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Show C: .1.?A;iVV UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION 307 u 200 ; tfrjoof. SIX, IJT ft4l.0l. Choppers over head page 101 r. Lost plane, $25,000 reward .page 8r.: . , Tr-"7 1 Baby winners page 15; J Vf Big hit at Jamboree page 17 ) Archery season to open page 18 1 - ( ' Hole-in-one page 21 1 " Serving one of the Top 50 Best Small Towns in America" 1' i '. BLM wirteirs smiairedl iini marijojiainia tasft II T7"V V. , r , 4 Flwff - . - '.f ' iMkwt,-; "ra VERNAL POLICE officer Steve Hatzidakis measures 13-foot marijuana mar-ijuana plants taken last week during the arrest of three local residents. resi-dents. Most of the confiscated plants were taken to the Uintah County Landfill where they were destroyed. Shale project dashed company moves on Northlake Industries Inc., the area only, before any underground company that proposed to reopen mining can be done a full develop- the White River Oil Shale facility in ment plan must be approved," Little 1991 with a $100 million budget said. has not renewed its permit for the facility. Instead the BLM is in negotiations with another company for a five-year, five-year, surface lease of the facility, about 70 miles southeast of Vernal. 'Tar Sands Technology which has Tars Sands Facility on Asphalt Ridge has shown an interest in the White River site," said David Little, Vernal District BLM director. "The permit will be for the surface Beer fruck spills Naples City officers responded to a call in the early morning hours, last Wednesday to a report of a over-turned semi truck and trailer in front of C & H Distributing on 500 South in Naples. According to Police Chief, Steven C. Guibord, the driver, Fred Anders, 47, of Las Vegas, Nev. was attempting attempt-ing to straighten out a semi-truck owned by D & D Transportation of Idaho Falls, Idaho, after pulling into the C & H yard. As he backed out, the rear wheels hit the soft shoulder and slipped into an irrigation ditch on the northwest side of the property. proper-ty. As the truck began falling, the 50,000 pound load of Budweiser beer shifted in the trailer and sent the tractor and trailer over on its side. ' The estimated wholesale value the load was $13,000. The tractor, trailer and load damage has been es timated at $125,000. According to Utah state laws, the load of beer was completely destroyed de-stroyed by the Division of Alcohol and Beverage Control. There were no charges filed against the driver. He was transported by Gold Cross Ambulance to Ashley Valley Medical Center. There he was treated treat-ed for neck and back pain and later released. Little said he believed Northlake had moved its base of operations to Colorado. H.T. Shepherd, president of Northlake, could not be contacted by press time to confirm the move. Little said the BLM is leaning toward to-ward a five-year lease of the facility. In 1991 Northlake paid the BLM $125,000 for continued mine site maintenance. The BLM issued Northlake a permit to access the mine service building and surface oil shale stockpiles. TRUCK DRIVER escaped serious injury after his load of beer toppled when he backed onto 500 South last week. Lost In the accident were by Steven Wallis Express Editor ' The charges against three Uintah County residents arrested in the largest marijuana cultivation bust in Utah's history will go to a Grand Jury today. . If the Grand Jury places the cases in federal court, those arrested will face stiff er prison sentences. Two large marijuana crops valued at over $3 million were seized and three residents arrested Wednesday last week, the result of the combined com-bined efforts of the Uintah Basin Narcotics Task Force, local, state and federal agencies. Arrested at the former White River Oil Shale site, 70 miles southeast south-east of Vernal, were Ken Hutchings and his wife, Shirley Hutchings, both 44 years of age. They surrendered surren-dered without incident near the administration ad-ministration building for the mine site where they lived in a trailer. Also arrested at the same time in a separate case was Eric Cleaver Hemess, 54. All were charged with possession of a controlled substance, sub-stance, 2nd degree felony; manufacturing manufac-turing or cultivation of marijuana, 3rd degree felony; and a dealer in possession of marijuana without a tax stamp, 3rd degree felony. State charges will be dropped if the case goes to federal court said Marty Phillip, BLM law enforcement enforce-ment officer. Federal courts have a minimum mandatory prison sentence sen-tence of 10 years for over 1,000 plants and an additional five years if loaded firearms are involved. Because the two arrests were on federal land and because two of the three arrested were BLM employees, employ-ees, it should be tried in federal court, Phillips said. Wednesday, law enforcement officers offi-cers uprooted 2,843 plants at a cultivation cul-tivation site near a wash about half a mile southeast of the White River administration building. Also discovered dis-covered at the site were three bags of harvested marijuana. The Hutchings were part-time employees for the Bureau of Land Management, working the past seven sev-en years as caretakers at the White ostiGicti The Uintah Special Service District approved a letter Friday to the Grand County Council attorney requesting an immediate meeting to void pending legal action. "We loath the thought of suing another county but we believe there was a breach of contract which, needs to be addressed," said $15,000 River Shale project. As caretakers they had exclusive access to 10,600 acres of BLM property inside the locked entrance to the White River Project. 'This is a devastating occasion for the Vernal District," said David E. Little, Vernal District Manager. "They were not the type of employees employ-ees you would expect to do this." The marijuana plants where in 60 to 70 planters, four feet by six feet, built at the base of juniper trees. An extensive irrigation system had been built to pump water to the planters through one-inch plastic pipe. Water was pumped from a water tank in the back of a truck via a connection to the water system along side a road to the facility's landfill. The water was pumped about 75 yards to the planters. Each planter had up to 100 plants that were not visible from the dirt road to the landfill. Members of the Uintah Basin Narcotic Strike Force were shown the site by a confidential informant The arrests was made after two days of on-the-ground surveillance. Members of the National Guard in Vernal inspected the site after the arrests and found no booby traps. Two military helicopters also flew over the site for two hours Wednesday and found no other cultivation cul-tivation sites. A large sum of money, mon-ey, vehicles and a trailer were confiscated con-fiscated by law enforcement officers. offi-cers. Thursday afternoon the Hutchings posted $25,000 bail and were released re-leased from the Uintah County Jail. They were allowed to return to the White River site to obtain personal possessions. The state of Utah and the IRS have placed a freeze on the Hutchings assets. In the early 1980s a consortium of oil companies invested nearly $180 million in the facility at the remote White River Oil site in hopes of developing de-veloping 10,600 acres of federal lease which was rich in oil shale. The facility was turned back over to the BLM in October of 1986 along with about $1 million to maintain the facility for reclama- wanDfts mmeettuuDGjj Commissioner Max Adams. If the new Grand County Council ignores the request, as they have done others, a notice of claim will be filed requesting Grand County pay the entire cost of the Seep Ridge Road EIS. Over two years ago the two counties signed a Memorandum of Operation splitting load 50,000 pounds or $13,000 worth of Budweiser beer. The accident occurred in Naples City near C&H Distributing. Iff s&4 i Photo by Steven R. wallis SHERIFF LLOYD Meacham inspects chicken wire planter where marijuana plants were uprooted by law enforcement officers during dur-ing a raid last week. The plants were grown next to Juniper trees at the White River Oil Shale site. tion. The BLM has maintained the facility in hopes that some land would lease, but despite several interested in-terested parties, no one has picked up the lease. The Hutchings were employees of White River and were hired by the BLM because of their expertise in mining operations. In a separate incident, a person identified as Eric Cleaver Herness, the cost of an Environmental Impact Statement for the construction of a highway from Ouray to Cisco, 92 miles. The new Grand County Council withdraw from the project and dropped a joint application for ak right-of-way with the BLM for the road. If the right-of-way would remain re-main in place, the BLM would complete com-plete the EIS, said Commissioner Adams. ' Grand County dropping its right-of-way request wastes the $300,000 Tornado touches down destroying timber, vehicle A tornado touched down three times in the High Uintas Wednesday last week uprooting trees, blocking an access road and stranding campers for a day and a half. "It was an impressive event," said Russell Anderson, Vernal, who was camped at Chepeta Lake when the tomado touched down. "It makes one appreciate the forces of nature." Anderson said when the storm hit at about 6:30 p.m., he ran for shelter but not before he saw a funnel cloud touch down. One-inch hailstones accompanied ac-companied the storm and accumulated accumu-lated about two inches high on the ground. "Before the storm there was a beautiful display of clouds, but then a dark layer moved in," Anderson said. The tornado touched down about 5 miles south of Chepeta Lake leveling lev-eling the majority of the trees in a 54 years of age, was arrested without with-out incident in the Moonshine Bench area about four miles south of Ouray. Mr. Herness has been under un-der surveillance by law enforcement enforce-ment personnel for illegal growing of marijuana. "It is just coincidence the two arrests were at the same time," said Sheriff Lloyd Meacham, See Marajuana page 2 oir else Uintah County has invested in the study. During the entire dismantle of the project in Grand Council, "they have never consulted with us," said Commissioner Adams. Members of the Special Service District believe that maintaining the right-of-way request will not cost either district any more money, but would complete a two and a half year study that would allow a road to be build when it is economically feasible. 400-acre area. It also toppled fur and spruce trees in the Yellowstone and Uintah Canyon areas, totaling about 1,000 acres. About 300 trees were blown over the access road to Chepeta Lake and stranded 127 campers from Vernal, Roosevelt, Provo and Woods Cross until 2 p.m. Thursday. Fran Reynolds, spokesperson for the Ashley National Forest, said there were no injuries to individuals, individu-als, but a parked truck was totaled when a tree fell on it. "There will probably be a salvage sale to take care of the downed timber," she said. "High altitude tornados are extremely ex-tremely rare," said Alex Smith, National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. "The last such event was recorded in 1950." Tornados typically typi-cally reach wind speeds of 200 to 300 mph and leave circular destruction destruc-tion patterns. 1 |