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Show '5, 1997 Check Inside 'f"'LiW ,;sV- Coyote teaches page 14 96 wells proposed page 2 Students connect ....page 3 Utah taxes to inflate page 7 Elk success page 15 Deer hunt forecast page 19 hts 'veil as farm ma- Express online: ww e to participate er of Commerce .will have sug- Vernal, Utah 84078 105th Year No. Single Copy 504: J WEDNESDAY, October 15, 1997 Scout Ryan Jaussi and Luke Merrell and writings. Scouts hang off cliff to rewrite history Next year the "Remember the Maine" site in Dry Fork Canyon will be 100 years old. Because of its historical value and probably because the cliff can be seen from his home, Luke Merrell has undertaken the task of repainting repaint-ing the "Remember the Maine" and flag, while dangling half way down the 360-foot sheer cliff. The original painting was done in 1898 shortly after "The Maine" one of America's largest battleships at the time was blown up by the enemy while it was anchored off the coast of Havana, Cuba. The incident inci-dent started the Spanish-American War. Many Americans were killed in the explosion. Vernal temple opens doors to public inspection by Kathleen Irving Staff Writer The Vernal Utah Temple, the 51st operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opened its doors to the public Saturday, following two days of VIP and media tours. Over 2 LOCK) people had reserved tickets for the day and 15.530 thronged the temple block from 7 a.m. until late Saturday evening. Crowds thinned Monday, about 6.000, ' and Tuesday as children went back to school, but the number of visitors is expected to remain high throughout the two-week open house. More than 125.000 tickets have already been reserved and ticket requests are still being received at the Vernal Temple Ticket Center. All tickets are free of charge. Elder Ben B. Banks of the Church's First Quorum of the Seventy and Utah South Area . -.. it vbvH Orem visitors to the Vernal Temple Tuesday are Craig and Sydney Butler and their cousins, Genne, Casse and Kirsien Richards. hang over Dry Fork cliff to repaint William Gibson, an early settler in Ashley Valley and State Representative, paid L.O. Voight, a sailor, $50 to paint the sign on the cliff. Many of the same problems Voight encountered in painting the cliff, the modern-day painters encountered as they began the project pro-ject last Thursday. Because the cliff slants inward, the Scouts anchored a rope on either side of the painting to pull them into the cliff face. "I ' think because the location slants in, it is protected a little from the weather," said Randy Merrell, Scout leader and part of the ground crew on the project. President, conducted the VIP tours last Thursday and Friday. He discussed dis-cussed the role temples play in the lives of Latter-day Saints while visitors vis-itors viewed the antique replica furnishings, fur-nishings, paintings, art glass and decorative painting that adorn this temple, the 10th in Utah. Temple furnishings reflect styles common in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some pieces have been replicated from furniture originally found in the Salt Lake Temple or Brigham Young homes. Delicate and colorful art glass is used in several sev-eral rooms and a number of beautiful beauti-ful oil paintings, some by Uintah Basin artists Valoy Eaton. David Ahrnsbrak and A.D. Shaw, hang on the walls. The temple includes a Celestial room, chapel, two ordinance rooms, three marriage sealing rooms, a nursery, a baptistry, a bride's room, administrative offices and a laundry. I the Remember the Maine flag Voight took a full day to write "Remember" and later weakened to the point that he never finished painting a picture of the battleship. The Scouts also found that a planned three-day project will be ionger to complete than anticipated. Weather stalled the project on Saturday. The original painting of the cliff nearly ended in disaster. "When Mr. Voight was raised about 100 feet from the ledge, a twist in the rope caused him to whirl around very rapidly. It looked as if he was turning fast enough to throw his boots off, the children yelled, the women screamed and some shed tear of sympathy, for, as At a press conference held Thursday morning, temple architect Roger Jackson, of the Salt Lake firm FFKR, said his biggest challenge chal-lenge in designing the building was to make everything necessary fit into the existing space afforded by the old Uintah Tabernacle. "There was a lot of give and take with the Church's Temple Department," he said. "They were good to work with us." Jackson said that only (he walls, the roof trusses and some of the tabernacle furnishings, including a number of pews, were left for use in the temple. "We kept the outside and built a temple inside," he said. Elder Banks outlined the history of Latter-day Saint settlement in Ashley Valley, the construction of the Uintah Tabernacle from 1900 until 1907 when it was dedicated and said it was largely abandoned in the early 1980s because it had become structurally unsafe and did not meet health and safety codes. The building remained in limbo until the Church's First Presidency made a decision to renovate it into a temple in early 1994. "This has been such a historical building with a great deal of sentimentality senti-mentality attached to it." Banks said. It is wonderful lo now see the temple built within the walls of the old building, he said. The temple groundbreaking ceremony cere-mony occurred in May 1995 and ' construction of the building was completed last month at an approximate approxi-mate cost of $7 million. Gayle MiKcachnie. vice chairman chair-man of the local temple committee, said there has been only positive feedback on locating an LDS temple tem-ple in Vernal, "We feel this temple will he an influence for good throughout the community." he said, Church President Gordon B, Hinckley announced a plan to build a scries of small temple in locations loca-tions worldwide during the Church's semi annual conference Oct. 4. However, while the Vernal Temple, at about 33.000 square feet, is much smaller than other S Ttmplt on pagt 9 Counties Supreme Uintah and Duchesne County commissioners have agreed to pay $25,000 in legal feesto have the U.S. Supreme County review an appeals court decision that confirmed con-firmed the original boundaries of the Uintah Valley Reservation. The request, filed just days before deadlines, was agreed to after negotiations nego-tiations with the Tribe broke down. The Tribal Business Committee made several offers to commissioners commission-ers from both counties and counter offers were proposed, but an agreement agree-ment was not reached. In the several hundred-page "writ of certiorari" the Uintah and Duchesne county commissioners claim that a 10th Circuit Court of appeals interpretation of a Supreme Court decision "misconstrued" the they supposed, a doomed man, but the twist was soon out of the rope the brave German was hoisted to the point selected for a start," states the June 9, 1898 Vernal Express. Forty-four years later Earl Goodrich looked at the painting on the cliff and noted that it had faded. Hyrum Slaugh and the second quorum quo-rum of Elders came to help Goodrich repaint the site. Slaugh said they built a 2-foot by 10-foot platform and lowered it over the edge, but it hung 19 feet away from the cliff face. They used ropes to pull the platform into the cliff. It took three days to paint. "Even though I was used to See Maine on page 5 0 Visilor enil the Vernal Tetip'e Utah. r w go to Court 1993 decision by leaving the Uintah Valley reservation boundaries intact with only homestead lands removed. The county's petition to the Supreme Court claims that the Supreme Court decision removed the original boundaries and reduced the reservation to just over a million acres of trust lands. Uintah County Commissioners have contended that they have no choice but to file the petition, because if they didn't they would lose an essential bargaining hold. Any meeting of the minds between the Tribe and counties fell off last September when a federal judge agreed to lift a 5-year-old injunction that prevented Roosevelt City from exercising civil and criminal crim-inal authority over all tribal members. mem-bers. Since the city is homestead land, it is off the reservation, contends con-tends the 10th Circuit Court ruling. If agreement between the Tribe and counties is reached, commis Free day offered at county landfills A free day at the Uintah County and Lapoint landfills has been designed by the Uintah County Commissioners on Saturday, Nov. 1 , for yard and garden waste. All other refuge and mixed loads will be charged the regular fees. Hours for the free day are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Uintah County "1 4 ii during pai of their lout ot the LDS ' , . .4- j ; -? t - . : iow being ac-"ffice. ac-"ffice. There itry form ible at sioners have stated they would drop the petition. The appeal has cost the counties about $25,000. The counties coun-ties split the costs. South Dakota Attorney Tom Tobin prepared the coin! documents. docu-ments. Tobin has been invohed in the dispute for the past 1 5 sens. Meanwhile, the Tribe continues to boycott Roosevelt businesses, claiming that the' city's o! ,als have not made a whole-hearted effort to resohe the dispute without going to co'irt. In a "letter to the world" published pub-lished in the Ute Bulletin and Uintah Basin Standard. Roo-.eelt Officials stale "the Rooseelt officials alne the friendship of the Ute Indian people." They also claim they have attempted to negotiate with the Tribe. In the recent Ute Bulletin the Tribe received "woild support" of its boycott in the lour, of letters to the editor. Landfill and 8 a.m. to 4 pan at the Lapoint Landfill. The winter hours for the landfill will be 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through .Saturday. The landfill will be closed Sundays and holidays. Winter hours at the Lapoint Landfill are Mmidav. Wednesday and Satiiila bom X a.m. to 3:30 p.m. i Church 51st temple, the 10lh in 5"-" f I v 1 y COPY |