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Show PRESORT -6 . . . . C I'l'r Wednesday utah press as December ( s5c21 f o ASSS0CI Single Copy 50t Vernal, Utah 84078 114th Year No. 50 LAI M (..) 7 www.vernayioV: WEATHER BY Coming together See B1 ASPEN BROOK REALTY, INC See All FAMNLIES aJ Jl LADY UTES 3-1 IN 126 127 3312 3414 Plenty of sun. Highs More sun than in the low 30s and clouds Highs in the mm I. J , 'f ., 7 V Santa Claus is big at Jarvie Open House Jarvie Open Over 195 people made the two-hour trip to Jarvie Ranch to participate in the annual Holiday Open House sponsored by the BLM. This year volunteers provided provid-ed music, wagon rides, Santa Claus, baked goods, crafts, and a chili lunch. "It's a little cold, but it is worthwhile," said Dean Evans, retired BLM employee who guided the wagon rides. William Bart Parslow, on the guitar, his daughter, Jocinda on the fiddle and Carson on the bass, provided the music. The Brown's Hole Homemakers Club provided the baked goods. All proceeds went to the club to continue to promote Browns Park and Ladore Hall. The Jarvie Ranch, a National Fire destroys Questar field office On Monday night around 8 p.m., Vernal CityUintah County Fire Department responded to reports of a building build-ing on fire. Fire crews responded respond-ed to the fire in the Redwash area, about 25 miles southeast of Vernal, and found the blaze consuming the northwest corner cor-ner of the Questar building. The Questar building is the main office in the northeast area of Utah. Commissioners approve $191,000 tax abatements The Uintah County Commissioners Monday accepted accept-ed the abatements of $191,100 in county taxes for those in need. The total number of persons receiving the abatement was 632 with a property value of $18,085,914. The abatement included 14 for-the blind totalling total-ling $1,689.96; 282 State Circuit Breakers totalling $95,640; 194 County Circuit Breaker, totalling total-ling $38,956; 11 indigent, totalling total-ling $2,444; 86 real property of veterans totalling $45,824 and 45 personal property abatement of veteran's personal property totalling $6,544. The state of Utah will reimburse reim-burse the county $95,640. "That will make the county's abatement less than $100,000 for if in Brown's Park. House brings warmth Historic Site operated by the Bureau of Land Management, is the site of a nineteenth-century trading post. John Jarvie, an immigrant from Scotland, ran the trading post until his death in 1909. During the summer sum-mer months, visitors from all over the world tour the historic site, but in December, the ranch takes on a special charm. Each year, the ranch is decorated deco-rated in great detail by volunteers volun-teers and staff as a historical re-creation of Christmas in the 1880s. Weeks ahead of time, the preparation begins. Evergreen boughs are cut and made into numerous wreaths and yards of garland. Red bows and greens adorn the grounds, and each of the buildings develops a character char-acter all its own. Fire fighters immediately went to work fighting the fire from the outside of the structure. struc-ture. After controlling the fire from the exterior, crews entered the building to extinguish the blaze from the interior. Jensen fire department personnel per-sonnel assisted with fire fighting. fight-ing. The cause of the fire is still under investigation and assistance assis-tance has been requested from the state fire marshal's office. 2006," said Commissioner Mike McKee. Although the abatements have already been awarded, commissioners commis-sioners formally approved them for the year. Circuit Breakers are tax credits cred-its available to homeowners, mobile homeowners and renters rent-ers who are at least 65 years of age (or surviving spouses of any age) and whose 2005 household income was less than $26,158. Verification of Utah residency and household income is a requirement of eligibility. Only owner-occupied homes or low income renters are eligible. Homeowners and mobile homeowners hom-eowners must submit a completed com-pleted application to their local county government by Sept. 1. V f. Parslow family provide the music are During a snow flurry, shoes and coats are distributed to by the 1st Corps Artillery to Afghans in the mountain town of Gardez. Humaritain effort provides shoes and coats for Afghans By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor Sergeant First Class R. Brian Wilkinson doesn't want those serving in the armed forces to be forgotten this Christmas season. sea-son. He is a Medical Embedded Trainer in the mountain of Afghanistan. He has been in Afghanistan for four months, during which time he said he has seen improvement in the to holidays Jarvie Holiday Open House. Afghan National Army. "Still it seems like we are trying try-ing to herd cats at times," he said. He works with Afghan physician's phy-sician's assistants and medics to improve the level of health care. "The two biggest crimes that the Taliban committed over here were destroying schools and the health care system," he said. "We have had to start from scratch and work up from there." Gas uell project ivould change land and affect wildlife The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposes allowing allow-ing drilling of 2,000 natural gas wells in Wyo. in a development that the agency's own project manager says will have "pretty intensive effects" on wildlife and the look of the land. The economic fallout could benefit northeastern Utah. According to the Association Press, the BLM on Friday released a final environmental environmen-tal study for the Atlantic Rim Natural Gas Field Development Project. The agency proposes to grant a request from Anadarko Petroleum and other smaller operators to develop 2,000 gas wells on some 270,000 acres of federal, state and private land south of Rawlins. The proposed development calls for allowing one gas well per 80 acres. Drilling could start as soon as next spring, the BLM says, and continue in the area for as long as 50 years. The BLM states that the proposed pro-posed development would likely like-ly create nearly 1,500 jobs during dur-ing peak production and have a total economic impact of about $6.4 billion for the state. However, the BLM's analysis analy-sis also states that the project will displace wildlife and that impacts to scenery, noise, dust and human activity would all reduce the area's desirability as a place to camp. Attempts to reach a project manager at Anadarko were unsuccessful on Friday. A coalition of environmental groups early this year blasted a draft environmental study of the project. The groups said the study suffered from a "crippling flaw," in that the BLM had not yet specified where the wells, pipelines, roads and power lines would be sited. Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist biolo-gist with one of the groups the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie, said Friday that the new environmental environ-mental study is no more spe- They recently opened a new hospital in the forward operating operat-ing base in Gardez, but it is still rudimentary medicine. "We recently did a humanitarian humani-tarian aid mission to a small village located just outside our gates to deliver donated shoes and some coats," he said. "What I noticed most of all is that very few of the children here have gloves or mittens." Sergeant Wilikinson is located locat-ed at 8000 feet and the snow has been steady the last week. cific than the draft. He said the project threatens critical elk and mule deer winter range as well as sage grouse breeding areas. "Clearly, the BLM still has no plan for how this development develop-ment is going to be laid out, and where the development is going to go," Molvar said. "Given the extreme density of wells and roads that are planned throughout through-out the project area, this project is an ecological disaster in the making." David Simons, planning and environmental coordinator for BLM in Rawlins, said the environmental envi-ronmental study looks at the entire project area. "We just don't do that at this scale," Simons said of planning out the location of each well. "Things change every year." Simons said plans call for energy companies to propose annually where they want to drill specific wells and said the BLM will review those proposals. propos-als. The BLM proposes to allow drilling of up to eight wells per 640-acre section of land, or one well every 80 acres. Simons said that level of drilling, "is consistent with what our geology geol-ogy folks and our geologists say is what's required to get the gas out." Simons said the BLM had looked at an alternative that would have capped drilling at four wells per section, but said the agency concluded that the approach wouldn't be effective. "It's going to have some pretty pret-ty intensive effects; we're concerned con-cerned on the effects of antelope, ante-lope, crucial winter range for big game," Simons said. "Sage grouse is always an issue. We're reinjecting all the water; so that won't be an issue." Gov. Dave Freudenthal filed comments on te draft study last year saying that he supported 80-acre spacing for wells in the See Wells on A10 Wes Richens New manager heads ambulance Wes Richens has been selected select-ed to replace Dave Bessinger as the Vernal manager of Gold Cross Ambulance service. "When I heard Dave was leaving, leav-ing, I applied for the job and I was selected," Richens said. Richens has been an EMT for 10 years. "Dave did an outstanding outstand-ing job for the county," said Commissioner Dave Haslem. "I know I have some big shoes to fill," Richens said. Last year Gold Cross responded respond-ed to 1,200 calls for services and they are at 1,200 already this year. The company has five ambulances in Vernal and one in Jensen which is housed with the Jensen Fire Department. Richens said he has 48 EMTs on the roster. A |