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Show iA2 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Vernal Express Uintah County plans public safety complex By toy lea Uintah County Sheriff Jeff Merrell (left) reviews a jail file with jail commander Lamar Davis and chief deputy Keith Campbell. The jail is required to maintain the files permanently, but is running out of room to put the manila folders and the people whose records ;Jheyhold. (USPS 0892-1091) Periodical postage paid at Vernal, Utah Published weekly at 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Vernal Express at 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078 OFFICE HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday Phone: 435-789-35 1 1, Fax: 435-789-8690 DEADLINES: News, legal notices, classified ads and display ads must be received by 5 p.m. the Friday prior to publication PUBLISHER: Kevin Ashby - kashbyvernal.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Les Bowen - editorvernal.com ADVERTISING: Jacque Hobbs CLASSIFIED: Tonya Harmer OFFICE: Harriet Harding WRITERS: Mary Bernard Elizabeth Goode Casey Christensen PRODUCTION: Heather Crosby Michele Roper On the Web: http:www.vernal.com Email: editorvemal.com Subscription Rates: I Clin and Send to: In the Uintah Basin 1 Vernal Express 34 m. vernai Ave Vernal, Utah 84078 Name Address City I I lYr.S26-2Yr.$48 ' Out of the Uintah Basin I lYr.$42-2Yrs.$70 I Out of State -1 Yr. $46 2 Yrs. $80 I Zip4 Cash or Check only, Sorry No Charges C . .!( Uintah Basin NmStnrtct The boiler breaks down regularly. The addition of an extra refrigerator to store drug testing supplies causes breakers to trip. The new industrial dyer wouldn't fit through the laundry room door, so the door had to be removed from its hinges. The heat works - sometimes. So does the air conditioning. The Uintah County Jail is on life support. "We're goingbroke just trying to keep it going," says Stephanie Stensgard, thejail's chief administrative admin-istrative officer. Originally built in 1985 with cells for 56 inmates, the jail now houses more than 100 state and Taxes Continued from page Al Add extended day kindergarten kindergar-ten at Todd Elementary; Fund incentives to attract teachers to Uintah School District; Dis-trict; Fund five voucher positions at the elementary schools with greater than 400 students to assist school secretaries; Fund a full-time athletic director di-rector in the recreation budget; Fund an emergency preparedness pre-paredness position; Increase utilities for the increased sizes of Maeser and Naples Elementary schools; Regular education and general gen-eral funds will balance shortfalls in the transportation budget and drivers education budget; Add two half-time teaching position for the schooling in the home program; Add an assistant coordinator position in technology with an emphasis on programming; Utilize approximately $600,000 of state funding for technology equipment and training train-ing More than 33 percent of the total budget is used for instruction. instruc-tion. Other areas funded include student and staff support, six percent; other support, 13 percent; per-cent; and capital outlay, almost 47 percent. The budget also addressed the passing of the general obligation bond in November 2005. As indicated indi-cated on the 10-year master plan, the renovation and new square footage of Vernal Middle School has begun. Bids came in significantly signifi-cantly higher than estimated for county prisoners on a regular basis. Jail commander Lamar Davis said that number was made possible in 1989 when a second bunk was added to each cell. But since that expansion nearly 20 years ago, the numberofinmates has continued to climb while the places to put them have remained unchanged. "We have had to release people early on their sentences," said Davis. "We've even talked about sending some of the state prisoners prison-ers back just to make room for the county inmates." Davis is quick to point out that inmates released early from the jail were being held for nonviolent non-violent offenses and were freed with the knowledge of the judge who imposed sentence. Finding a suitable place for inmates to live is only one of the problems jail administrators face. There are also the paper records kept on each person brought into the facility, food storage, spare uniforms for officers of-ficers and inmates, and the other items needed to run a jail. "It's like walking through a yard sale," Stensgard says of the way things are stacked in offices, hallways, and closets. Across the parking lot, Uintah Uin-tah County Sheriff Jeff Merrell punches in the code on a door that gives him access to his department's evidence storage, interview room, and offices for four detectives. Merrell explains that having run out of room in the evidence locker, one of the two bathrooms in the warren of offices across the corridor from his office has been retrofitted to serve as additional secure storage space. Despite the adaption, one of the detectives' offices bristles with an assortment of rifles all bearing evidence tags. The guns, which clutter the floor or lean against furniture, are no longer being held in connection with active cases, but Merrell says there's nowhere to store them. Even the agency's only interview inter-view room has boxes stacked in the corner. "It's a bigger issue than just the jail," says Merrell, who has only been in office for seven months. "The sheriffs office is SEE JAIL on page 3A Use of general fund and special program budgets Uintah School District spends more than $7,000 on each child. More than 66 percent is used on instruction. Figures do not include nutrition, capital and debt service funds. irn O70 Special instruction 8 Student and staff support 6 Transportation Building maintenance and operation 6 School administration 7 Central support the renovation at the time of the bond issue so adjustments-were adjustments-were made to the budget for the project. Comparisons with the past two budget years shows the proposed expenditures of the governmental gov-ernmental funds for the 2007-08 proposed budget of $88,783,978 are just above one percent higher than the final amended budget of $87,884,597 for the previous year. It is 95 percent higher than the actual 2005-06 expenditures of $44,958,870, primarily because be-cause of capital and debt service expenditures that began with the building projects in 2007. The general fund is used for costs of regular, day-to-day district operation. The general fund is 26 percent higher in the proposed budget ($40,112,885) than the actual expenditures for 2005-06 ($31,796,744). The revenue for the general fund is derived from: state revenue, 82 percent; federal revenue, 10 percent; per-cent; property tax, five percent; investments and other, less than three percent. For the 2005-06 school year the student count was approximately approxi-mately 5,513. Last year, enrollment enroll-ment was 5, 772, At the projected enrollment of 5,998 students for school year 2007-08, the amount of the general fund per student would be just under $6,700 per student. Approximately 950 part-time, part-time, full-time and voucher employees are paid each month, with contracted employees accounting ac-counting for approximately 577 full-time-equivalent positions. Instructional staff is allocated based on class size, which is anticipated to range from 22 in kindergarten to 27 in the high school. Uintah School District administration is at a ratio of five per 1,000 students. The Uintah School District Board of Education also approved the 2007-08 employee compensation compensa-tion package. It allows for: A gross increase of $2,004 to be paid to certified staff including classroom teachers, counselors, certified media specialists and school administrators having a satisfactory performance evaluation. This amount will be funded from the designated funding provided by the legislature legisla-ture and includes a cost of living increase. A 5 percent cost of living adjustment to all employees that are not mentioned in the item above. A one step increase for all employees hired prior to Jan. 1. Fully funded lanes and medical medi-cal insurance increase. As of July 30 the teachers had not met to accept the package. s,'r r- IKA UMS 3 0 C Iri 0D7-S 0EC5K$ Bill. UUU, JW, OLE - n . Vortec 5.3 V-8, auto, Z71 oka. 4 uunviHin BRAND NEW SLE trim, Auto woverdrfve, 291 HP, V-6,0nstarnav. option. 5 yr1 00,000 mi, warranty. ... 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