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Show Mil f f ft j If' 'Jy n I'll - J v v ly , , w )! fe Vernal Express Wednesday, December 13, 2006 All Louis Marin .Golden Age Center director, and Maricie Young, site manager, accept check from Jay Orr Chairman and committee members Bob Abercrombie, Dale Price, Ed Forsman, Carrol Estes, Bret Stringham, Jim Dagget, and Gary Showalter Petroleum Days donates to Golden Age Center The Petroleum Days annual golf tournament donated $2,500 to the Golden Age Center. The Petroleum Day's committee is composed primarily of local petroleum industry representatives. representa-tives. The money has been donated to various causes for the past 12 years, for a total nearing $60,000. The money is raised during a local golf tournament tourna-ment that usually averages 360 competitors in a four man scramble. It is held on the third Friday every May. In the past, the Petroleum Day's organization has given to scholarship funds, but found that there was plenty of money available there. So this year they decided to do something new and try to help the elderly. The Golden Age Center was happy to receive the money and will use it to fund a pro- Looking for Mercury On Sunday morning, Dec. 10, 2006, a triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury was forecast. A conjunction con-junction occurs when two or more bright celestial objects appear close in the heavens from our point of view, that is. The 3 planets would LOOK close, but actually, they are just the same direction away from Earth, and haven't really real-ly come close to each other. Stars are fixed objects in the sky: while it's true that they do wheel across the heavens from east to west, they remain in the same positions relative rela-tive to each other. The stars in the constellation Orion, for instance, which in December rise in our evening sky, don't shift their positions around. Orion looks the same now as it did when we were 10, and mom pointed Orion out to us. Planets, however, are "wanderers," "wan-derers," which is what the name means in Greek. Over the months and years, the planets wander from constellation to constellation. The twelve constellations con-stellations (one for each month) that the 5 visible planets visit are the zodiac. Rarely, two planets plan-ets will be "visiting" the same zodiacal constellation at the same time: the planets are then "in conjunction." Much more rare is a triple conjunction. Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury have not had a triple conjunction con-junction since the Civil War. To catch the rare event, we set the alarm for 5:15 a.m. By 5:30, we were groggily driving driv-ing east on Highway 40. We needed to look at the eastern sky without competition from the lights of Vernal. There was a mist rising from the south bank of Ashley Creek, where, we've heard, there used to be warm geothermal water flowing flow-ing from wells. Five miles east of Jensen, past milepost 162, we pulled over where there is a flat, unobstructed view to the east. Saturn was in conjunction conjunc-tion with the moon above us, but that happens once a month, so no big deal. We waited, and tried to identify the brighter stars that were visible. Vega, Arcturus, Spica, a few others were visible. A heavy thrumming, thrum-ming, coming from the oil and gas fields to the south, dominated the cold night air. Dawn, "rosy-fingered" according to the traditional Greek description, crept over the eastern horizon. Saturn and gram to bus senior citizens to the Wasatch front to receive health care, explained Louis Marin, director of the Golden Age Center. Jay Orr, production superintendent superin-tendent of EOG Resources and chairman of Petroleum Days, said that the oil and gas industry indus-try try to help the community and this is one of the ways through which they accomplish their task. MaTs were clearly visible, very close to each other, marking a line that pointed straight down to the (still invisible) sun. But no Mercury. Our binoculars caught a raven flying in slow circles, appropriately enough directly in front of Raven Ridge. Finally, around 7:10, as we were just about to leave, we glassed the sky above Raven Ridge one more time. Out of the corner of our eye, we caught a bright point, almost invisible invis-ible against the rising glare of the dawn. It was one of those times when you can't see a star or planet directly, but you see it with your peripheral vision. We would catch it, then lose it, then catch it again. It was only the second time we had seen Mercury, which never gets very far in the sky from the sun, and so is very hard to catch. With Earth under our feet, the only visible planet missing was Venus, which is apparently in our evening skies at this time. We're glad we didn't miss it; Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury will not be in conjunction again for another 40 years or so. jawMHiHG&iiSuuk Dl s No SECRET Ladies, Are you looking for the PFR FR( T Pitt tnr Dad brother or boyfriend? Get them whctC: All in stock accessories 50 off! Special order items 10 off! VE HAVE GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE! Scorpion Bed Liners 398 East Main, Vernal 435-789-5852 Buying a house is as easy as 1,2,3 with Ashley Valley Realty! MVallej We want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. 1 --M C7 1 AVlk AJtlet Valkf (4U7M-72M Cindy Brown KendraSlaugh Robin Button Leo Kan-en Lance Anderson Sonja Norton 790-2719 Vance Norton 621-6093 Nina Pease 828-0146 Shannon Cook 790-4245 KarleeBoyles 790-5511 790-8971 621-2044 828-7086 790-9673 790-3382 Sudoku Solution 7 1 19 8 2 6 3 5 14 4 8 2 5 9 3 6 1 7 5 3 6 4 7 1 9 2 8 9 5 1 7 6 4 2 8 3 3 7 8 1 5 2 4 9 6 6 2493857 1 145389762 8 6 7 2 4 5 1 3 9 2 93617845 Quarry closure update Condemned as unsafe, the quarry visitor center at Dinosaur Di-nosaur National Monument as been closed for almost six months. Since July the museum gallery, paleontological lab, and bookstore have remained closed and the effect that this closure has had on the Vernal tourist economy is still unraveling. Perhaps thousands of Basin visitors have been turned away this year. Dinosaur National Monument Superintendent Mary Risser says that the rock wall, unique among fossil parks, attracts over 300,000 visitors in any one year. Estimates for the 2006 summer season indicate that visitorship is down by 26 percent, representing a precipitous precipi-tous drop in park revenues. To be fair, not all of the drop is due to the quarry closure. Risser says that a portion of the decline de-cline reflects a national trend in park visitation with more families taking shorter trips and staying closer to home. She notes further that the lack of hotel space and high cost of gasoline contribute the reduction reduc-tion in monument visitation. Tourist-related community organizations and retailers have suffered due to the quarry closure. Richard Millet, executive execu-tive director of the Intermoun-tain Intermoun-tain Natural History Association, Associa-tion, says that the closure has presented considerable hardship hard-ship for the dinosaur bookstore. book-store. Fully two-thirds of sales from 17 total outlets came from the Association's bookstore at the dinosaur quarry. Overall sales revenues have dropped 70 percent. Negative effects of the closure have forced the Association As-sociation to terminate six employee em-ployee positions, including both year-round and seasonal Jobs. Bookstore operations moved to a bookmobile over the summer with the Association looking to purchase a 12x60-foot modular modu-lar unit for future use. Director Millet says fund-raising efforts through member associations have raised roughly $16,700 toward to-ward the purchase of the module. mod-ule. School outings and educational educa-tional researchers also have been restricted from access to the fossil wall. The closure has been especially problematic for international visitors who have had little recourse in complaint. com-plaint. Commissioner Mike McKee says that better marketing could mitigate the negatives effects of the closure. He suggests sug-gests that notice of the closure emphasize other activities and events that are scheduled for the monument region. McKee says the announcement of the building closure leaves people thinking that the whole monument monu-ment is closed. This has had a rippling effect upon other facilities facili-ties in the Vernal area, raising anxiety for the future of tourism tour-ism throughout the county. He says, "once that train is stopped, it may take it a while to get it going again." Mary Beth Ben-nis-Smith, Education Curator for the Utah Field House Museum Mu-seum State Park, echoes these concerns saying they have received re-ceived comments about the closure clo-sure from national as well as international tourists fearing that there is nothing open in the area. The social dimension of the quarry closure has yet to be fully measured. Public interest in this project raises concerns about the reopening of the fossil museum in the coming year. The pace of the project has been slowed according to Superintendent Risser by budgetary bud-getary and compliance issues. In January 2001, the Quarry Visitor Center was listed on the National Register as a Historic Landmark building and therefore, must be afforded historic preservation compliance compli-ance consideration. Part of the compliance process requires that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) be prepared for the museum structure. Completion of the EIS is anticipated antici-pated in early 2007 when the public will be invited to comment com-ment on the proposed project. For the concerned Vernal public pub-lic this issue cannot be resolved soon enough. UHP officer not guilty A two-day jury trial ended with a not guilty verdict for David S wenson, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper. Swenson was charged in April with two counts of theft, third degree felonies, for alleged cattle theft. sponsored by USfSPPTWnflT lASPbN BROOK I I llT.ll'y'MM'JM J REALTY INC. WmMYiHS::-. Thu Fri Sal , l,' v Mon 1213 1214 1215 1216 , 1217 1218 : ; , . til hJ t5 vs xxxv 3822 4226 4321 3120 3218 274 Mix of sun and More clouds than Rain and snow Snow showers at Mix of rain and snow Chance of a lew clouds. Highs in the sun. Highs in the low showers. Highs in times. Highs in the showers. snow showers, upper 30s and lows 40s and lows in the the low 40s and lows low 30s and lows in in the low 20s. mid 20s. in the low 20s. the low 20s. Sunrise Sunset sunrise Sunset Sunrise Sunset Sunrise Sunset tunrt Sunset Sunrise Sunset 7:30 AM 4:52 PM 1 7 3, AM 4 52 pM j 7:31 AM 4:52 PM 7:32 AM 4:53 PM 7:33 AM 4:53 PM 7:33 AM 4:53 PM Utah At A Glance Moon Phases Logan 4;, Pi! Ogden 4538 O O I -I AJ H-- s oau Lane uuy WTO 4638 1 X Provo 4735 Cedar City 5529 Area Cities Wl WWW? 53 29 pt sunny Vernal 4226 Last Dec 12 New Dec 20 First Dec 27 Full Jan 3 UV Index Thu 1214 Fri 1215 Sat 1216 Sun 1217 Mon 1218 Low Low Low Low Low Tha UV Index is measured on a 0-11 number scats, with a higher UV Index showing the need for greater skin protection. pro-tection. 0 aWJiiai 1 1 Beaver Blanding Brigham City Cedar City Delta Elko, NV Evanston, WY Farmington, NM Fillmore Flagstaff, AZ 51 28 pt sunny 43 37 mixed 55 29 pt sunny 50 30 cloudy 49 33 mixed 38 33 sn shower 53 25 pt sunny 52 32 pt sunny 48 16 sunny Grand Jet, CO Green River Heber City Kanab Logan Moab Mt. Pleasant Ogden Park City Preston, ID 47 30 48 27 40 29 54 31 39 35 50 28 39 29 45 38 39 33 39 34 pt sunny cloudy sn shower pt sunny mixed pt sunny cloudy mixed mixed mixed Price Provo Richfield Roosevelt Salt Lake City Sandy St George Tooele Vernal Wendover 40 28 47 35 53 31 41 28 46 38 46 38 60 38 47 37 42 26 47 33 cloudy mixed pt sunny cloudy mixed mixed pt sunny mixed cloudy mixed 3D osi&iBOtffin& fcngsTitiiiv A breathtaking view of the valley as you enter Vernal. A canal runs through the property with some pasture ground below the canal. Ground is located west of the scenic overtook. Fantastic possibilities! ! ! Call Dennis Molt for details at 828-7555. ASPEN BROOK REALTY INC. "Expect the Best 1 340 West Highway 40, Vernal, UT 84078 DenfeMott Office: (435) 789-7555 Fax: 781 -291 3 Biota; Agent i |