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Show 7 CHSIQS u Wednesday, Febraary2, 2005 1 I I fit LJ 1 u .., -'t'.- in miV Single Copy 500 Vernal, Utah 84078 113th Year No. 5 JAZZ GAME Forest employee honored. See B12 . mmm,mm,m. apip aum0 ttmmmi iTi.. Si f WWW.VBHWI.W ill i iii laraj. ( LOCAL HELP , , WEATHER SH. EXPRESSIONS I .00 1. uufc,,! v 1 Making a living I KL. Tsunami M Xffiaflft fcj' VJ L on the river jst relief effort. aspen brook i See B1 -J qfl SeeB4 I 4227 I 4024 . 1 4024 I "Jfjf- t.H -fJ. -. r 1 - ii ., . , Coioi(yiin)iltV sees mieecd to tad UBATC Mg By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor Once again the residents of the Uintah Basin will ask the Capital Facilities and Appropriations Subcommittee to recommend funding of a Vernal UBATC and USU building, build-ing, but this year is a little different dif-ferent people are stirred up to the point of writing letters and emails to legislators. The reason for the concern is that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. did not include the Vernal building build-ing in his proposed budget to the legislature. Since the legislature leg-islature sets the budget for the state, leaving the Vernal facility facil-ity out of the governor's recommended recom-mended budget might not be a fatal blow. "Before the governor's budget, I thought we had a 50-50 chance of having the building funded this year," said Bill Johnson, Uintah County economic development devel-opment director. "Now I think it is more like 45-55." Many view this go-around as Concerns raised over proposed legislation By Virginia Harrington Express Writer During the joint Uintah CountyVernal City monthly month-ly meeting, held Jan. 28, Commissioner Jim Abegglen said he is concerned over the proposals for changes in the uniform sales and use tax laws. Abegglen said the drafts are not yet completed but if the proposed changes go through they will have a profound impact on the local economy. Funding for the care center would be affected along with the city's 0.25 cent tax for roads. Ken Bassett, Vernal City manager, said the state legislature legisla-ture has different goals than the local communities and that city and county officials must stay on top of the proposals. Abegglen said another concern con-cern is joint resolution number num-ber 12. This resolution would eliminate personal property taxes if adopted. While that might have superficial appeal, it would force a raise in real property taxes in Uintah County by approximately 300 percent. Abegglen also said that most of the equipment in the oil field is personal property, not real property. The resolution would eliminate all taxes on oil field equipment, shifting the economic burden from the large oil companies to local community citizens. Abegglen said one positive proposal has come from Rep. John Mathis. Mathis has introduced intro-duced legislation that would eliminate two education seats on the permanent impact board. These seats would then be filled by representatives from areas of the state that are mineral producing. While Abegglen said he is in favor of this move, he would like to see more seats filled by mineral producing areas. He said he would be in favor of eliminating the representatives represen-tatives from several areas, including water resources and the board of regents. He would also like to see mayors and commissioners from mineral counties as the only voting members of the impact board. Bassett said he is concerned about going too far too fast and bringing unwanted attention atten-tion to the mineral lease funds. "one last try to fund the project." "The governor's action makes this one last try less hopeful," Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee said. "The entire UCAT system is on trial now." UCAT, which represents a system of Utah Colleges of Applied Technology, has never had a building funded by the Utah Legislature. To make the $10.7 million project more appealing to legislators, leg-islators, the Uintah County Commission authorized the Uintah Recreation District to use up to $1.5 million of its excess scholarship funding fund-ing for the building. Ashley Valley Medical Center has also pledged $50,000 to the project. Other businesses have been challenged to make contributions contribu-tions to the project. During the last legislative session, the project was rejected reject-ed in favor of other projects which had local funding. In a recent meeting with Sen. Beverly Evans, Rep. John See UBATC on A10 Abegglen responded that he is not satisfied with rural Utah being the "ugly stepchild" in the state. Using last year's improvement in the severance tax, Abegglen said that in the past, pushing for what is rightfully right-fully deserved has resulted in economic gains. Commissioner Mike McKee noted that the law says the majority of the mineral funds is supposed to go to the impacted area, which would include the Uintah Basin. Lastly, the commissioners reminded those present that a presentation concerning the USUUBATC building will be made to the Capital Facilities Committee in Salt Lake City Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. in the capital capi-tal building. This presentation presenta-tion is open to the public and it is hoped that a broad ranging rang-ing group of citizens from the Uintah Basin will be present to support the building. D.C. trip promotes energy development Leaders want lands released for development By Virginia Harrington Express Writer Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee and Uintah CountyVernal City Economic Developer Bill Johnson spent three days in Washington, D.C. to promote energy development in the Uintah Basin. Johnson said the group saw a need for a presence at the start of the current congressional session to focus attention on energy concerns. With technology technol-ogy developing for extraction from oil shale and tar sands, an energy bill is needed to allow removal and refinement of the materials. Johnson said an energy act in 1981 set aside one million acres, mostly in Uintah County, for tar sand development. The act precludes other development develop-ment on that large piece of land. County officials and gas companies now want that land released for extraction of gas resources. A bill that would Fog and frost liner around the Seminary Building near Uintah High School. Fog assists in drug arrest Heavy fog last Saturday assisted Cpl. Bevan Watkins, Uintah County Sheriffs Department, in making a drug arrest. While patrolling in the Lapoint area, Watkins spotted a vehicle that was stopped partially par-tially in the roadway and creating creat-ing a traffic hazard. Watkins stopped to check on the occupant of the vehicle and saw a Crow Royal whisky bottle bag in the vehicle. Since one of the occupants was 19, Watkins asked to inspect the bag for any alcohol. Instead of alcohol, the bag was full of jewelry. An explana Bill Johnson and county leaders seek release of lands. have allowed this passes the U.S. House last year but was defeated in the Senate. Johnson said that while it would be acceptable to tie this need into an energy bill, he would prefer to see a separate bill releasing the land. Johnson and McKee met with majority leaders from both houses to discuss energy needs. Sen. Orrin Hatch has 'a Hli tion for the jewelry seemed suspicious, sus-picious, so Watkins conducted a routine ID check of the occupants. occu-pants. One of the occupants had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. During the traffic stop, Toran, a Uintah County drug dog, indicated that there was a controlled con-trolled substance in the vehicle. A detailed search located a container con-tainer and five baggies of suspected sus-pected controlled substances which Watkins said he believed to be methamphetamine. Also located in the vehicle were marijuana and drug paraphernalia. para-phernalia. Anthoney Joseph Seal, 21, introduced a bill in the Senate that would release the lands and Rep. Chris Cannon has introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives. Johnson said they spoke with Rep. Jim Matheson who is likely like-ly to support the bill. While in Washington, McKee and Johnson also discussed dis-cussed essential air service. "Airport support is tight and we oppose taking away subsidies," subsi-dies," Johnson said. Since the local airport is nearly half way through the two year contract with Salmon Air, it will soon be time to accept bids for a new contract. Johnson said that while Salmon Air is doing a good job, there is a need for service ser-vice to both Salt Lake City and Denver, especially for people in the oil patch. Johnson said that Rep. Matheson, who is on the transportation trans-portation committee in the House, worked hard last session ses-sion to keep air subsidies when they were attacked by other, congressmen. "We have no rail service, no interstate highway high-way and now no bus service," Johnson said, which makes maintaining and expanding air service essential.They were accompanied by Steve Berger was incarcerated in the Uintah County Jail on charges of possession pos-session of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia. parapherna-lia. Zachry Izaac Ross, 19, was incarcerated on charges of possession pos-session of marijuana, possession posses-sion of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession posses-sion of drug paraphernalia. Watkins said that the two had missed the turn to Deep Creek in the fog and were waiting to turn around. of Carbon County and by lobbyists lob-byists from Intermountain Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS) as well as other oil and gas representatives. repre-sentatives. McKee and Johnson also spent time with John Hughes, second in command of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "We tried to take another anoth-er perspective to the Interior Department and the BLM concerning con-cerning the workload in the Vernal BLM office. They just lost another engineer to a private pri-vate oil company." Johnson said that with the worldwide oil crunch, additional assistance assis-tance is needed to help the BLM employees get the work done. One thing that Johnson is trying to accomplish is to get a commitment from Sen. Bob Bennett to hold a rural summit in Vernal. Johnson said, "He has held them in St George and Cedar City. We need to do it here and have it energy oriented orient-ed with top officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior." Time was also spent with Sen. Hatch and Sen. Bennett discussing water issues and reservoirs as well as energy. Board says no changes until next school year By Virginia Harrington Express Writer The Uintah School District Board of Education discussed the proposed changes to the school calendar during a work session held Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the district office. Tod Tesar, president of the board, opened the meeting with instructions to the crowded room that this was a work session ses-sion only, not a business meeting. meet-ing. Therefore, no public input would be taken from anyone that was not on the calendar committee and no voting would be done by board members. Leon Hoyt then explained that the original proposal had been made in December to give board members an opportunity to study the issue in time to make a decision for the next school year if the members so chose. He also explained that even though some people think the changes are a "done deal," they are not. "As a committee, we felt thjg (the proposed changes) was what was best for the students. The secondary kids would be able to get more sleep. The extended year would mean less stress for the students and less re-teaching time at the beginning begin-ning of the year." ' Hoyt said he still thinks these changes would be better than the system now in place. Tesar later asked all committee members mem-bers who were present if they agreed with Hoyt and all said yes. Dixie Allen, director of Student Services, said the change from a trimester to a semester system would provide a wider range of classes and elongated class time per course with fewer class periods per day. She said the State Office of Education reports the trimester trimes-ter system has not been as beneficial ben-eficial to students as had been anticipated. Tesar asked the committee to look into going to a semester system using the A and B day schedule used in some districts in the state. He said he has heard good reports from schools that use the system. Hoyt said the committee had not examined exam-ined that possibility but would do so now that the board has requested it. He cautioned that there are some important issues that would have to be worked out before going to an A-B schedule. Superintendent Wayne Gurney pointed out that changing chang-ing from trimesters to semesters semes-ters would affect mainly the high school and junior highs with minimal impact on the middle school. The elementary schools would not be impacted at all with this change. This led to a discussion of having hav-ing a special committee made up of representatives from the high school and junior high schools. These representatives would have more knowledge of the needs of the secondary school and of why changes need to be made. Board member Rodney Anderson, M.D., who is a member mem-ber of the calendar committee, said he is not against having more representation from the secondary schools but does not want to waste time by having a separate committee redo the research that has already been done. He said that if another committee is formed it should look at the form a semester system sys-tem should take. Dr. Anderson also said there is a need to break the proposal propos-al down into three separate issues: changing from trimesters trimes-ters to semesters, changing the start time of the school day and extending the year. He added that any or all of these SeeChWQtion A10 vj. , |