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Show B6 Wednesday, September 5, 2007 BASIN CORN MAZE AMAZING An aerial shot of this year's Btuebel! Com Maze reveals a tribute to drive behind the Uintah Basin's economy. With the theme 'Basin's Black Gold," Mark Monsen has focused on the oil and gas industry in-dustry this year. The maze features an oil derrick, a pump jack and an oil field worker carrying a wrench. "With the oil field boom going on in our area I thought that it would be good to recognize their contribution to our economy and the prosperity we are enjoying," Monsen said. Basin teachers can count on seeing $2,500 pay increase Uintah testa News Service Come what may, Uintah Basin teachers are going to get every oent of the $2,500 pay increase TTT U V Plus is formulated to protect and condition the exterior wood of your home. Use it to enhance the If r -.-zzi-l natural beauty of wood decks '- z' fences, siding, log homes, outdoor furniture and railing. Features: Specially formulated for exterior wood. Reduces warping, cracking, and shrinking of wood. Long lasting water repellency. Contains Transparent Iron Oxide Pigments. Vernal Avenue jF""7" VlWVl i UyTTJ 789-3241 jtLJ PAINT Ct GLASS 1-C2Q-C45-1850 i i r" "Lunt end -zr v,- 'jwv that w as promised by the Utah legislature last year. Or at least that's the word from local district officials. Statewide, that guarantee isn't as set in stone after it Protects wood from harmful Ultra-violet rays. Natural oils condition wood and enhance its natural beauty. T , lite ihmimT' mdll(hMim(sim KtfVWtllKMrfl tub)ect appwnl. M Vernal ;1 j 4 was discovered months ago the legislature hadn't appropriated enough money to fully fund the promised pay increase, It was not until lawmakers adjourned after their last ses- '"1 .A I i Jj NATURAL WOOD FINISHES WMjrfWA "Rocky Mountain Tough' PO Box 8 West Jordan, ITT MOM 800-731-3669 nT Willi tlfMl'l'! I' ill' I I ' i rf ' l. 2k Mountain America XCREDIT Express 3 ii i I LARGE IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT Radar, the Guinness World Records' tallest living horse, is coming to the Uintah Basin this week. Standing 19 hands 3VS inches (that's 6 foot TA inches at the withers), this Belgian draft horse, was born in Iowa in 1998 and was purchased by Priefert Ranch Equipment in 2005. He eats 18 pounds of grain, 40 pounds of hay, and drinks 20 gallons of water each day. Priefert is bringing Radar to the Roosevelt IFAon Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Vernal I FA on Monday, Sept. 10, from noon to 6 p.m. Load up the kids and don't forget your camera. sion that officials realized they had neglected to include every category of Utah teachers in the figures used to set the budget. As a result, the total money allocated only allowed for an average pay raise of $1,938. Duchesne County School District Dis-trict Business Administrator Dee Miles and Uintah County School District Business Administrator Randall Upton both said local officials have decided to give their teachers the entire $2,500, acting on good faith that the legislature leg-islature will remedy the situation and appropriate the rest of the money when they re-convene in January. "We're going to pay our teachers teach-ers the full amount," Miles said. "Based on conversations we've had with legislative leadership, they said they'd take care of this when they open the next legislative legisla-tive session." The worry for business administrators admin-istrators like Miles and Upton from districts withatight budget is that the legislature won't make good on their pledge to appropriate appropri-ate the extra money needed to fully fund the pay raise. If that happens, Miles and Upton both said district officials will use an already-existing reserve fund to make up the difference. dif-ference. Miles said the Duchesne County School District would need to come up with $230,000 to fully fund the pay raises and Upton said the Uintah County School District is short about $200,000. "My hope is that they're going go-ing to fund this," Upton said. "It won't look good for them if they don't. But what it boils down to is if the legislature doesn't allocate those funds right away, or if they don't do it at all, we'll be subsidizing subsidiz-ing it out of our budget." Instead of doling out the entire en-tire $2,500 pay raise in one lump sum, school administrators from the Uintah Basin have chosen to include portions of the money in teachers' monthly checks. Upton said the legislature must UNI0N ii v ) have appropriated the remaining funding before March or money from the legislature will run out. "I hope this pay raise issue will be one of the first things addressed," ad-dressed," he said. "My thought is, why didn't they call a special session and address it when it was first discovered that there was a problem?" A handful of legislators have been vocal with their promise that they intend to promptly appropriate the rest of the money needed to fully fund the pay raises once the new session begins. In a letter published on the Utah House's Web site, several representatives, including local legislator Gordon Snow, assured educators the rest of the money will come. ". . .Rather than allow districts to pass along anything less than $2,500 gross pay raise to teachers, teach-ers, we intend to fulfill our commitment," com-mitment," the letter said. "It is our intent that every single dollar promised makes its way directly into the iiands of the teachers. This was a very public promise the Legislature made to our valuable and noble teachers and to the public as well.. .This is a promise the Legislature intends very much to honor. "We thank our teachers for their work educating our rising generation," the letter continued. contin-ued. "We know they labor often times in obscurity and at great personal sacrifice. They deserve this raise and we intend to work to ensure that each and every teacher receives what has been promised to them." Despite vocal assurances like the one above, Larry Newton, finance director for the Utah CNCC offers criminal justice in Craig, Meeker Colorado Northwestern Community Com-munity College is now offering offer-ing criminal justice courses on its campus in Craig, Colo., and service center in Meeker, Colo. These classes are on the new poly-com poly-com system and give students the opportunity to get a degree in criminal justice. "We are increasing the educational edu-cational options throughout our service areas," said President John Boyd. New programs being offered this fall at CNCC include industrial electrician, civil engineering engi-neering technology, horsemanship horseman-ship and horse management, energy and facility management, helicopter flight, and massage therapy. CNCC experienced an increase in-crease in enrollment during the summer semester compared to last summer. This is the first time in more than three years that BLM reconnects The Bureau of Land Management Man-agement recently reconnected a modified version of its Well Information System (WIS), now known as Non-Indian Well Information System or NIWIS. This Web-based application is used for submitting and tracking oil and gas permits on federal lands only. The Web address ad-dress used to access the NIWIS is https:www.blm.govwi8per-mitsniwisSE https:www.blm.govwi8per-mitsniwisSE Once at this Web. site, instructions are given on receiving log-in and password information. "This Web site helps the BLM provide important information to our customers by once again providing a means for submitting and tracking oil and gas permits and reports electronically," State Office of Education, said he thinks the legislature's choice whether or not to appropriate the remaining money could go either way. "The legislature does what the legislature does," he said. "We don't know for sure if this is going to happen or not. You have individual legislators who can voice their opinion, but they aren't the collective body that makes the decision." The legislature must set aside an additional $21 million to $25 million to fully fund the pay increase statewide. Newton said the amount of money initially ini-tially budgeted by the legislature was incorrect because data the Utah State Office of Education provided regarding the number of educators in Utah was short of the actual amount. "They were pushing us for data so quickly we didn't have the time to go back and realize our database had not counted certain teachers," Newton said. "There is plenty of responsibility to go around. We regret the error but we've owned up to it. We're only human." 'r'''y' ! Newton said if the legislature doesn't appropriate the remaining remain-ing funding for the pay raise, some districts will choose to pay theirteachersonly $1,938. Other districts, like the Duchesne County School District and the Uintah County School District, may choose to make up the difference differ-ence out of their own budget. "The worry is that if the legislative leg-islative support doesn't happen, some districts will cut back," he said. "Others who have the money may choose to supplement supple-ment the pay raise, and there is nothing wrong with nor unusual the college grew in semester-to-semester comparisons. "We believe that this growth will continue on into the fall semester," said Boyd. "Over the past year the college has put more emphasis on our marketing and recruitment campaigns and we believe that it is paying off ." Opening day for the entire CNCC service area was on Monday, Mon-day, Aug. 27. At first glance, the numbers do appear to be on the rise, as the residence halls have filled to a point where dorm rooms are being assigned with double-occupancy in all halls at the Rangely, Colo., campus. Registration remains open through Wednesday, Sept. 12 which is the last day to adddrop a semester-length class. Schedules Sched-ules are posted at each campus and service center and can be found on the CNCC website at http:www.cncc.edu. well Web site said BLM Deputy Director Jim Hughes. "It will also streamline the processfor approving permits required for development." To comply with new security requirements, only application for permits to drill, notice of staking, well completion reports, and sundry notices for non-Indian wells on federal land can be submitted into NIWIS. . Historical transactions were reviewed and only non-Indian well-related transactions were loaded into the application. For more information on the Non-Indian Well Information System, contact: Leslie Cone, BLM Land and Resources Project Office Manager, WO-330D, EO. Box 25047, Denver, CO 80225, or at (303) 236-0815 or by e-mail at leslieconebIm.gov. |