OCR Text |
Show Taser Suit Continued from Al ministrative leave in September, shortly after Massey posted video of the traffic stop on YouTube. The UHP said the leave was meant to protect the trooper due to numerous anonymous death threats made against him on the Internet. Gardner was required to undergo remedial communications communica-tions training before returning to duty. Nigbur said the UHP is now reviewing how the Section 5 office nandled Massey's verbal complaint - no formal written complaint was ever filed by Massey - to determine if there were problems with the process. pro-cess. "We're going to look at the procedure to see if anything needs to be improved," Nigbur said. Massey said Tuesday that the need for legal action on his part could have been avoided entirely if the Vernal UHP office had actively ac-tively investigated his complaint when he made it. "I wish that they would have taken car e of it up front and none of this would have happened and no one ever would have saw a YouTube video," he said. "That's true and I've told them that." Massey said a portion of the money he'll receive from the state will go to charity. The out-of-court settlement and UHP investigation findings come on the heels of a March 3 decision by the Tooele County Rodeo fate Continued from Al tinue. "How, aside from a lack of budgetary controls, does one organization loose $58,780?" asked Vernal City Council woman JoAnn Cowan. "The simple answer is, expenditures expen-ditures went up and revenues went down," said Dennis Mott, the rodeo committee's president presi-dent in 2007. "First, we lost the county's funding of $30,000. Then, we lost 2,000 ticket holders hold-ers caused by the high price of gas last summer and the lack of hotel space." At about $10 a ticket, gate fees were reduced by $20,000, which resulted in roughly $50,000 in lost revenue. Rodeo committee members attributed the remaining remain-ing shortfall to mismanaged concessions, lost sales, aad a decrease in sponsorships. "The committee has cut $20,000 from the current budget," bud-get," Miller said. "It costs over $200,000 to put on the rodeo, which is roughly the amount we have in our rainy day fund. But, without the continued support of the county, in two years there . will not be a rodeo." Uintah County Commissioner Dave Haslem said the county could not subsidize events under advice of legal counsel. "After the Doug Short case, county commissions can be sued for mishandlingtax monies," said Haslem. In 1999, Salt Lake County and Doug Short faced off in a legal battle that ended up in the Utah Supreme Court. State law bars counties from using public funds to aid private enterprise. The court ruled that counties could not make a donation to any organizations - whether they operation for profit or not. Contributions can only be made when the county receives a fair return in goods and services. The Supreme Court overturned over-turned the ruling of a lower court stating that the standard was met if the payments were "intended to achieve a specific result" and that the result "is a benefit to the county, the value of which may well exceed the sum expended, perhaps by a substantial amount." Simply put, the court rejected the argument that a donation was legal if it benefited the county, even if the benefit wasn't quantifiable. Since the 1999 court ruling, county officials across the state have been leery of making donations dona-tions to charities unless there is a direct, quantifiable benefit to the county. Still, the county has used transient room taxes as discretionary funds for special events like the Dino-Triathlon purse. "Contributions have to be used for a valid county purpose," I Iaslem told the rodeo committee. "People expect accountability for their tax dollars. Can you show me a dollar benefit or loss coming '; back to the community?" ! "The money goes throughout ; the community," Vernal City's Cowan said. "It may be difficult ; to assess a dollar figure but the i motels are full, the restaurants are full and the rodeo stands are : filled with people every night. ! How do you measure that?" j Still, Haslem said he was unwilling to vote for a donation I to the rodeo unless he was pre-j pre-j sented with a report showing how ; the county's donation benefited i the county residents, i "It doesn't have to be a profit, but a benefit to the com Attorney's Office ruling not to charge Gardner criminally for using his Taser. j . In a seven-page letter to the Utah Attorney General's Office, the Tooele prosecutors said Gard-n. Gard-n. r "did not commit a violation of a Utah criminal statute when deploying his Taser." They said the circumstances surrounding the incident "rose to a level of . non-compliance where the use of force was reasonably necessary" to arrest Massey. Massey was pulled over on U.S. 40 west of Vernal after Gardner observed him speeding. , During a confrontational traffic stop, Massey refused to sign a speeding ticket and was ordered out of his sport utility vehicle. Massey has said that he believed Gardner was going to allow him to point out a nearby speed limit sign that the father of two had passed shortly before being stopped. Instead, Gardner ordered Massey to place his hands behind his back. When Massey didn't immediately imme-diately comply, Gardner pulled his Taser and repeated the command three more times as Massey walked back toward his SUV before firing the weapon. Massey, immobilized by the Tas-er's Tas-er's 50,000 volts, fell backward screaming onto the shoulder of the road. The stop gained international attention after Massey obtained a copy of the video captured by Gardner's dash-mounted camera and posted it on YouTube. To date, the video has been viewed more than 1.7 million times. munity, " he said. "I am just asking questions on behalf of the taxpayer." Steve Evans, former rodeo president, said that his committee commit-tee estimated that the number of dollars spent to return was around 7.5 percent, at least 10 years ago. "We developed an economic impact statement through USU by asking people and businesses around town," Evans explained. "Of course that was 10 years ago and a lot has changed since then." The county has contributed, according to Haslem, through Western Park because the facility has cut arena fees to $20,000 for the benefit of the rodeo. He went to say that "the number of compensation com-pensation tickets offered through the committee is ludicrous." In lieu of payment, comp tickets are traditionally used to recognize rodeo volunteers. The 11 rodeo depends on volunteers with as many 300 individuals contributing in a single year. Committee members agreed with Haslem's criticism, saying that they have already moved to curtail the giveaways. But as Miller noted there are some costs that cannot be avoided. "It costs over $84,000 for the stock contractor," she said, noting not-ing that good rodeo stock is not cheap. "Also the hospitality room for the cowboys and their families fami-lies will remain, just not open as many hours as it has in the past. . All those cowboys spend money to the benefit of the community. "Moreover, we have also arranged ar-ranged to bid out sponsorships to handle the concessions," said Miller. The committee has arranged to find sponsors for each of the three concession stands, one of which is settled. "We are already advertising for sponsors," she said. "Cash will no longer be handled through the concession booths. People will purchase food tickets before entering the rodeo and use the tickets at the booths." "Last year, I drove out of town MOUNTAIN AMERICA CREDIT UNION m ,.tM0T0RH0MES... BOATS... NCUA fttlttlnwMbtKCUJk Vernal Cost of Meth Continued from Al tories. Some ingredients that can be used to make meth are paint thinner, acetone, drain cleaner, battery acid and cold medicine. While the cooking of meth is relatively simple it is also highly dangerous and toxic to the' environment, the cleanup of which is an expense often passed on to taxpayers. Meth labs can be set up almost anywhere - in homes, automobiles, parks, motel rooms, even remote areas like campgrounds. For every pound of meth produced pro-duced in a meth lab, up to five pounds of toxic waste results. This waste must be disposed of and in every case the waste may seep into the soil and groundwater. groundwa-ter. And that's to say nothing of the potential for unsuspecting community members to com into contact with the toxic waste. "In some cases we found that they've dumped it in their back yard in the garden," explained Kevin Okleberry an environmental environ-mental health compliance officer of Salt Lake County. "Other cases they might have dumped it down the storm-drain where it goes untreated into the nearest near-est waterway. And also they will throw their waste, often into the local garbage or in somebody's dumpster." The cooking process also produces toxic fumes and highly explosive gases that cause severe harm to anyone exposed, including includ-ing innocent children of meth users or unsuspecting neighbors on the first night of the rodeo," Coombs said, "Between Vernal and Salt Lake City, I counted 130 rigs with cowboys heading east. Now some cowboys made money, but most of them left a lot of money in Vernal." The county's financial contribution contri-bution to the rodeo began several years ago, but Commissioner Mike McKee said the monies had been intended as a short-term, stop-gap measure until the rodeo could get established and find its own funding sources. Committee members indicated in-dicated there are ways to cut funding further. Without additional addi-tional help, the committee may cut the rodeo from four to three nights in length. Members said the Wednesday family-night program may become a casualty of streamlined finances. "However, even with the cuts we are making now, we are still going to need your help every year, " Mott said. "We don 't make $30,000 or $40,000 in profit. If we make $15,000 in a year, we say that we've had a good rodeo." Most of that money is used in support of the Special Rodeo, the county's search and rescue organization, and the scholarship program. Officials and board members alike expressed their belief that the benefit of the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo to the community commu-nity outweighed the difficulty of the current situation: But it will take creative minds to resolve the budgetary woes that the rodeo faces today. At the close of the session, the Vernal City Council approved $30,000 in support of the rodeo. Uintah County officials of-ficials took the request under advisement pending completion of additional accounting information. informa-tion. n r7 2 789-3511 Iling w tte rm SNOWMOBILES.. .ATVs... CAMPERS.. .MOTORCYCLES.. .TRAILERS.. JET SKIS. Express in an apartment complex. When a meth lab is discovered, the intensive cleanup is often beyond the resources of most law enforcement offices. The cost of cleanup ranges from $5,000 - $150,000. Rooks and Uintah County Sheriff Chief Deputy Keith Campbell have been dealing with meth in the Vernal community since 1994. They recall a recent year when the multi-million dollar federal fund used for meth cleanup was depleted by September. "We in this area have done meth lab cleanups on the drug task force that were $30,000 just to dispose of the chemicals," said Rooks. "That doesn't count the cost of what the health department depart-ment has to do to go into the house and dispose of the lab itself. The $30,000 was just to dispose of the chemicals that were in the lab." Even after a meth lab has been cleaned up, the surfaces throughout through-out the home or apartment remain contaminated. According to Utah's drug decontamination standards, all properties contaminated con-taminated by meth labs must be placed on a publicly available list, available at local health departments. depart-ments. The property can only be removed from the list after it has been decontaminated, ensuring that all materials in the property saturated by the toxic gases are properly cleaned. This costs the property owner about $6,500 to decontaminate a 1,200-square-foot home and $2,000 to decontaminate a single motel room. The property cannot be inhabited until it has been decontaminated. While police efforts to crack down on meth labs and the ingredients in-gredients used in them have resulted re-sulted in a measurable decrease . J-fe-- L't. Hello, Uintah County! We want to introduce ourselves. Sticks & Stones Cm ave 10 J Must mention this ad. Continued irom Sticks & StCftQS 2756 Rdsmussen Road B4 Park City. UT 84098 ' (435) 615-201 Directions: North frontage road of 180 Kimball (unction between Jeremy Ranch across from the Factory outlets. Open Wednesday, in meth labs in the Vernal area, many homes are still contaminated contami-nated by meth use. In locations where meth has been used or produced, offenders we never caught, homeowners and renters face potential health concerns of living in a contaminated space. Kyle Adams is a decontamination decontamina-tion specialist who knows how to identify the tell tale signs of meth contamination. The first thing to watch for is residue on the walls, ceilings, or existing furniture. That residue is usually usu-ally hydrochloric acid. Next is a yellow substance that appears to have run down the walls. This is hydrogen iodine gas. Physical signs are often masked by new paint when a home is sold or rented to new tenants. Contamination is often transferred trans-ferred throughout the entire home on clothes, on shoes that track it into the carpet, from the manufacturing gases, and the fumes from meth use. It is hard to protect yourself when many homes or apartments have been contaminated by meth use but are not registered on a publicly available list. Darrin Brown, environmental environmen-tal health director of Tricounty Health, said while meth labs in the Vernal area becoming less of a problem, there are many homes in the area contaminated by meth use. "Meth is coming from other places, so what we have are homes with meth users and the rule doesn't address that. The rule was to get rid of all those precursor chemicals in meth labs; which they still determine are more hazardous than the meth itself," Brown explained. The Utah Department of Health set up the Meth Initiative Initia-tive Program to determine what amount of meth use can off any See store tor details. Some restrictions Al 10 - 6 Mon-Sat closed Sundays www.sticksandstonespc.com l:T aJ APR ' 'l III. HlllLH I v. t A3 contaminate a property and what the health risks are of exposure. Eventually standards will be established on how to measure meth contamination and what levels pose real danger to adults and children. What officials already know is that the risks are serious, especially in small children. " The big concern right no w of meth use in homes is of course the small children.," said Brown. "Small children they know are more susceptible to meth. What happens in children who live in a home contaminated by meth is it's just like they're taking meth. It's exactly the same thing. Exposure causes neurological problems; kids who are fidgety and won't sleep for example." Do-it-yourself kits starting around $45 are available to test for previous meth use in a property but not every property where meth was used is contaminated con-taminated to a dangerous level. Until a standard is established on what constitutes a dangerous level of contamination, potential buyers and renters can only be cautious. In order to be protected, Adams Ad-ams believes homebuyers and renters should ask the other people in the neighborhood about the activity of the previous tenants. ten-ants. "They'll know whether or not the house was a party house. If you have a party house, you can contaminate a home with years of meth just as high as if they were cooking in there with just one party." This is part two of a five part series examining methamphet-amine methamphet-amine use in the Uintah Basin. Share comments about this article on www.vernal.com. - - - Furniture and Mattress one item apply, financing available o.ax. March 12, 2008 Sticks & Stcnes itU'UUt 05UM If E J ! I: C : ! ! if 280 W. Airport Road Heber, UT 84032 (435) 654-0483 Directions: Highway 40 to East Airport Rd. head west. 12 mile on right. 1 i |