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Show A2 Vernal Express Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Opinion PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters let-ters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent perti-nent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions as to contents, 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 writers full name, signature, signa-ture, 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 editorvernal.com. The name or names of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. let-ters. All letters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily nec-essarily the opinion of the Express Editor. c Cemetery Care Dear Editor: My husband and I were visiting your beautiful little town of Vernal (My birth place) from Nevada. We do this two to three times a year before Memorial Day. We happened to be here staying with my sister when your Vernal paper arrived at her home. 1 was appalled at the letter Mrs. Vanderbuist wrote to the Editor! When we were here about a month ago, the Sexton (I think Mr. Evans) always has the Vernal Memorial Park looking so groomed and beautiful. My sister commented com-mented that ths cemetery w as one of the most beautiful ground she had seen throughout her many travels. Mr. Evans can always walk us exactly to our sites without even going to his records. As we were talking with him, he told us they had put him over all the cemeteries in the county now. We were thrilled about this because all the cemeteries would get better care. The next morning on our way to Colorado, we stopped at the Jensen Cemetery for some more dates, there we found Mr. Evans and his crew hand digging several trenches. My husband asked one of the crew what they were digging and he told my husband, water lines that had not been winterized last winter and had froze and broke. I am sure this was a huge headache for these workers. 1 am sure this was the reason for the grass looking like it did. Thanks Mr. Evans, we as a family appreciate your hard work and helpful ways. We know it won't be long before every cemetery in the county will be as beautiful as the Vernal cemetery. CATHERINE S. WORSLEY Nevada Election promises Dear alitor: Some of the election promises being made concern me. KVEL did an interview with Mark Walsh, attorney attor-ney for Utah Association of Counties, about special service districts and mineral rtioney. 1 did some more research and I feel it's important for all voters to know that: 1 - Mineral Lease Money is a royalty payment paid to the federal government for allowing businesses to produce minerals on federal land. 2- The county cannot collect taxes on federal lands, so they get federal payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT)- about SI, 1 83,428 this year. The dollars go straight from the federal government to the county's general fund to help hold down local property taxes. 3Tf county commissioners don't use Mineral Lease Money as directed by law, they will lose those federal PILT dollars. 4- Commissioners cannot spend Mineral Lease Money directly-they can only set up Special Sen ice Districts and appoint members to those boards. The state government mandates how counties spend it. It cannot be used for local schools or districts. 5- lf, as some have suggested, our county was to file suit against the federal and state government govern-ment to get all of what our local county businesses pays in these royalties, we face years of litigation and millions of dollars in lawyer and court fees. Virtually every county, city, water and sewer district around the whole state, plus colleges, have benefited from sharing shar-ing Mineral Lease Money from the mineral product-ing product-ing counties. Will they all join the lawsuit against us? Absolutely! The other mineral producing counties have already refused to join our county in any legal action. There is no guarantee of our county's success after spending all that money. 6-lf, after years of lawsuits, we win our case, who's to say we still have Mineral Lease Money coming in? It's getting harder and harder for our oil, gas and mining companies to get permission to mine or drill because environmentalists are trying to shut them W VERNAL Expirees (ISSN 0892-1091) Published every Wednesday for $24 per year in the shopping shop-ping area and S36 per year out of the shopping area within the state and S39 per year out of state within the 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. Steven R. Wallis Editor and Publisher Virginia Harrington Guest Writer Kitta Dory Layout Maureen Spenceer Feature Writer Mandi Oaks Feature Writer Courtney Millecam Public Notice Jacque Hobbs Advertising Lynne Murray Advertising Terri Black Circulation & Classified Ads Phone 435-789-351 1 FAX: 435-789-8690 Website: www.vernal.com e-mail: editorvemal.com NEW DEADLINES News Monday 12 noon Display Advertising Monday 2 p.m. Classified Advertising Monday 2 p.m. Public Notices Monday 2 p.m. down. Are all of those state entities we fought going to care if our county needs extra help financially in that case? Voters, do we really want to start on this long, drawn-out drawn-out lawsuit? Are we willing to spend the millions of dollars it will require on a chance that we may not receive this money? Are we willing to take a chance on losing our guaranteed PILT money by fighting a battle bat-tle that we may never win? Please do not listen to the uneducated promises that are being made, be a knowledgeable knowl-edgeable voter! KYRA STUMPS Vernal Jensen Cemetery Dear Editor I would like to apologize to the community and to the families of the people who are buried in the Jensen Cemetery. I can honestly say that YES, the Jensen Cemetery has been in poor condition, but it wasn't due to neglect on our part. The problem started earlier this year. Apparently, the previous caretaker neglected to drain the system properly, which caused a major problem due to water lines being froze and broke. We went in as a crew and worked very hard to fix these broken lines. All of these lines were hand dug and covered by our crew members. mem-bers. This took some time due to the fact that in that time period we were also digging graves in other cemeteries. cem-eteries. Not at one time did I see Karen Gross offer her time to help us replace or fix these broken lines. Now, the way 1 see it if Karen had been so devoted to her work at the cemetery where was she while we were fixing all of these lines? And if she had so much care and respect, why did she let the lines freeze to begin with? After fifteen years of hard work and devotion devo-tion .you would think that she could have been able to properly drain the system. I have also devoted a lot of time to my job at the Vernal Cemetery. I have worked there for eight and a half years. And I too take great pride in my work! I love my job, and I have the utmost respect for the members of this community that have family buried here. I personally do not have any close family members mem-bers buried there or in any other cemetery in this area. But I treat every grave as if it were my own family member. I would like to advise the community that we do not have a priority list; all the cemeteries are treated equally. And I believe that in time you will see great improvement to all the cemeteries. We are just doing the best that we can with what we have. And with the short time that we have due to Memorial weekend coming up. I would like to invite Cathy Vanderbusse to spend the day with me, Jim and our crew. To see the hard work that we put into all the Cemeteries. I would also like to thank Melissa Hartley, one of our crew members, mem-bers, for all the hard work that she has put into the Jensen Cemetery this last couple of weeks. She has been there every day watering, weed eating and trimming trim-ming trees, trying to improve the condition that it was in. And thanks to the rest of our crew members for all their hard work. '" ! NICKCOLTURCOTTE Vernal Upcoming election Dear Editor, 1 would like to take this opportunity to say to the 1457, Thank You, Thank You, your sacrifice has not gone unappreciated. A lot of us recognize how precious pre-cious time is. Some of us also understand the privilege priv-ilege it is to vote. There are good people around this world who have never had that privilege afforded to them. Men and women like yourselves have given up time w ith families and friends in the service of your country so they might obtain a small measure of what we enjoy in the United States. As primary elections are fast approaching I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all the people peo-ple of the Basin to take a good look at the people running run-ning in your county. 1 would ask you a question. Is it your responsibility to become informed for yourselves about the candidates, or is it your neighbors, your church leaders, or the people that you have your morning morn-ing coffee with? Having dealt this past year with issues in Duchesne County, it really does matter who is running your county. It really does matter if they are honest. It really real-ly does matter if they have good work ethics. It really real-ly does matter that they are knowledgeable. It really does matter if they are out to feather their own nests or are you their priority. It really does matter if someone some-one knows how to live within a budget. It really does matter if the buck stops w ith the candidate or if the word "sue" is always being bantered around. It matters mat-ters if someone has been giving everything and hasn't the common sense to be grateful. As Shakespeare would say, "How sharper than a serpents tooth it is to have a thankless child." It matters if the sweat and hard work of others is discarded like an old wom out shoe. It matters if you are a person with integrity. Words are just words if they are found lacking in reality, real-ity, and just because someone says something doesn't make it true. But like the old adage goes, "the proof is in the pudding" and " you will know them by their fruits." I encourage you all to vote for a real person for the real reasons. There is a lot of hate being perpetrated, per-petrated, in local elections and in the national elections. elec-tions. I don't think that the people of the 1457 left their families and friends so that we could misuse our rights as Americans to act like a Third World country. Be responsible. Talk to those who have had dealings with the candidates and try to become informed. Things are not always as they look. VICKIE MASSEY HAGMAN Vernal IT 5EZ RIG-HT HERB L THAT BURIAL- FEES A ARE GOING- UP NEXT 1 WHATABOUTIT. - ? J J WELL IF-WE'RE GUNNA ) SAVE FIPTY DOLLARS I GUESS TOU KNOW WHATV YOU'LL HAFF TO 00 3 I 0v I urn's uems Atase off systtemn) By Virginia Harrington Vernal Express Writer For decades, we have heard stories and read newspaper articles about employees that abuse the Worker's Compensation program. These employees receive minor injuries but make major claims against the company and the compensation program. pro-gram. Sometimes, they progress to a disability compensation when no disability exists. Such abuses are detrimental not just to the company unfortunate enough to employ such individuals, but to society as a whole. One way or another, we all end up paying the cost for such cheating. Unfortunately, abuse of the system is not a one-way street. Employer's" all too frequently""use" an injury claim as an excuse not to hire a potential employee or to fire a current employee. There is ample evidence within the labor force to support that statement. - Many job applications ask the question, "Have you ever applied for or received Worker's Compensation?" Competition for jobs in our sluggish economy is fierce and anyone who answers that question with a yes is likely to be placed at the bottom of the application applica-tion pile. - A young woman who worked in a food service establishment lifted a bushel of vegetables and dislocated her wrist, requiring surgical repair. She was unable to perform her stocking duties but was still able to cashier. Her medical bills were paid for but she was terminated from her job. She was out of work for several months because no company would hire her while her arm was in a cast and then a brace. - A middle-aged woman with a history of back problems asked for help moving some supplies. She was told that no help was avail- ab1e ami "she would have' to do the" work herself. She ended up taking two days of sick leave due to severe back pain. These were her only sick days in three years of working for the company. When she returned to work, her supervisor demanded that she file for Worker's Compensation. She filled out the papers but never collected any money as there were no medical bills. Less than a week later, she was fired for making a "frivolous" claim . - A man who had worked for an auto dealership for only a few weeks was accidently locked into a darkened room by a fellow employee. employ-ee. He fell down one stair step and twisted his ankle. He claimed it would be fine if he put ice on it and wrapped it himself. His supervisor insisted on Worker's Compensation papers and a trip to a physician. The physician advised him and to stay off his feet for two days and sent a fax to the company stating that he could return to work after that period. peri-od. The medical bills were paid for but the man lost his job six months later when he had to take three days of sick leave for an illness.. The rea--son given him Was that he-Was flnre-liable flnre-liable because he had missed five days of work in six months. When applied as it was intended, intend-ed, Worker's Compensation is an excellent program for employees and employers alike. It is unfortunate unfor-tunate that the list of abuses from both sides is long, discouraging and harmful. By Daun T. DeJournette Writer There was a new physician coming com-ing to Roosevelt. I lived in the little town of Lapoint, born and raised on the Ute Indian Reservation. We were all excited about the new doctor, because he was a native of Vernal. I remember when I took my three small sons to see Doctor Paul G. Stringham for the first time. My youngest was three months old. Right away, I could tell he was very fond of little folks and they liked him too. He was still a country boy, grown up to be a fine physician, who had found his way back to the area to serve and provide medical medi-cal care for all of the people in the Basin. He proved to be a good and caring doctor and in a short time his office was over flowing with people. I believe it was in about 1962 when Dr. Stringham left Roosevelt and move back home to Vernal. He had found his niche, coming home and becoming a well-respected doctor doc-tor and a friend to patients young and old It was always a special occasion to see his eyes light up after he delivered a new baby. My, how he loved to see those tiny babies come into this world. As a group of employees, we all enjoyed our work and working work-ing together. The doctor saw a lot of patients. An ordinary day was seeing 60 to 70 patients. There was never a strained relationship relation-ship among the hired help, and Dr. Stringham has the kind of personality personal-ity that made it a happy and enjoyable enjoy-able place to work. He and Jeanne always hired young high school students to come in and help after school, giving them an opportunity to earn money for school and to learn bookkeeping and to become acquainted with the medical field in a small way. I went to work for Dr. Stringham in 1963. He and his wife, Jeanne, treated me like family from day one. I was 38 when I lost both of my parents par-ents and Dr. Stringham and Jeanne were always there for me, simply making me a part of their family. I enjoyed watching their little family grow up. Barbara was just a little tyke running off the monthly statements state-ments and Paula helped me at the front desk. We even got Chuck in on the job of sending statements. Dr. Stringham didn't know what an eight to five job was. His day started about 6:30 in the morning morn-ing and ended usually at about the same time in the evening. If the phone happened to ring just as he was going out the door after a long day, and you managed to catch him and tell him about a nervous parent par-ent calling about a bicycle wreck or an injured limb, I can still hear his familiar statement: "Run em in." The procedure would usually end with his stitching up a split forehead, fore-head, or putting a cast on a frac tured arm, always something that required immediate attention. No matter what, the patient came first. Many of his older patients (maybe a couple in their eighties) would usually come just to have their blood pressure checked. Many times these elderly patients just wanted to chat with him. They were lonely and needed the little boost that he always gave them. I remember when he had his practice in Roosevelt, he drove to Lapoint to see my grandmother Taylor. He made many house calls and the distance sometimes that he was required to travel didn't matter. His wife always supported him in this service. There were sad days where you knew that a patient was slowly dying, but he handled this so well with his caring way and kind bedside bed-side manner. Dr. Stringham and his wife, Jeanne, were a team working together. In 12 plus years I worked for them, I saw so many kind deeds they did for people less fortunate for-tunate than others. It would be a large assignment to count the many accounts they marked zero balance to help those in need. The doctor and his wife were great promoters helping initiate the nursing program that became a reality real-ity in the Basin. What an opportunity opportuni-ty this was for so many individuals who had the desire to get into the nursing field. When he retired, it left a large hole in the medical profession, but he left so many good memories, his name and his dedication to the medical med-ical field will never be forgotten. Museum... Continued from A1 found within the Uinta Basin. At 1 1:45 a.m. the Uintah High School Jazz Band will play for the enjoyment of guests. Radio Disney, featuring "Ladybug", will be on the Museum grounds from 12:30 until 2 p.m. All visitors, young and old, will take the Uinta Fossil Journey back in time through the prehistoric world, become amateur paleontologists, uncover and identify fossils and record the discoveries in their personal field notebooks. Other activities at the Museum between 10 ajn. and 2 p.m. will include making your own 'Fossil' and "The Little Dryosaurus" storytime. Utah Motors, 270 East Main, will offer dinosaur cookies cook-ies and drinks, coloring pages and face painting from 1 1 a.m.to 1:30 p.m. The Downtown Alliance of Merchants is rewarding the community with a Spring Fling sidewalk sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Downtown at Cobble Rock Park, there will be Dino Balloon stomps, Tryceratoss games and a Dinah Fish Pond. These run from 1 1 a.m. to 2 pjn. and are for children and their parents. Volunteers will provide traffic safety movement in a "Prehistoric Promenade" from Cobble Rock to refreshments refresh-ments and face painting at Utah Motors, and to children's chil-dren's activities at the Museum. Those wishing to include the Utah Motor and Museum activities after leaving Cobble Rock should be ready to leave the downtown park no later than 1 :30 p.m. In the evening, Cobble Rock Park will be the scene of food booths, games for kids, live entertainment from 6-9 6-9 pjn, Drawings throughout the evening will include a $1,000 cash grand prize and several other prizes worth over $200. In addition, the event features a "host" of other prize drawings. After Saturday's opening, the Museum will remain open to the public at State Park entrance rates. It will close for State functions June 3 and 4 and then will observe normal Museum yearly closure dates of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day and Martin Luther King Day. |