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Show Opinion and Commentary 2 Vernal Express Wednesday, July 7, 1999 DID THIS MAN HAVE A GOOD TIME JACK-STRAWS by JackWallis ONTHc rOUKTM Ot- QUIT J3 -s ' i a mr Driver license training Utah's Graduated Driver Licensing law went into effect July 1 . The new law provides for an additional 30 hours of driving practice with a parent or licensed adult over 2 1 and a nighttime driving restriction for teenage drivers. Because motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death and injury to teenagers, AAA Utah urges parents to make the most of each practice session ses-sion so their teenagers develop good driving habits. Graduated driver's licensing provides the best way to save the lives of young drivers, according to AAA. Through the coordinated effort of AAA Clubs across the country, 34 states now have some form of Graduated Driver's Licensing. These laws were enacted enact-ed because new drivers are overly represented in crashes. In Utah, teenagers make up seven percent of drivers but account for 14 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes. Driving is a complex and demanding task for the best of drivers. A safe driver must control a vehicle, comply with traffic laws, monitor traffic conditions, observe behavior of other drivers, watch for children, pedestrians, animals and cyclists. These are just the routine requirements. Increased speed, heavy traffic, road construction, emergencies and bad weather place greater demands on drivers. Parents are encouraged to think of all the driving skills they use and incorporate them into the practice sessions with their teenage sons and daughters. Driving skills to include in practice sessions should include, according to AAA officials: Developing basic vehicle control moving, turning turn-ing and stopping. Entering and leaving traffic. Developing scanning skills. Identifying traffic control devices and markings. Parking on an upgradedowngrade, parallel, angle, 90 degree. Backing and turning about Changing lanes. Assessing highway conditions limited visibility, reduced space, traction. Monitoring pedestrians, animals, cyclists. Positioning and timing at intersections. Positioning and timing when following and meeting meet-ing other vehicles. Driving on a freeway. Driving at night. Passing on a two-lane road. Off-road recovery maneuvers. Practice and good skills are needed to become safe, competent drivers. Parents can help their teens become safer drivers by helping them develop skills, competence and good driving habits during the supervised super-vised practice sessions. To enhance the benefits of the new law, AAA developed devel-oped the program, "Teaching Your Teens to Drive," to assist parents teach their teenagers the many elements needed to be a safe driver. AAA Utah sent driving kits to the libraries of every high school in Utah to enable parents to view the video and study the handbook. The teaching program is available for purchase by calling 1-8OO-9O0-8458. PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions as to contents, con-tents, if not libelous or vindictive and of reasonable length (two typewritten double spaced pages). Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Express and bear the writer's full name, signature, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed, faxed at 789-8690 or through e-mail at editorvemal.com. The name or names of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily the opinion of the Express Editor. County roads Dear Editor, I am writing partly in response to the article in the June 30, 1999 Express titled "County claims to build roads for less" and partly due to local road work done. Around August of 1998, a stretch of 500 West between 1500 South and 2500 South was rebuilt. Those of us that use the road regularly were happy to have a nice new road. However, mere were two problems with the road. First, when they redid the road, it was finished with no shoulder, and approximately an eight inch straight drop-off of the asphalt. This is extremely hazardous as a vehicle's tires may drop off the asphalt for whatever reason and it would be almost impossible to get back onto the road. This has been proven by at least three or four vehicles being pulled to the bottom of the bar ditch. Granted, a person shouldn't be driving on the shoulder, but none of us are perfect drivers. Second, this spring the road rapidly disintegrated. The disintegration was quite severe, requiring vehicles to almost come to a complete stop before trying to negotiate negoti-ate the torn up asphalt and numerous potholes (the size of our Taurus). All of the new asphalt had fallen apart clear down to the base material. We, as citizens living near the damage, were very excited when the county showed up a few weeks ago to repair the new road. They swept aside the old crumbled asphalt and laid down new asphalt. Here is the kicker. That new asphalt (less than a month old) is starting to sluff off. The road is now heavily rutted, and tends to be dangerous if you are not prepared for it. The ruts are so bad that an unsuspecting driver could easily be pulled off the road - and most likely in an area with no shoulder. I don't care if the county thinks they are saving money compared to other counties. Most of the other counties I have been in andor lived in have much better mm VERNAL Exp, (ISSN 0892-1091) Published every Wednesday for $1 9.00 per year in shopping area and $30 per year out of shopping area within state and $33 per year out of state within USA by the Vernal Express Publishing Company, 54 North Vernal Avenue, Vernal, Utah 84078. Periodicals postage paid at Vernal, Utah 84078. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VERNAL EXPRESS, P.O. Box 1000, Vernal Utah 84078. Jack R. Wallis Publisher Steven R. Wallis Editor and co-publisher Carol Jewart Lifestyle Writer View Feldt Public Notices Tara Maytett .Advertising Marie Yoder Advertising Jody Smuin Circulation & Classified Ads Phone: 435-789-3511 FAX: 435-789-8690 Website: www.vemal.com e-mail: editorOvernal.com Deadlines New" Monday 12 noon Display Advertising Monday 5 p.m. Classified Advertising Monday 5 p.m. Public Notices Monday 3 p.m. i III 1 i jC$ HE BURNED DOWN HIS SHED AND GOT TWO CITATIONS. ONE FROM THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND ONE FOR SHOOTING OFF ILLEGAL FIREWORKS I f?Ot roads than we do. I would challenge the Road Department's claims and suggest an external audit be done taking into account the quality of the work they are doing. When we consider that roads are having to be redone on a much more rapid basis, as the county really saving us (the taxpayers) money by bidding out or trying to do the work themselves? TAD WRIGHT Vernal Wilderness assessment Dear Editor, It's true that many of us miss our calling in life, that is; we wind up working in an occupation that does not require us to make use of all of our talents. Every year on national TV we see the Academy Awards go to actors and actresses for being the best in their field. They are not even close to being the best. The greatest actors and actresses in the world are in the White House, the Vernal BLM office, and the Wilderness Coalition. They can make the most outrageous statements state-ments you ever heard and never crack a smile. For example: BLM: "Roads and well locations are going to fragment frag-ment the hell out of the deer herd." (It all depends on what is.is.) BLM: "Those roads you have been traveling on out in the Book cliffs for the past 50 years aren't roads." (Yea, but I didn't inhale.) And our friends, the wilderness wackos: "If we could have just a half-mile corridor on each side of the White River all to ourselves, we would be satisfied...Uhhh, well, would it be possible that we could also climb up on Goblin City and gaze out there for a few seconds and pretend that we are Father Escalante without having hav-ing to look at anybody or anything other than what belongs to God?" Victim: "Ever notice that when you climb up there on Goblin City that the Bonanza Power plant is staring you in the face and belching steam?" Wacko: "What power plant?" "What steam?' (Some guy handed me a thousand bucks, and shazam! I turned it into a cool hundred thousand by playing the cattle futures market for a couple of weeks.) BLM: "Yea Mr. Oil Company, I know you have a lot of money invested in your leases, I know that people are depending on you for their livelihood; we just have to do this little ol 'EA, it won't take long, we're going to fast track it right through here." (I did not have sex with that woman; Ms. Lewinski.) Two years and a couple hundred thousand dollars later Victim: "You know these numbers in this EA are a lit tle different than what was submitted, especially the economic impact ones submitted by Uintah County." BLM: "Yea, well, we keep coming up with better figures fig-ures all the time, but it really doesn't matter anyway, because we are going to trash the EA and fast-track an EIS for you in its place." (Translation: Expect a blind-side blind-side no-look pass to the back of your head because it's beginning to look like Gore might not be elected so we really are going to fast-track an EIS so as to be done while Slick & Gore are still in control.) As you can see from the above examples, we have some genuine world class talent right here locally and .we really should appreciate them for what they are. Maybe part of the problem is that most, if not all, of these people have came here from parts unknown, just sort of started crawling out of the woodwork one day, and before you know it they are making lots of noise and getting lots of attention. Having lived here all my life I am at a disadvantage. Perhaps in other parts of the country it's okay to lie, mislead, and stab in the back. I think, however, that I have finally learned something from these people. Never believe, negotiate, trust, listen to, or cave in to them. They are well organized and well funded. They are relentless. They are noisy. They will never be satisfied. If we give up and let them have Uintah County for a wilderness area, then they would want Duchesne County, too. To them, compromise means: "Give in to our demands." We should not give up anything else. We've been duped. Take for example the White River Wilderness proposal. propos-al. They had their half-mile corridor, so they could float the river without having to look at us. As soon as they got that, then they wanted more. Three or four more proposals have been made, each one a more ambitious land-grab than the previous one. They now want to illegally ille-gally close the existing roads down Atchee Wash and Saddletree Canyon, which Uintah County bravely provided pro-vided maintenance on anyway. As soon as the hierarchy of the Uinta Mountain Club discovered that these roads had been bladed, which is what the majority of the citizens citi-zens of Uintah County wanted anyway, they were in the commissioner's face, squalling like a pig under the gate. How do I know what the majority of Uintah County citizens want? Who wants as much of our public land locked up Young thoughts Bicycle safety - under wilderness designation as possible? Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Who did the majority of Uintah County citizens vote for? Whoever was running against Clinton-Gore. The BLM appointees are sitting in their offices making mak-ing public policy regarding our public lands. Their director is not elected but appointed..Appointed by whom (yeah but I didn't inhale I didn't have relations with that woman etc etc) Clinton, AI (the automobile is destroying the planet I invented the Internet midnight basketball for every one's kids but mine etc etc) Gore, or Bruce (Grand staircase land grab I didn't mess the indians more wilderness more wilderness more more) Babbit. Anybody you trust? Anybody you believe? I reject the premise that just because we are long time residents here that we do not care about the environment environ-ment or for wilderness. I love the High Uintas Wilderness Area. Throughout my life I have gone there every summer to fish and relax. I'm glad it is a wilderness wilder-ness area. It should be a wilderness area. It's beautiful up there. When I was younger I hiked many miles in the High Uintas, both on trails and cross country. Now I ride my horse, but unlike some people I hear of, I must admit I do not diaper my horse. (We longtime residents of the Basin potty train our horses.) My horse loves the High Uintas, too, and his feelings have been severely hurt by those wilderness wackos who try to prohibit him from going there. As a result, my horse has a strong dislike for wilderness wackos, therefore whenever whenev-er he has to answer the call of nature, he looks for a wilderness wacko to target in on. I have explained to him that he is being rude and inconsiderate, but he responds that he is just following their lead. As long as I am reasonably sane, I am not going to walk around or ride my horse around out in the Book Cliffs in the proposed wilderness areas to star gaze. The wilderness wackos know that. That's what this wilderness wilder-ness fuss is all about. It is merely an attempt to make the area accessible to fewer people. It's called non-multiple use and anti-multiple use. If the area had never been accessible by road, or if there weren't oil and gas leases and gilsonite claims and lease, and even wells, in some instances.. then, perhaps maybe I could go along See Wild on page 3 a must By Aaron Sharp I am writing this article about bike safety. Bikes are a great way for kids to have fun. But using them wrong can be very dangerous. Very recently I lost a friend in a biking accident. He was riding his bike to school when he was hit by a car. I believe his chances would have been greatly increased if he had been wearing his helmet. In fact, 80 percent of fatalities happen due to extensive head injuries. Another way for kids to be safer on their bikes is to pay closer attention atten-tion to things while riding their bikes. Look farther ahead the faster you go because it will take you longer to stop. One other way to prevent acci dents is not to try foolish tricks like jumping off of ramps on their bikes. I am a kid myself and have done my share of jumping. And it has been my experience that more often than not, in the end I wish I had never even tried it. In conclusion, I hope more kids will follow these guidelines; then there will be a lot less bike wrecks. Voice of Business Poirti improvements aire Bmpoirtiainiti 21 by Thomas J. Donahue, President and CEO U.S. Chamber of Commerce In 1854, the clipper ship Flying Cloud sailed from New York to California via Cape Hom in only 89 days to great popular popu-lar acclaim. Flying Cloud set a record not beaten for 130 years, and set the stage for speedy delivery of goods from coast to coast. Today, we don't think twice about how our goods get from place to place- by ship, rail, truck, or air. But keeping our transportation links running smoothly is critical to our economy and our way of life. In particular, ports are especially important to the country that stretches from sea to shining sea. The United States is the world's major maritime trading nation. More than 95 percent of our international trade (by volume) moves through our nation's ports-that's two billion tons of domestic and importexport cargo every year. Ports play an essential role not only in our economy, but also serve an important logistics and mobilization function for our national defense. Clearly, we must be careful when we move forward with any changes to our port system. So why is the Administration pushing unfair legislation that would cripple this system? At issue is proposed change from the Harbor Maintenance Tax to a "Harbor Services User Fee." All ships using American ports pay tax on cargo that went toward a trust fund to pay for port services, such as dredging, development, operation, and maintenance. But in March 1998, the Supreme Court declared that this tax was unconstitutional and required Congress to change it. The Administration is asking Congress to impose a new "user fee" that would be imposed not on cargo, but on the vessel itself. And there's the rub. Unlike the old tax, the new "user fee" would not be imposed equally on each type of vessel; instead, it hits mainly the largest and most common vessels to the exclusion of almost everybody else. Ironically, the Administration claims that "the approach used in this legislation is a rational one." The truth is that it's quite the opposite. Not only does this new "user fee" look a lot more like a tax, it raises additional constitutional questions, placing as it does the entire financial burden of keeping the ports in good shape on the broad shoulders of a handful of commercial vessels. Ultimately, it would have a negative impact on the economy. A single general cargo shipping company would face as much as $30 million in additional tax liability. This certainly would encourage the diversion of cargo to different countries- in other words, lost revenue and jobs at American ports. California, the world's seventh largest economy, would be especially hard-hit. One third of U.S. trade moves through California alone. A new, expensive American tax would make neighboring Mexico look very attractive. And don't forget that the legislation would raise far more money than is needed for port maintenance- creating cre-ating a pot of cash that politicos will find hard to keep their hands off of. Our leaders must understand that how we move the goods around the world is every bit as important as the trade treaties we negotiate. What our country really real-ly needs now is a national commitment to upgrade our entire transportation network. We made a good start with roads last ycar-now we must move on to ports, airports, and other critical intermodal links. The proposed pro-posed Harbor tax would move us backward just as we are trying to take a step forward. WW--1 7' |