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Show Vernal Express v.'"fsA.., Marcn 3, 2004 Suspended license lands man in jail A7 DODcireases ireipoirs Hhthih AAA Utah reports gasoline prices increased across the nation this past month and, in some places, grew by double digits. ( The national average price for regular, unleaded, self-serve gasoline gaso-line is $1.64, an increase of eight cents from last month. The average national price last year at this time was $1.65. The current average price in Utah is $1.63, an eight-cent increase from last month. The average aver-age price in Utah last year was $1.60. "Low inventories, an extremely cold winter, refinery problems in the Midwest and high crude prices all contribute to the increase in gasoline prices," said Rolayne Fairclough, AAA Utah spokeswoman. spokes-woman. "The new EPA standards put in place at the beginning of the year also put pressure on prices." Of the cities surveyed by AAA, all reported increases this past month. Salt Lake motorists saw the smallest increase, six cents, for an average price of $1.60. The next lowest increase was reported in Vernal. Motorists there pay eight cents more for an average price of $1.65. Provo's prices increased ten cents to $1.61. St. George and Moab both saw eleven-cent increases. increas-es. The average price in St. George is $1.69. The average price in Moab is $1.72. Ogden motorists had the largest increase, twelve cents, for an average price of $1.57. "The continued high gasoline prices and crude oil price above $30 cast a worrisome shadow on spring and summer prices," said Fairclough. "Gasoline prices usually usual-ly move higher in the spring as refineries prepare for the various blends formulated for warmer weather." The average price of self-serve, unleaded gasoline in the surrounding surround-ing states also increased substantially. substantial-ly. The average price in Idaho increased seven cents to $1.65. Montana motorists pay four cents more this month for an average price of $1.60. Wyoming's price went up five cents to $1.54. Colorado's average price is $1.56, an increase of six cents. Arizona motorists pay 12 cents more this month for an average price of $1.70. Nevada also saw a double digit increase. Motorists there pay 15 cents more for an average price of $1.82. California motorists saw the largest increase, 20 cents, for an av erage price of $1.90. Earlier this month, the OPEC ministers voted to cut production by one million barrels a day starting April 1. This news does not bode well for decreasing gasoline prices. OPEC member countries which produce about 40 percent of the world's oil are currently estimated to be producing nearly 26 million barrels per day. AAA's Fuel Gauge Report is the most comprehensive retail gasoline survey available with over 60,000 self-serve stations surveyed everyday every-day nationwide. Data is provided in cooperation with OP1S Energy Survey and Wright Express, LLC. What to do when your family income drops abruptly An abrupt reduction in family income can be a traumatic experience, experi-ence, both psychologically and financially, says Debra Pankow, family economics specialist with North Dakota State University Extension Service. But there are ways you and your family can minimize mini-mize the hardship. First, don't panic. Give yourself time to get over the initial shock and then start, making plans. Don't blame yourself or anyone else. Just concentrate on dealing with the situation. sit-uation. Take stock of family and community commu-nity resources. Recognize that your life will be different, at least for a while, but you and your family can still be in control of your household financial affairs. Start making adjustments immediately by setting ! priorities for spending. Involve the entire family in setting set-ting these priorities. Plan to pay creditors and protect family welfare. wel-fare. Make every effort to maintain positive family relationships and not allow financial pressures to destroy these bonds, advises Pankow. Recognize that family income will be reduced and that the past level of spending will have to be lowered. Be sensitive to the feelings of family members. Be especially tuned-in to your children's interpretation interpre-tation of the situation. Help children understand that although reduced income is a serious problem, it does not change the importance of any individual in the family. Pankow points out that family members, when working together, can more easily deal with the new challenges they now face. Taking stock of family resources tells how much a family is worth at a particular point in time. Such a statement of net worth provides an important record of current family finances. The next step is to compile a list of your family's nonfinancial resources that can be used to cut costs, traded for needed goods and services, or used to produce income. It is likely each family member can make a contribution toward operating the household more economically. In addition, consider belongings that could be sold to raise income. Be imaginative in assessing all of your resources and how they can best be used in hard economic times. Depending on your circumstances, circum-stances, you may want to use emergency emer-gency savings or take out a loan. If you have followed the principles of good money management, you have the equivalent of a few months' salary accumulated in liquid savings. sav-ings. Start with passbook savings. If you decide to cash in a CD. talk with the financial institution where you purchased it to determine how much interest you will lose by cashing cash-ing it in before maturity. It might be less expensive to obtain a short term loan using your CD as security. securi-ty. Remember that a loan must be paid back and that money taken from emergency savings should be replenished as soon as possible Pankow suggests examining expenditures next. Expenditures hold the key to how well you do when dollars are scarce. If your family does not fol low a spending plan, this is the time to start. Family input is essential, as is being realistic and flexible. Family living expenses must be separated into fixed and variable (or flexible) expenditures. Fixed expenses include mortgage payments pay-ments or rent, installment credit, emergency savings, medical and life insurance payments, utilities, and so on. Flexible expenses include recreation, leisure, food, clothing, personal spending, and so on. It is these flexible expenses that a family can examine and then make choices on ways to cut spending when times are tough. Be creative about how to cut expenditures. Agree to discuss purchases over a certain amount with other family members before buying. Control impulse buying. Make a shopping list and weigh the importance impor-tance of each item. Use effective consumer buy-manship. buy-manship. Comparison shop. Buy the specials. Use coupons. Go to price-competitive stores. Buy in bulk. Try for cash discounts. Buy things out of season. Engage in home production. Exchange goods and services, where possible. Use free or low cost community services. servic-es. Substitute with low cost items. Postpone purchases if possible. Do NOT buy anything on credit. Do NOT drop insurance coverage. cover-age. The need for insurance is magnified mag-nified by experiencing stress. Be sure to not pay for duplicate coverage cover-age by having several policies. Do NOT cancel essential medical med-ical and dental appointments. In the long run, such inaction may prove to be more costly. Pankow next urges reducing consumer con-sumer debt. Don't ignore monthly payments on outstanding loans. Make a list of all your debts with the annual percentage per-centage rate, the specific terms of the contract and any finance charges. The largest payment for many families is the mortgage payment. If it is too big to handle, go to the lender and see if you can refinance or pay only the interest for a short period of time or postpone one or two payments. Although these methods may mean the overall cost of the loan will be greater, you will not run the risk of losing your home. For other debts, prepare a payment pay-ment plan (with alternatives) and contact the lender immediately to explain your situation. Where possible, pos-sible, it's best to make an appointment appoint-ment and talk with the person in charge personally. You may want to reduce payments pay-ments on revolving charge accounts to the minimum. Then when income increases, go back to the regular payment schedule. This will slightly increase the total amount you must pay for the debt, but it will ease the present financial burden. bur-den. If you can pay some debt but not all, set priorities. Pay those bills that: maintain vital services (utility, phone, transportation, insurance) have the highest interest rate cost the most to postpone (late penalty, repossession or disconnectreconnect discon-nectreconnect charges) may be vigorously collected As a last resort to repaying debt, consider a consolidation loan. This would enable you to pay all your bills at once and then make one payment monthly for a large loan. Shop around for the best terms. Consolidation loans are frequently frequent-ly very costly. If your spending patterns and financial management style do not change, the same problems may reoccur. If your financial affairs have deteriorated dete-riorated beyond repair, bankruptcy may be the last retreat. Severe and prolonged stress associated asso-ciated with income loss may seriously seri-ously affect your physical and mental men-tal health, Pankow says. In addition, addi-tion, stress contributes to many types of accidents through human error, fatigue, worry and haste. If you involuntarily lose your job and your previous employer paid into the unemployment insurance compensation fund, you may qualify quali-fy for job insurance benefits. It is important that you file for benefits immediately. Bresnan Communications will be installing new equipment in the VernalMaeserNaples area for approximately the next 4 to 6 weeks. In this time frame, cable outages can be expected in isolated locations, between 7:00 am and 3:30 pm, Monay - Friday. We thank you for your patience. This system upgrade will enable us to offer you higher quality television, plus new and improved services like High Speed Internet. Please, call with any questions about our system .upgrade or the services we offer, at 789-1723 Communications Failure to register a vehicle lands a Vernal in jail Sunday. At about 1 :30 a.m. Uintah County Deputy Derek Urban was traveling west on U.S. Highway 40 when he observed an individual driving whom he knew had been living in the area for several months and had a suspended driver's license. A traffic stop was conducted by Deputy Urban to discuss the registration regis-tration and suspension. Upon contacting con-tacting the driver, the deputy determined deter-mined that the driver was under the influence of a controlled substance. Based on performed field sobriety tests, the driver was arrested. During a search of the vehicle, incident to arrest, suspected methamphctamine and paraphernalia parapherna-lia were located. The driver, Jason Lindsey, 20, of Vernal, was incarcerated in the Uintah County Jail on charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, possession of methamphctamine and paraphernalia, parapherna-lia, driving on a suspended license and failure to register a vehicle. Jason Lindsey TT Tpdate Snow Survey and Water Supply For further information contact USDA-NRCS Brent Draper 722-4621 (Natural Resources Conservation Service formerly SCS) As of Monday, March 1, 2004 I SNOTEL SITE ! Drainage ELEVATION (Feet) SNOW WATER CONTENT (inches of water) 2003 2004 Trout Creek 9,400 Ashley Creek Hole-ln-Rock 9,150 Beaver Creek (North Slope) Hickerson Park 9,150 Sheep Creek (North Slope) Kings Cabin 8,730 Brush Creeks Lake Fork Basin 11,100 Lake Fork (North of Moon Lake) Five Point Lake 11,000 Yellowstone River Brown Duck 10,600 Lake Fork River (West of Moon Lake) Chepeta 10,300 Whiterocks River Lake Fork 1 10,200 Yellowstone (E. of Moon Lake Trial Lake 9,960 Duchesne River Mosby Mtn. 9,500 Whiterocks River & Mosby Creek Indian Canyon 9,100 Strawberry River & Argyle Creek Strawberry Div. 8,400 Strawberry Daniels-Strawberry 8,000 Strawberry Currant Creek 8,000 Currant Cr. & Strawberry River Rock Creek 7,900 Rock Creek East Willow Creek 8,250 Willow Creek (Book Cliffs) 2002 4.7 4.0 3.9 4.9 10.2 7.6 8.8 8.3 6.0 13.4 5.2 4.5 10.7 8.5 3.6 3.9 3.5 5.3 5.4 3.7 7.6 9.9 8.7 10.1 8.6 7.2 10.3 7.8 7.9 8.8 10.8 3.3 5.1 5.0 10.2 5.8 6.4 12.3 14.7 14.9 11.0 16.8 12.4 11.3 16.5 16.6 11.6 8.8 8.5 30 YEAR AVERAGE WATER CONTENT 8.1 ; 5.7 5.8 9.4 j 16.6 ! 13.8 I l I 15.0 j 11.4 10.5 20.6 9.3 I 9.6 16.3 ! 15.1 i 9.6 7.9 7.1 PERCENT OF AVERAGE 126 102 110 12. 89 108 106 105 82 133 118 101 110 121 111 120 Provisional Data from snow pillows at snotel sites, subject to revision. i Tn il I " " Ulu ACCU Mr'sgrct? Forecast for Vernal, UT March 3' 2004 March 9-2004 Local 7-Day Forecast ACCUWeather.com WednesdayN wed. night Thursday f Friday 'Saturday f Sunday f Monday Tuesday Mostly cloudy. 43 Mostly cloudy. y y 23 Considerable cloudiness. Snow showers possible. J971 9y j320y Mostly cloudy Mostly cloudy. Rathor cloudy. Times of clouds and sun. 47l22y 47l21y jt6721 "J 4624y Sun Wed. Thu. Fit Sat Sun. Mon. Tue. Rise 6:48 a.m. 6:47 a m. 6:45 a.m. 6:44 a m 6:42 a.m. 6:41 am. 6:39 a.m. Sel 6:12 p.m. 6:13 p.m. 6:14 pm. 6:15 p.m. 6:16 p.m. 6:18 p.m. 6:19 p.m. Moon Rise Sel Wed. 2:46 p.m. 5:24 a.m. Thu. 3 53 pm. 6:00 a.m. Fri. 5:02 p.m. 6:30 a.m. Sat. 6:12 p.m. 6:57 am. Sun. 7:21 p.m. 7.22 a.m, Mon. 8:32 p.m. 7:46 am. Tue. 9.45 p.m. 8:11 a.m. Regional Traveler's Cities Moon Phases Full Last New First I o Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 20 Mar. 28 All forecasts and maps provided by AccuWeather, Inc. 2004 Accu Weather's RealFeel Temperature The exclusive AccuWeather composite of the effects of temperalure, wind, humidity, sunshine, precipitation, and elevation on the human body. Wednesday 8 a.m. . . 32 Noon ... 32 6 p.m. . . 30 Thursday 8 a.m. . . 21' Noon ... 31 6 p.m. . . 26 Saturday 8 a.m. . . Noon . . . 6 p.m. . . Monday 8 a.m. . . Noon . . . 6 p.m. . . 10 30 31 30 47 42 Friday 8 a.m. . . Noon . . . 6 p.m. . . Sunday 8 a.m. . . Noon . . . 6 p.m. . . Tuesday 8 a.m. . . Noon . . . 6 p.m. . . 11 27 30 16 40 39 17 37 37 Wednesday Thursday Tridav Saturday City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W Hi Lo W Hi Lo W Boise, ID 44 26 pc 45 28 c 48 31 c 31 0 Casper, WY 38 i4c ib c 4i - '' c Cedar City, UT 41 pc : 41 19 c 44 24 p. 61 25 Cheyenne, WY 40 16 c 31 14 c 41 21 c 4j,, c Denver, CO 60 19 c " 36 18 e . 45 21 C 48 24. ja, Duchesne. UT 44 22 c 39 20 C 42 25 sf 46 24 c Dutch John, UT 32 13 " " 15 c - ai ,3 c 33 19 m Evanston, WY 29 14 pc 24 i IB 17 . 1" c Ely, NV 38 14 pc - ?" '-W r '-ze!'' Idaho Falls. ID 35 1 "- le " oo '. Jo i:o u Las Vegas, NV 60 .w pc...,., 42 S 66 42 S 68 44 Ogden, UT 39 22 pc 36 24 c- 40 26 c 44 30 c . Phoenix. AZ - 61 46 c 64 48 pc 67 48 6 71 52 Pocatello, ID 37 20 pc 36 23 c 42 27 c 44 24 c PrescottAZ 4630c 50 28 pc 52 30 s 59 32 I Provo, UT 41 25 pc 40 26 C 42 27 sf 44 27 c Price, UT 45 21 c ' 38 20 c 41 23 c 45 25; Rangely, CO 50 26 c 45 23 c 44 23 c 47 24 c Rock Springs. WY 35 13 C 3117 c 34 20 c 37 19 Roosevelt, UT 45 23 c 39 20 c 43 22 c 47 24 c Salt Lake Crty.UT 41 28 pc 36 28 C 40 29 C 45 29 f St. George. UT 58 37 pc 55 36 pc 59 38 s 61 41 c : Tucson; AZ 56 40 pc 62 40 pc 64 42 8 69 44 H Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partty cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms. r-rain, sf-snow flumes, sn-snow. i-ice. 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