales, will remain open to service ization at the schools. "We need to look at the students needs," said Wayne Gurney, district staff. "I'm whole heartily against taxes. We need to make a difference in needs and wants," said Merrill Mecham, former Uintah County Commissioner. The proposed tax levy of .007204 would generate $340,000 in monies used on different projects throughout through-out the district at each of the schools. After the state assessment, the certified rate levy would be .007021 that would bring in no more revenue than last year's budget, bud-get, explained Richard Tolley. Board members began looking at the different projects in the capital outlay and recreation budgets and decided which ones were necessary and which ones were not. Superintendent Grant Drollinger said that if you began cutting too many projects then it might cost more in the long run. After more discussion and cutting back, board member Gene Anfinson moved to accept the certified rate levy and board member Tony Wright seconded the motion. The board voted 3 to 1 to accept the ccr-; ccr-; tificd rate. Judd opposed the motion. its large export business. American Gilsonite will be headed by Robert A. Franden of Tulsa, Okla. its new chairman and chief executive office. of-fice. Its new president is Loren Campbell of Mobile, Ala. who is also . president of DeRidder Chemical Company. Under Campbell's direction, the DeRidder Chemical Company has recently introduced in-troduced new gilsonite-based products, prod-ucts, both in wood products and annaD project seeEts ft m&he oft safe Vernal City ' and Uintah County are jointly pursuing a" project to improve the Kids Canal. The Central Canal along 1500 West from 500 North to Main Street has been designated by the Division of Wildlife Resources as an area where young fishermen can test their skills. Because of the popularity of Kids Canal for both fishing and swimming, there has been an increase in the concern for the safety of those who use the canal. A project proposed by a subcommittee subcom-mittee of the Conservation Issues Committee of the Vernal Chamber of Commerce would create a park along the canal. Both the Vemal City Council and the Uintah County Commission have approved the proposal. "Safety is the primary concern," said Robert Hugie, Uintah County , planner. The county has applied to the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation for a $50,000 grant to build the park. The first nhase will not include a parking area on the south end nor will it include a pavilion. Hugie said property owners along the canal have agreed to donate 33 feet of frontage along the canal. The park will consist of two to three foot bridges, walking trails printing ink industries. Chevron's sale of American Gilsonite "is part of an on-going program to sell assets that are not part of Chevron's long-term business busi-ness activities," said Bob Daniel, president of Chevron Resources, San Ramon, Calif. Chevron Resources had management responsibility respon-sibility for American Gilsonite within Chevron Corporation. and a bike trail. The bike trail will be asphalt and will be four to six feet wide. Most of the trails will be on the east side of the canal except for areas in front of homes. The ' v,'ufj' "f'L.yr- if i t.. f s.7 XL. r MASON HOOPER cools off at swimming hole. The canal Is a for swimming and fishing In the 'it, " $17 mMim emit About 6,000 county residents will be receiving new tax notices and in most cases assessments will be lowered. Uintah County Assessor Lorin "Pudge" Merkley said a computer error occurred with the original notices. The problem was the result re-sult of the computer program not giving a 17 percent lower appraised ap-praised value to property in and around Vernal City. This year most of Ashley Valley was reappraised reap-praised 17 percent lower, but the lower value was not to be given to those who have had their property value lowered by going through a Board of Equalization. "Instead the computer skipped over any property that has had any change," Merkley said. The new notices, which should be mailed before the end of the week, will include the 17 percent lower assessment as-sessment Property owners will still have 30 days to appeal the assessment. The amount of taxes attached to a property is determined by the county's appraised value of the property. With a 17 percent discount, dis-count, most people receiving the new tax notice will see a reduction. reduc-tion. The computer error will lower low-er the county's assessed valuation by $17 million, which will mean UDOT backs off from promised projects The replacement of the Jensen Bridge has again been moved back on the Utah Department of Transportation's project list Originally UDOT had funded the project for 1990-91, then sent it back seven years. They again promised, after a local meeting, to construct it in 1991-92, but it has been pushed back again, said Lawrence Kay, director of the Vernal Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee. Members of the committee met with the Uintah ' County Commission Tuesday to request a letter of support for local road projects. pro-jects. Commissioner Max Adams said he spoke with the Transportation Board Chairman Sam Taylor after the Utah Legislature approved a $20 million bond for improvements. "I was assured as-sured the Jensen Bridge was includ width of the project will vary from 55 feet to 66 feet. Hugie said the first phase of the project will cost roughly $110,000. $60,000 of the project will be in kind donations of -'rf" . ' the Kids Canal . County and Vernal City want to improve the area popular location to make It safer for kids by creating a park from summer. Uintah 500 North to Main Street. taxing rates will increase to insure that entities received the same amount of revenue as last year. The only taxing entity with an increase over last year, is the Uintah School District. Its proposed pro-posed 4 percent increase has been lowered after, last week's public hearing. (See related story on this page.) Contributing to this year's increases in-creases in taxes is a shift in the amount of property that is taxable. Last year only 60 percent of the appraised value of residential property was taxed. This year, because be-cause of H.B. 397, AMAX decision, deci-sion, residential property will be taxed at 66.7 percent of appraised value. Taxes on local businesses will increase 15 percent because of the AMAX decision. Assessor Merkley urges property proper-ty owners to hold onto their old tax notices until they receive the new notices. Taxpayers can appeal the appraised value of their property prop-erty at a Board of Equalization hearing. The dates of Board of Equalization will be on the new tax notices. "Discard the old notices once you received the new ones," Merkley said. ed in the $20 million," Adams said. Kay said UDOT has come through with two of his committee's commit-tee's requests: a cross walk in front of the Field House and repairs to the S.R. 191 atSteinaker. Of primary concern to the committee, com-mittee, Kay said, is the widening of west Highway 40 near Western Living. The outside lane of traffic abruptly ends, requiring drivers who are unaware to squeeze into the inside lane. Also on the "to do" list of the Chamber committee is repair of S.R. 191 near Antelope Flat, repair of Highway 40 from the Colorado state line to Cocklebur and the Blue Mountain road. County Commissioners said they could support all the projects except ex-cept the Blue Mountain road. Continued on page 2 labor or equipment. Once the park is complete, it will be maintained by the existing CityCity Parks and Recreation Board. |