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Show l mtiOKI 7-1-1- prsW j r)rfLL I! I P.I I I'lVI h .MIL I I I ON IV I I S'Hn) s SI i II I ..4 I 74 Single Copy 500 Vernal, Utah 84078 113th Year No. 8 Wednesday, February 23, 2005 "" V. EXPRESSIONS SPORTS Lady Utes head to State. See B8 Wd . Thu I . Fit , 223 224 225 rt rt 4122 4119 4322 WEATHER 3Y inn ASPEN CROOK REALTY IMC. See All County hopes to be allowed to clear creeks By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor The damage of past flood years are haunting property owners in the Dry Fork area as snow pack levels are exceeding 350 percent of normal. Not only is there more snow pack in the Dry Fork and Ashley Creek drainage than in the past seven years, but there is a buildup of rock and debris in the middle of the creek channel which will hamper ham-per heavy spring flows in the creek. To get in the creek and clear out the debris requires a permit or approval from the State Engineer or Army Corp of Engineers. "Uintah County has not received a permit, but we are doing what we can to get one," said Uintah County Commissioner Jim Abegglen. Uintah County has organized a committee of individuals who meet weekly to discuss what can be done about the pending flooding problem. The committee commit-tee has taken photographs and will map 90 spots along Ashley and Dry Fork creeks which will be problem areas during high water. The committee has also prioritized prior-itized what will be protected in the event of flooding. Diversions are the first priority because they take a lot of flow away from the creeks, Abegglen said.: The second priority are bridges, roads and waterlines. Third priority pri-ority are homes and fourth are fields and property. Abegglen said the state engineer engi-neer has approved improvement improve-ment along the banks of the creek and reaching in from the bank to clear out the debris, but have not approved allowing See Creeks on All Rural airport funding could be cut The White House has proposed pro-posed cutting subsidies to rural airports from $102 million to $50 million. Such a severe cut could greatly curtail air service to rural Utah, including Uintah County and Vernal City. Airport Manager Thom Wardell said the proposed cut is unlikely to affect current service through Salmon Air because that contract is locked in. However, the contract with Salmon Air is nearing its end Proposed problems Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) plans to install traffic lights at the corner of Hwy. 40 and 500 S. due to repeated traffic accidents at that intersection. These plans are causing headaches for businesses busi-nesses on 600 S. and for the residential areas to the south of those businesses. The problems are caused by UDOT's plans to construct a barrier down the middle of the highway that will prevent traffic traf-fic from making a left hand turn onto 600 S. coming from the center of Vernal. It will also prevent cross traffic from the north side of the highway on 600 S. The median barrier is necessary neces-sary to prevent accidents that could be caused by the planned traffic light. If traffic were to be allowed to cross Hwy. 40 on 600 S., there could be multiple accidents acci-dents with cars turning left off 500 S. when given a green light. Unfortunately, this barrier will severely restrict access to the businesses on 600 S. and the residential areas behind those businesses. People trav- ?r, W W Dry Fork Creek is just a trickle, but debris which could cause problems and the search for a new contract, con-tract, either with Salmon Air or another carrier, is already in progress. Budget cuts could dramatically affect that search and any future negotiations. Wardell said the federal government gov-ernment "plays games" with the airport budget every year and this is nothing new. He also said that the Bush administration admin-istration has proposed a budget cut for the past three years. Wardell suggested that local traffic light causes for businesses eling east on the highway will have no problem entering the business and residential areas. Everyone else will have to enter in an indirect and roundabout round-about manner. Semis carrying goods to Ponderosa, Esquire RV and other businesses will have to make a short trip through residential streets to reach the area. Another problem exists with the frontage road that extends from 600 S. in front of the businesses. busi-nesses. It isn't really a frontage road. Rather it's paved property proper-ty owned by Danny Moore, who also owns Esquire RV. Moore has allowed the businesses to use the area as a frontage road but said he will not be able to maintain the pavement once the barrier causes increased traffic traf-fic on it. In addition, a portion of the land used as the frontage road is currently for sale. If it is purchased and developed, that would totally cut off access to the businesses from the west side as well as decrease access from 600 S. Moore and Ed Souders of E-Z E-Z Pawn addressed the Vernal years of no maintenance have left the during high spring runoff. citizens should contact Rep. Jim Matheson and Senators Hatch and Bennett to encourage encour-age them to work toward preventing pre-venting the budget cuts. The proposed funding cuts have come at a time when Utah Legislature and Gov. Jon Huntsman has taken steps to improve air service. The governor gov-ernor recently signed Senate Bill 9, for Aerospace and Aviation Development Zone Modifications. This bill allows City Council and Mayor William Kremin Feb. 16 during the regular council meeting. They requested that the city procure a right-of-way at the west end of the frontage road to assure access to the businesses from the west side. A request for maintenance of the frontage road itself was also made. The most expensive proposal made by Moore and Souders, but also the one that would be the most helpful to the businesses busi-nesses and the residents, involves purchasing land and building a new road. The land is the old Cooper property owned by Glenna Scott and located behind Big O Tires. The land is adjacent to property owned by Esquire RV. Moore said if the city would purchase a strip of about 150 feet from Scott to build the road, he would donate a strip of 15 feet to protect a utility pole and a chain link fence around a residence, as well as land for the road itself. The road would run parallel paral-lel to the highway from 500 S. to 600 S. There it would take a center of creek filled with rocks and any Utah community with an airport that desires to attract aerospace and aviation industries indus-tries can apply for zone designation. desig-nation. With this bill currently in force, an Aerospace and Aviation Development Zone may be created at or around any airport in the state that has land available for commercial development on, or contiguous to, the airport jet v Danny Moore stands on 600 S. next to a strip of property he is willing to donate in order to protect the utility pole in the foreground and a residential fence near the pole (not pictured) if the city will create a road connecting connect-ing 500 S. to 600 S. and on to 1250 W., which is visible behind Moore. Esquire RV (background) is one of many businesses that will potentially suffer when a median barrier is placed on Hwy. 40. The purpose of the barrier will be to prevent accidents that may be caused by the stoplight planned for the highway and 500 S. small jog to the north and connect con-nect with 1250 W. This would allow trucks and passenger traffic to enter the business and Discarded fossnls find mi tae at (Utah college By Virginia Harrington Express Writer Last week the Vernal Express reported that two dumpsters full of mud matrix, minerals and fossils fos-sils had been removed from the old Field House Museum. One box of the material had been rescued by Randy Fullbright before the loads were buried in the landfill. Fullbright took the box to Bill Stringer, field manager for the Vernal office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Stringer later returned the box and the items to Fullbright. Stringer told Fullbright that since there was no way to determine deter-mine if the items had come from public lands, there was no reason rea-son why Fullbright could not own the items, including the fossils. Fullbright contacted an attorney to be certain no laws were being broken. He was assured that once the items were placed in the dumpster, anyone could own them. The box contains turtle shells, fossilized bone from vertebrate animals, crocodile fossils and minerals. These are all items Fullbright normally uses to create his art work and jewelry products"," However, Fullbright said he is very careful to obtain the materials from privately owned land. Since he could not determine if the items in the box were from private or public pub-lic lands, he decided not to keep them. Fullbright called Dr. Paul Bibey, a professor of paleontology paleontol-ogy in the biology department at Utah Valley State College in Orem. Fullbright offered the entire box of items to Bibey. Bibey said he would be happy to take the items as he normally normal-ly has no fossils for students to study unless he purchases them himself. In a telephone interview, Dr. Bibey said he has received fossils fos-sils without provenance from the state paleontologist in the past and that these have been valuable learning tools for students stu-dents in his classes. Bibey also said that some of the buried items may have had value in the classrooms of teachers at other institutions of higher learning in the state. Bibey added that x residential areas from the east and the north without having to make a convoluted trip through residential streets. being able to hold a piece of fossilized fos-silized bone or a stone with a leaf imprint helps his students to understand the processes of fossilization more readily than by simply reading about them in a text book. Deputy Director Gordon Topham of Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation said administrators and staff at Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum would like to thank the community for their interest in and concern regarding the disposal of excess material from museum storage. Topham said, "While museum staff was following all state and curative policy regarding disposal dis-posal of undocumented items, concerns from some community members and at the request of park staff, Utah State Parks officials offi-cials were prompted to review its disposal guideline regarding regard-ing items that may have little or no scientific value, but may have some intrinsic value. No additional materials will be disposed dis-posed of until the new guideline is complete. "Utah Field House Museum staff wants to reassure the community com-munity and museum visitors that their goal is to protect, preserve pre-serve and present the wealth of documented artifacts found within this region. Utah Field House Museum has long been and will continue to be a community com-munity partner in education, science, research and regional tourism." Steve Sroka, director of the Field House, said he is pleased that some of the items that were of no value to the museum will be put to use in the classrooms of UVSC. He also said the exhibit exhib-it design for the second floor of the new building is not yet complete. com-plete. When it is finished, some of the Native American artifacts will be placed for public viewing while others will be stored. No decision has yet been made as to donating any of the items to the Western Heritage Museum. Heather Finlayson, curator of the Field House, said she is also pleased that Fullbright found someone who can use the discarded items. However, she stressed that the museum has many fossils and other items See Fossils on All The mayor and the council members agreed to consider the requests made by Moore and Souders. V |
