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Show V A8 Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Substitute Express Writer There is a shortage of substitute sub-stitute teachers in the Uintah School District, a problem that intensified last week before the UEA break. "This week is traditionally a bad week, "explained Lola Searle, Human Resource Assistant at the Uintah School District, in an interview last week. "Everyone wants to go out of town and there are a lot of teacher trainings." Last Friday, there were four positions at the high school that didn't fill and three positions at elementary schools. "If teachers can't find a substitute they have to have an aide watch a class, or at the elementary level they diwy up the class between several teachers," teach-ers," Searle said. "A lot of times the secretary will go through the County roadway projects to begin frJCssndbusa Express Writer The UintahTransportation Special Service District Board of Directors selected engineering engineer-ing firms for three transportation transporta-tion last week. Project include Vernal Avenue reconstruction, Main Street, and a countywide chipseal. The Vernal Avenue reconstruction recon-struction project was awarded to CIVCO Engineering, Inc. for a proposed cost of $249,405. The project impacts Vernal Avenue from 975 South to 5000 South. The road will be widened and reconstructed to satisfy increased TRUSTED SECURE RESPECTED Since 1907. Dale Van Pelt 800.838.1983 604 25 Road PO Box 1509 Grand Junction, CO 81502-1509 "With two entrances to our offices, we try to control contagious illnesses best we can." Dr. Letha Archer is part of Dinosaurland Pediatrics located in the hospital. All together there are four pediatricians in the office, which was founded by Rod Pollary, MD, more than 5 years ago. According to Dr. Archer, "We encourage patients who don't have any illnesses especially babies... to enter through the side entrance that is off the street. The other patients enter through the hospital entrance. In the waiting room, we try our best to reduce the risk of exposure to kids who are well from kids who are sick." Dinosaurland Pediatrics has been growing rapidly. In fact, in the past year the group practice has grown 20 percent. "We see a lot of patients from the Vernal area, but we also see patients from Rangety and Dinosaur, Colorado," Dr. Archer explained. "We have several patients teacher shortage substitute list and see if anyone could cover that class." But with the substitute teacher shortage, it isn't always easy to find a substitute. "I have less than 100 substitutes substi-tutes for our entire district right now," Searle said. "Last year I started out with between 130 and 150 substitute teachers. It would be nice if we could get back up to where it has been." "They can pretty much chose their own hours," she said about the substitute teachers. "It depends de-pends on how ambitious they are and how busy they want to be. It's pretty flexible." Searle mentioned men-tioned one substitute teacher had worked 168 out of the 180 school days last year. "Our pay scale is real good right now," Searle continued. A substitute teacher's starting salary is somewhere between 50 and 80 dollars a day depending on need based on projected growth in the area. The project design is scheduled for completion by Nov. 15, 2008. The transportation transporta-tion district will host meetings to discuss public impact as the project progresses. The Main Street project was also awarded to CIVCO Engineering, Engi-neering, Inc. The price will be negotiated when the final design is complete. The project impacts Main Street from 1500 West to 2500 West and 2000 West from US 40 to 500 North. The project is more than 2.5 miles in length and includes a four-lane highway to provide access ac-cess to the new USU building. Specialists in Oil and Gas field and Construction Insurance and Risk Management. Proud Representatives of the Travelers Insurance and Bituminous Insurance Companies. Agency, Inc. . Dr. Gregory Bart Dr. Rod ( j Vernal their training and education. "We'd be appreciative of anyone any-one who wanted to become a substitute teacher because we have a shortage right now," Searle said. The Uintah School District will be offering a substitute teacher training program on Monday, Nov. 8 at the Uintah School District Office beginning at 9 a.m. The class lasts approximately approxi-mately three hours. "We go over our school policies and the substitute program," Searle said. To be a substitute teacher, a person must be at least 21 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED, attend a substitute teacher training class and pass a background check. Applicants should bring their driver's license, li-cense, social security card and a $15 fingerprinting fee with them to the training on Monday. Vernal's first roundabout and two bridges, one across the Stein-aker Stein-aker service canal and one across McGaughton gulch wetlands, are included in the design. The estimated completion date is July 1, 2009. The countywide chipseal project proj-ect was awarded to Civil Science for a proposed cost of $67,346. The project impacts various areas spanning more than 120 miles of roads in Uintah County. The project will repair areas of the county's roads before a chipseal is applied to prolong the life of the road. Work begins spring of 2008 and is anticipated to last several months. ''Or. Letha Archer Pollary Come meet jjflffiuJ! our new HTOfflHi) managers v (WMliffit f- r m Express ) Members of the Can Do Crew - a group of special needs adults will soon move into new business headquarters to beg in expanding their recycling operations. They will be accepting donations of paper, aluminum and cardboard beginning in two weeks at their new location on the Maeser corner. CAN DO CREW GETS NEW DIGS New options may help business run by 'handicapable' workers Uintah Basin News Service Recycling collection bins that were once part of the scenery in parking lots at Vernal stores are now a thing of the past. The Can Do Crew, the group that Dr. Vanessa LaQuinte n who come from Dutch John, Manila and also Roosevelt, Utah. There are more patients to see because there's growth in the area, no matter whether it's Vernal or outside," she emphasized. Because of the growth, the hospital is adding a new physician's office building on the campus. With all this activity comes a new name. We're now Ashley Regional Medical Center. Ashley Regional MEDICAL CENTER 151 West 200 North Vernal, Utah operated the recycling program, is in the process of opening up their business in a new location. In two weeks they will be. ready to once again accept items for recycling, but only at their new home in Maeser at 500 N. 2500 W. "They were collecting newspapers news-papers and aluminum in bins around the community - but pulling the 'donations' out of those bins was a frightening experience. People threw in garbage, dead things, diapers and household junk," said Joshua Graham, program director for the Uintah School District's Community Employment Placement Place-ment Program. "We removed the bins all around town but we will have a bin up at the Maeser corner building. The recycling program run by the group of special needs adults and their leaders has been on "auto-pilot" without a home base. Since losing their rental space several months ago they considered getting out of the recycling business, which was all work and virtually no profit. "I figured if we did took one more truckload of cardboard bales to Salt Lake City we would be in the hole," said Graham, who coaches the members of the "Can Do Crew" on how to transition into the working world by teach- 84078 (435) 789-3342 rrrr . ... I ' i 4." 11 1' rz - ing employment skills. However, their new rental space in the building on the Maeser Mae-ser corner that formerly housed a furniture store, will give the business a needed boost. The building will provide the room needed to expand the group's recycling re-cycling operations and hopefully allow them to turn a profit. They will use only the north end of the building, according to Graham. "The benefits of the building are the (rental) price is right and it has enough electrical capacity" to operate recycling equipment, he said. Vernal and Uintah County will continue to help the Can Do Crew with operational costs as they branch out, Graham added. The city and county will buy recycling containers on trailers that can be towed. They will also share the cost of purchasing new equipment to make the recycling center profitable. The new "Datastroyer," a piece of equipment they are looking look-ing at to. diversify theirxecycling operations," will cost , $30,00,0. The heavy duty shredder would spit out cross-cut newspaper and cardboard. This is mixed with sawdust to produce a product used in the oil industry which is placed down-hole to plug the holes in porous rock to stop the loss of drilling fluid. Wayne Simper, owner of a Uintah County sawmill, is already al-ready on board to help. "The process worked fine, Simper would be willing to do that," said Graham. "We have enough paper already but we haven't done this on a large scale." He said any type of paper will work for the project: newspapers, copyoffice paper, posters, cardboard. card-board. The datastroyer would eventually allow the Can Do Crew to accept plastic. Right now plastic must be removed from paper they receive. "This is ideal for recycling because the way it is right now, recycling has not been profit-able...it profit-able...it might be a way to help it become a money maker," Graham said. A second option being considered consid-ered for paper recycling involves grinding it for use in cellulose insulation used in home construction. con-struction. This type of "blow-in insulation" is sold at Roofing World in Vernal. Graham said this idea is only under consideration consid-eration and is far from certain. "At this point we do not have the capacity to get into it... I would love to do it," said Graham, Gra-ham, "but it costs a phenomenal amount of money to even start business." The recycling center could meet its demand for labor and cut costs at the same time by using inmate trustees from the Uintah County Jail who would be paid between 30 to 40 cents an hour to produce shredded paper, Graham said. Can Do Crew members are paid at least minimum wage and have several window washing and office cleaning jobs in addition addi-tion to their recycling project. Find It... n classified a When Yon Need it! |