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Show f! htN hursdav Wednesday Wed. night Friend to animals. Rodeo awarded krA second place. day J I See Page B8 l-l-f t ie A7 -SO Mostly cloudy. Mostly cloudy. Considerable cloudiness. n .'ill Single Copy 50 t Wednesday, March 3, 2004 Vernal, Utah 84078 112th Year No. 9 20 Pages SUPPORT OUR TROOPS Express online: www.vernal.com 11 See Paae B1 I 1 1 i i ir VAV ' LA X BisM&t id owe! Is planus ffor By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor Tuesday, Uintah Recreation District president John Millecam said his board has approved the purchase of 78 acres belonging to the Kay family to build a park and perhaps a community center. Half of the property will be purchased pur-chased for about $1.5 million and the other half would be donated to the Recreation Board. The property is located at 500 North and 500 West and belong to the Alvin and Virginia Kay family. The Recreation Board agreed to pay for the property over two years, but would take possession of it the first year. Initially the recreation board would only do low maintenance venues at the park such as a fishing pond or possibly a walking park. "We haven't decided anything yet to go in the park, that is where we need public input," Millecam said. During this phase of the project, the board would apply to the Community Impact Board for a grant or low interest low for $1.5 million. The board unanimously decided to request $75,000 from the CIB to hire a professional planner plan-ner and submit an application at the CIB's April hearing. Once the indebtedness is retired, the board, in phase III, would enter into long-term maintenance and operation venues. Millecam said there would be a public hearing to create a "wish ,Jist," of.what.the.community would.. Congressman Jim Matheson talks with Joan James and Joe Lance during a meeting at the Golden Age Center. Politicians prepare fo flie for It is to early to file for county or state offices, but some politicians are not letting filing dates and deadlines dead-lines stop them from mingling with voters. Tuesday this week Rep. Jack A. Seitz, R-Vernal, announced that he will not seek a sixth term in the Utah Legislature. Rep. Seitz is finishing fin-ishing up his 10 year in the Utah Legislature. "It's a continual battle," said Seitz about his service in the Legislature. One of the battles Seitz won was the passage of HB-539, which provides mineral lease money for the Uintah Special Service District for the building of roads and the Recreation District to fund parks and recreation. recre-ation. Also up for re-election is Rep. Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt, who represents the west side of Uintah County, and Uintah County Commissioner, Dave Haslem. County residents can file for these position from March 8 - March 17 at the County Clerk's Office. There are also four Uintah School Board position open for election: Districts 2, 3 ,4 and 5. Cost of filing is $13 for the Utah House, $25 for the school board positions and $265.40 for the Uintah County Commission. Already on the campaign trail is Congressman Jim Matheson. Last Thursday, he met with county residents resi-dents at the Golden Age Center. "I want you to know that no matter mat-ter what the issue, I put Utah number num-ber one," said Matheson. : I WHMtttMt fe V -WSI" i ft v., 4 r y "TV . ... ..-,. f ; vl ' ' 'i John Millecam, president, and Al Stone, director, of the Uintah Recreation District, give a recreation update to members of the Vernal Chamber. like to see in the park. "Once the list is complete it will be up to the board to set down with the budget and determine what should go in the park," Millecam said. The Kay family has requested that the name of the park be "The Alvin and Virginia Kay Memorial Park." The gateway into the park have the name of it on it, the use of the land be restricted to recreation and education and that the control of the park remain under the direction direc-tion of the Uintah Recreation District, but would revert to Uintah County if the recreation board ceases to exist. The possibility of purchasing the property and developing the ven-. ven-. ues is because of increased funding office Matheson said the government wants to conduct nuclear weapons testing in Nevada, because of new super nuclear weapons. "Before they do that, I will make absolutely certain the testing will not be dangerous to downwinders," he said. Matheson was raised in Iron County when there have been many reports of elevated cancer levels because of exposure to fallout from the testing Nevada. "Before, the government lied to us when they said nuclear testing was safe," Matheson said. "As long as I am in Congress I will be very attentive atten-tive to this issue." Republican Tim Bridgewater, who is running against Matheson, said Matheson is for Utah when he is in Utah, but when he is in Washington, he departs from what mainstream Utahns believe. Bridgewater and his dog, Bucky, were in Vernal two weeks ago. He said he felt that President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law is a good start to reforming a lagging education system in the U.S. Bridgewater agreed that the law has its faults, he said. Bridgewater paints himself as the only person running for Matheson's seat, who isn't a lawyer. Raised by a single mother, who got off of welfare, Bridgewater learned early on that hard work and education would be the keys to his future. from mineral lease money which supports the Recreation District. When the Recreation Department County director apologizes for letter A letter to Uintah County Republican Party delegates has stirred concern with both Republicans and Democrats to the point that some are requesting the Uintah County-Vernal Economic Development director step down. In a letter to Republican delegates, dele-gates, Bill Johnson, executive director direc-tor of the Uintah County Vernal Economic Development, states that he would like to assist "a very good friend of the Basin get organized, former Congressman Jim Hansen." Johnson stresses in the letter that Election 2004 is fast approaching and "not only must we work vigorously vigor-ously to keep the current administration adminis-tration in place, it is pertinent that we have leadership on the state level that will not forget that the Basin is sincerely important to Utah." "As your Economic Development Director, I cannot stress enough as to how crucial it will be to elect a governor that is familiar with public lands and natural resources," Johnson said. Some who received the letter, said they were outraged because it was written on Uintah County stationary, station-ary, in a Uintah County envelope and the Uintah County postal meter White River Bridge to be replaced By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor A bridge built in the late 1950s, sometimes called the Mountain Fuel Bridge, across the White River in southern Uintah County, will be replaced this spring. Cost of the project is $2 million. This week, Uintah County Commissioners approved the county's coun-ty's share of the project, $226,000. Over the past four years, the county has spent $65,000 for planning and design of the bridge. The Utah Department of Transportation, using emergency funding, will pay the balance of the cost of the project. CIVCO engineering of Vernal was approved as the construction engineers engi-neers In a letter to the Uintah County Commissioners in February of 2000, Albert Bertagnolli, district foreman with Questar Pipeline Company said the Mountain Fuel Bridge is an "immediate safety concern." con-cern." The one-lane wood abutment bridge in southern Uintah County, has a 20-inch 600 pounds per square inch gas pipeline that runs along the upstream side of the bridge. It also has a smaller pipeline that runs along the bridge which is believes to contain natural gas. The weight limit on the bridge is began in 1992, it operated on a $430,000 budget, which was generated gener-ated by contributions from Vernal City, Uintah County, Naples City and the Uintah School District. With the passage of HB 538 in 1996, money from mineral leases is the main source of funding for the Recreation District. Also, the district funding scholarships scholar-ships for Uintah County residents to UBATC and USU Uintah Basin campus. To date, the district has paid $1.1 million in scholarship money. Recent project that the Recreation District has funded includes $700,000 for an indoor hockey rink, $250,000 for a splash park, $65,000 for a skate park, $75,000 for a new soccer field at Uintah High School and over $150,000 for playground equipment while maintaining parks, programs was used to mail the letters to 174 Republican delegates. "This shouldn't be done," said former Vernal City Mayor Leonard Heeney, during the Vernal City-Uintah City-Uintah County meeting last Friday. "You should be terminated because of this type of letter," Heeney said. Johnson, who was at the joint meeting, said he took full responsibility responsi-bility for the letter, and that he was sorry it had gone out. "I now realize the error of judgement judge-ment in the way that this letter was mailed and how the content may have been confusing," Johnson said in a letter he read to Uintah County Commissioners and Vernal City Council members at the meeting. Johnson said that shortly after the letter went out, and he became aware of the problems, he reimbursed reim-bursed the county from his own pocket for the cost of the mailing. "That is like the bank robber giving giv-ing back the money he stole and everyone saying it is okay," Heeney said. Vernal City Nel Heeney said that because the letter was written on county stationery with the county letterhead, it puts both Uintah County and Vernal City in a bad position. this spring 15 tons, but someone with some electrical tape had changed the one to four, leading people to believe the bridge has a 45 ton limit. The maximum tonnage UDOT allows on most of its wood bridges built in the 1950, is 30 tons. The alarming aspect of the bridge is when a loaded truck crosses it, the bottom moves six inches or more, and the west side timbers that support the bridge, have rotten away. In 1994, Uintah County replaced the deck of the bridge, but no work has been done underneath. Literacy Commission leaders, Jean Klein and Glenda Brown present Uintah County Commissioners, Jim Abegglen, Dave Haslem and Mike Seuss' birthday Tuesday by reading for 15 minutes. pack and recreation events. Recently the Recreation District pulled out the playground equipment from Independence Park, Ashley Valley Park and the Searle Pavilion Park because the equipment didn't meet the requirements of the District's insurance providers. Over $135,000 in new "kid-safe" equipment will be placed in the parks. "We need your input for future projects that are important to this community," Millecam said. "We want to broaden our base of input." Millecam noted that the future projects will depend on the strength of the development of oil and gas leases on public lands. Commissioner Mike McKee, said that the commissioners had some "frank discussions" with Johnson and believe it was poor judgement on his part. "We feel that we have dealt with the problem, so it won't happen again, and a letter of apology will be going out," McKee said. Commissioner Dave Haslem, said that every department of the county needs to be cateful during election years, so that they are not using taxpayer's tax-payer's money to endorse or assist a candidate to be elected. In the letter to delegates, Johnson said that a meeting would be Friday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. at the Uintah County Court House, south conference confer-ence room. "Whether you support Jim Hansen, one of the other candidates candi-dates or have yet to make a decision, deci-sion, this is an important meeting to attend," Johnson said in the letter to delegates. "We will discuss issues and other candidates that can greatly great-ly affect the future of our communities." communi-ties." About five or six county residents attended the meeting. Jim Hansen was not at the meeting, but the group discussed Hansen and other political candidates. When the project was first proposed, pro-posed, cost to replace the 100-foot bridge was estimated at $900,000. The UDOT rating on the bridge has been 59. When the rating goes below 50, it is considered for replacement. The latest survey rated the bridge in the mid 30s. The bridge will be widened from 15 feet which only allows a single lane of traffic, to 30 feet, for two lanes of traffic. The natural gas pipeline is not attached to the bridge, but if the bridge failed, the pipeline could be damaged. , v - -1 t Paul Hacking designated as UBATC interim president. UBATC begins search for president The search begins for a new campus president of the Uintah Basin Applied Technology College (UBATC). On Feb. 3, the college suffered the loss of its campus president, Shane Larsen, to a tragic automobile automo-bile accident. The Board of Directors now has the task of finding find-ing at least three qualified applicants appli-cants to submit to the president of the Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT), Dr. Gregory Fitch who will make the final selection. The UBATC is a campus of the Utah College of Applied Technology. The new campus president pres-ident is expected to be in place by the first of July. Next week, the board will release more information informa-tion on how interested parties may apply for this position. Until a new campus president is named, Fitch, in consultation with the UBATC Board of Directors, selected Paul E. Hacking to be the interim campus president. Chairman Lynn Snow said, "We have every confidence that Paul and the administrative team will be able to meet the challenges and manage the affairs of the college during this interim period." Hacking brings to the position a wide variety of experience in marketing, mar-keting, personnel management, public relations, finance and is knowledgeable in the daily operations opera-tions of an ATC. Hacking is currently cur-rently the chief operations officer at UBATC. Hacking is a native of Vernal and currently lives in Roosevelt. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management with emphasis in finance and is currently current-ly completing his Master of Science Degree in Management and Human Resources from Utah State University Uintah Basin. Hacking also serves as a member of Board of Directors for the Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development District. "I am excited to serve in this capacity until the new campus president is named," said Hacking upon being notified of this appointment. appoint-ment. "I am proud to be part of the UBATC family and look forward to working during this interim peri-See peri-See President on page 2 PRB (previously read books) to McKee so they can observe Dr. v.0 i |