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Show A2 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Demo Accident Continued from Al person was critically injured and several others were hurt as well, but chaos was reigning. "They were all being stepped on and the crowd was running back and forth through them," Reynolds said of the injured. The fire chief made the decision deci-sion to have his firefighters cordon cor-don off the area to allow EMTs to tend to the injured. That decision deci-sion apparently angered some in the crowd, and that anger was directed at the people trying to render aid. "It is still so surreal to me that I don't know what happened," Reynolds said. "I was kneeling down helping someone when a kid jumped on my back. I fought him off and the guy I was helping help-ing actually came and got in the middle of it." Reynolds ended up being punched in the face by the man he was trying to help. He said everywhere he looked firefighters, firefight-ers, police officers and other first responders were fending off attackers. at-tackers. "Basically, if you had a uniform uni-form on, for whatever reason that I can't understand, you became a target," Reynolds said. "The assaults seemed to be directed at police officers and firefighters. firefight-ers. Multiple firemen did take punches to the face." Vernal Police Chief Gary Jen BtiBmee (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: 435-789-3511, 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: htrp:www.vemal.com Email: editorvemal.com Subscription Rates: I I Clip and Send to: Vernal Express m a t m a Iytsy. vernai Ave Vornl Utah Q M1Q Out I Name Address. City Cash or Check only, fch J o c sen said two of his officers were walking through Western Park - which contracts with the Uintah Uin-tah County Sheriffs Search and Rescue Team to provide security during the fair - shortly before the accident and happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seeing a situation that was escalating out of control, one of the officers made a radio call for assistance, which brought more officers to the scene. "It was kind of a mayhem-type thing," Jensen said. "It lasted several minutes and then police were able to identify a couple of the perpetrators and they were handcuffed." Jensen said two brothers were the only people arrested in the melee. Tyler Bowman, 25, was arrested ar-rested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with an arrest. His brother, 20-year-old Brad Bowman, was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct, and interfering with an arrest. Jensen said the misdemeanor mis-demeanor charges against the men, whose father and uncle were injured in the crash, are expected to be filed in Vernal Justice Court. Ashley Regional Medical Center confirmed that six people were brought to the hospital from the accident at the derby. One of the injured - a member of one of the derby car pit crews who deputy county attorney Thomas said was warned repeatedly to I In the Uintah Basin 1 Yr.$26-2Yr.$48 Out of the Uintah Basin 1 Yr. $42 - 2 Yrs. $70 I I I of State -1 Yr. $46 2 Yrs. $80 I I I Zip4 Sorry No Charges chick mi the back, f3 J W 151 West Vernal stay away from the gate - was later flown to a Salt Lake City area hospital for treatment. Federal medical privacy laws prohibit both hospitals from releasing most personal information about those injured. Hospitals can release some basic information if a name of a patient is provided; however, Jensen said his department doesnot have the names of the accident victims because there is no criminal investigation into the crash. - Reynolds said he plans to have his department back at next year's derby despite this year's fracas with the hope that they'll Court delay Continued from Al by allegations of improper handling han-dling of bids and payments to Mitchell for work awarded to another company. When district records were subpoenaed by the grand jury in January 2000, Mitchell and Erickson allegedly worked together to change dates and modify names on contracts to support records of payment by the district to Mitchell in 1999 and 2000. Erickson was terminated as the manager of the special service district in May 2001, Speed week gets underway in Vernal Got a lead foot? Better leave it at home this week in Vernal. The Vernal Police Department's Depart-ment's annual Speed Week kicked off Monday, Aug. 27, and will run through Sept. 3. Chief Gary Jensen said officers will be "hypervigilant" in their patrols of school zones and will strictly enforce speed limits and traffic laws throughout the city. Jensen said he's coordinated the city's efforts to coincide with the start of school and this year has partnered with the Uintah County Sheriffs Department onsteps: v mm mi mm-wm VWouiovf 'Halloween?), mMFM: (imaunhngmemncm Ashley Regional MEDICAL CENTER 200 North Vernal, Utah 84078 (435) Express only see action in their typical roles. "We put out two or three fires a year and about every three or four years have to cut somebody out of a car, but we usually aren't mob control," Reynolds said, adding add-ing that he was extremely proud of the restraint his firefighters showed. "Not one of them lost their cool and hit back." Reynolds also had praise for Jensen's officers. "The Vernal City officers, quite frankly, handled an extremely ex-tremely rough situation very well," he said. and has moved from the area The district also terminated its working relationship with Mitchell Construction. The Uintah Special Service District has since been renamed the Uintah Transportation Special Service District. "I will be glad for closure on this case. It has been a long, wearing time, and it will be a relief when it is all completed," said Cheri McCurdy, executive office manager for the service district, but declined to comment com-ment further. McCurdy was an office assistant in 2000 and was a witness for the prosecution. and Utah Highway Patrol. In addition to speed and traffic violations, Jensen said officers will also be issuing citations for violations of the city's noise ordinance. Morning Cole; Subscribe today! Call 789-351 1 ft' V c n Nurse Teresa Haslem and her husband, Don, enjoy riding their Harley to just get out in the wind and forget any problems. After 15-years of caring for others at Ashley Regional, Teresa has earned the right to relax and spend some quality time doing what ever she likes. As a short-stay surgery nurse her job is to get patients ready for surgery, take care of them after the surgery and help them get ready to go home. "I enjoy interacting with the patients; many are very close to me. I like to talk with people and find out about their lives." She is proud of the continuity of care that she provides... "I see them first when they come in and see them last as they leave the hospital." And what about the physicians she works closely with? "We've got some really good docs and we've got a really good relationship with the doctors. With this new building being built, we'll be able to attract some additional physicians and give our existing docs more room to treat our ever expanding regional coverage." 789 - 3342 Great Lakes Continued from Al Airlines. "If you want to get 10,000 emplanements we have to have Denver in the mix, especially with the oil-gas industry representatives. repre-sentatives. With Great Lakes as the air carrier we will meet the minimum of community needs," said airport board member Rob Behunin. "A grant toward self-sufficiency will assist us in growing the airport with additional funding fund-ing options," said McKee. "The airport grant likelihood is very good, very optimistic." Passenger access to Denver Anadarko Continued from Al The company invests $300 million a year in drilling and capital expenses associated with v producing gas. It also spends another $60 million for daily operations. These numbers will chmb dramatically with the anticipated an-ticipated growth. "There is a lot of money coming com-ing this direction in the next few years," said Hickson. Anadarko also is expecting huge growth within their personnel person-nel ranks in the Uintah Basin. The company is in the middle of a three year Environmental Impact Im-pact Statement study that would allow them to drill an additional 3,500 wells. Currently, Anadarko employs eight rigs to drill up to 200 wells a year, which will continue con-tinue through 2009, Hickson told county and city leaders. The rig count would jump to 15 in 2010 if the EIS gains approval. Addressing Challenges Gas processing, gas delivery and housing were listed as three of the top problems the company is facing locally. The processing of natural gas will be greatly enhanced with the completion of the Chepeta processing plant, which is slated to go online in mid-October, Hickson said. The new plant will add another 300 million cubic feet of production to the 250 million cubic feet Anadarko can currently process in a day. A pipeline under construction from Utah to Wyoming will add another 550 million cubic feet of pipeline goes online in Novem-ber. Novem-ber. "We haven't slowed our pace at all so far, but we need the additional capacity of the processing pro-cessing plant and the pipeline to continue," said Hickson. Another challenge faced by Anadarko as it does business in the Uintah Basin is the remote location of the area's main population popu-lation centers. Hickson said that 99 through Great Lakes will include two round trips a day. Vernal to Denver, departing at 6 a.m. arriving at 7:13 a.m. Denver to Vernal, departing at 10:20 a.m. and arriving at 11:39 a.m. Vernal to Denver, departing depart-ing at noon and arriving at 1:13 p.m. Denver to Vernal, departing at 9: 15 p.m. and arriving at 10:30 p.m. For industry executives the flight schedule will have them in Vernal for business hours and home by evening. Officials of the city and county unanimously approved the Great Lakes proposal with service to start Jan. 1, 2008. Anadarko employees coming to Vernal from places like Denver and Houston find it lacking in some amenities due to its small' size. "Housingis another bigprob-lem bigprob-lem in this area, both in availability avail-ability and price," said Hickson. "If employees are coming from Denver the prices here are about the same. If they are coming from Houston they are three times more." Temporary housing is needed for those working only months at a time, said Hickson. "The lack of temporary housing limits the business we can do." The county and city have agreed to hire a housing specialist special-ist to work with government and industry officials to develop a strategic plan for both temporary and long-term housing needs, Hickson was told. "We want you to know that we are budgeting and planning to address affordable housing issues and you can take this message mes-sage back so that we can partner with you in solving some of these issues," said Vernal City Mayor Allan Mashburn. Education & Environment Anadarko employees who transfer to the Basin are also looking for good schools and college courses, said Hickson. Rob Behunin, representing represent-ing Utah State University Uintah Basin, said that the university offers over 36 different degrees, and that the Uintah Basin Applied Ap-plied Technology College offers customized courses directly related re-lated to the oil and gas extraction industry. "We would love to know what we are missing and work with you any way we can," said Behunin, who serves as USU Uintah Basin assistant to the president for special projects. Educational opportunities op-portunities need to be advertised better in order to reach workers in the oil and gas industry-it was agreed that joint efforts will be made to accomplish this. Roads are a big issue for Anadarko, as well, as they work to operate more efficiently in the region. Anadarko is also addressing environmental concerns. Their most recent project includes installing new controllers on all their gas lines to prevent leakage. leak-age. In addition, they are making adjustments on their natural gas pumps to eliminate emissions. In November Anadarko will explore the concept of "pad drilling" drill-ing" where up to 20 wells can be drilled from one pad location. "Because the 40-acre spacing is already drilled, we are looking at going into an existing pad and drilling four more wells," said Hickson, providing details about what the company is doing to reduce environmental impacts. Hickson was asked about the progress of the deep well technology technol-ogy that Questar is using and if Anadarko would follow suit. He said Questar had been successful in drilling to the Dakota formation forma-tion for gas and that Anadarko will be testing deep well drilling next year. Gettiraj Married? Submit original photos in person, e-mail or Bring in CD. 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