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Show UTES SWAT WASPS ( ) 11 5th Year No. 17 Vernal, Utah 84078 09 CENTS OPENING SET FOR MAY 5 Co mmunity cent er By Kevin Ashby Express Publisher It's a complex construction with a 13-foot-deep pool on one end and a roof line some 60 feet above the ground on the other. It includes a one-of-a-kind, 37-foot climbing fashioned after the rock cliffs of Dry Fork Canyon that added challenge to the project. Yet despite the complexity, Uintah Recreation Special Service Ser-vice District's new recreation facility fa-cility in Vernal is almost done. The facility is multi-faceted with basketball courts, dance floors, exercise rooms, competition-size swimming pool with high dives, swimming and "get wet" areas, sports flooring on the running track, water slide towers, tow-ers, conference and party rooms and an eight foot dinosaur - in the water. "But it was fun to build," explained Doug Miller, project superintendent with Layton Construction. Miller allowed guests to get a preview of the building last week and described the various rooms and areas offering of-fering a wide variety of activities along with the mechanical support sup-port that had to be built into the facility. "This is not your regular building. It has some interesting intricacies that made it fun." The sports facility will end up costing the recreation district $17 million, but all of that has been paid off except for a $7 million, zero interest loan from UNCOVERING COMMON GROUND Research By Mary Bernard Express Writer Too often, the domains of the educator and the elected official share little in common. But last Friday, community and academic leaders came together on common com-mon ground at the 8th Annual Research Conference. "We tend to be in our little towers, not knowing what is going on outside our walls" Assembled on Friday at Western Park's 8th Annual Uintah Basin and university to discuss partnerships for growth. mA - Iixrr Realty Professionals 1285 West Hwy 40 Vernal, Utah 84078 (435) 789-EXIT (3948) SPLASH Maeser students dunk principal after readina achievement. IIuIiiIiiIiiiIIiiIiIiIiiIiIImIiiiIIIiihIiI,!,!,,!,!,,,!,!,! UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION 1521 E 3900 S SALT LAKE CITY UT 84124-6705 - " i nears etion the Utah permanent Community Impact fund Board with an annual an-nual payment of approximately $280,000. That payment is one of the reasons the facility will not be free to use. Construction crews will spend about $400,000 more than budgeted, bud-geted, but most of that money will be spent on items that were once omitted from the project by the board, and subsequently put back in as the board reevaluated their need and importance to the entire project. The board opted to include a patio on the south side of the building near the swimming pool on the south side of the building. The patio is about 6,000 square feet and is intended to accommodate accommo-date large parties and to make the pool more "inside-outside" with a sun bathing deck. And crews finished the back of the climbing wall to look more like the front, explained recreation board Vice Chair Laquita Peterson. "We have been very conscientious conscien-tious about how the money was being spent throughout the entire en-tire project," said Peterson. "To only have $6 million left to pay off on such a big project shows that we had a plan that was set up by previous boards that was good." From the beginning of the project Layton construction kept costs to bid figures by pre-buy-ing such items as steel and then contracting for concrete prices SEE REC CENTER on A12 conference said Nancy O. Mesner, associate dean of USU College of Natural Resources, speaking of the distance dis-tance between researchers and community officials. The rapid pace of economic growth marked by the expansion expan-sion of the UBATCUSU-Uintah Basin regional campus has seemingly seem-ingly changed that perception. It has forged a bond between academicians and community officials of-ficials in planning for continued i k V, i y . . y 4 - ;" s v . ,. . fij wy Wu ''A-X. 4. k " 6 r L1 C1 if pr- Your Hometown Newspaper km- The new community center, located on 500 South Vernal Avenue, will feature 70,000 square feet of swimming pools, play areas, basketball courts, exercise rooms, running track and a unique to Vernal climbing wall. Opening is set for the end of May. . Meet the candidates night for delegates Two Republican Party candidates can-didates introduced themselves to party delegates on Thursday evening at Western Park. Attendees Attend-ees met Uintah County Sheriff's Deputy Anthoney Bryon and USTAR Regional Director Mark ' Raymond. They are alike in the desire to serve their community. Byron, a 20-year resident, and Raymond, a 30-year resident, are equally aware of the challenges they face should they be nominated by the party. Both recognize finds partnerships development. Nine speakers sat for the lunchtime discussion at Western Park. Participants included Nat Frazer, dean of USU College of Natural Resources; Mary Hubbard, Hub-bard, dean of USU College of Science; Richard Toth, USU professor pro-fessor of environment and sociology, sociol-ogy, Dave Woolstenhulme; USU-Uintah USU-Uintah Basin student relations coordinator academic advisor; : ' 1 Research Conference were representatives from the county, city f s .;,LJ.i:T Location, Location, Locilionl 3 btitroom, 1 bath, nice living room and kilohon with laundry mud room oil the gatage entrance. Gal hovl, Innrod yard, larna envnind patio and Storage Shnd. Single car garage with shnlvlng and vinyl tiding Call Susan toy at 8'8-6flflR Uintah softball defeats Wasatch with seven-point lead. i --t --t the commission's obligation for working hours but beyond that, they share little in common. Byron recognizes the unpaid, time of the commissioners and recommends a county manager or increase in the number of commission members to share the load. Raymond disagrees, stating an executive assistant might carry some of the load if not, delegating more power to department heads to make some of the decisions that would otherwise go to commissioners' Mark Raymond, USTAR regional director; Ken Bassett, Vernal city manager; Allan Mashburn; mayor of Vernal; Mike McKee, Uintah County commissioner; and Sonja Norton, representing represent-ing Uintah Impact Mitigation Special Service District. "The importance of higher education in the community has always been in providing enrichment enrich-ment and enlightenment to the : SEE RESEARCH on A3 n Ttm twmw h ,1 brttoomv I Mhtoomv It hi a rvwty ftmodetw) fciuhen jnd Itvirvg toofm. It aivn hat l Urqtr tM(kvnJ and rti (trch (ot ffittrlamttx You mini w opjMijlrirwmolmTi(mol thk tHswiitui Norm M NmthiSOOWeit ( illOrfv ft'BI W 1 WW Ml ft WKt MtHft 'v v J - ,! li ; 1 ;j L-J i. , I ! desks. On the role of the county in the economy of the Basin, again they differ. Raymond suggests the county may help by replacing the economic development officer... This would be someone to, as he puts it, "help all residents in the county by bringing about a level playing field to collaborate with the cities and county" and the industry in wage adjustment. ru Timothy pleads guilt By Geoff Lesik Uintah Basin News Service Philip J. Timothy, the former majority owner of Service Insurance Insur-ance of Vernal, pleaded guilty Friday to 15 felonies as part of an agreement with the Utah Attorney At-torney General's Office. Timothy, 56, entered guilty pleas to one count each of racketeering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice; two counts each of filing a false or fraudulent insurance claim, forgery, and communications fraud; and three counts each of unlawful dealing with property by a fiduciary and theft by deception. According to state investigators, investiga-tors, Timothy used insurance premium refunds owed to clients to buy two trailers totaling more than $20,000 and a Harley-Da-vidson motorcycle worth over $30,000. Timothy also failed to return over $44,000 in premium pre-mium refund monies to an oil field service company after it State responds to Foley plea uithdraiul By Geoff Liesix Uintah Basin News Service The Utah Attorney General's Office has filed its motion opposing op-posing the effort by Mark Foley to have his guilty pleas to three felonies withdrawn. The 52-page document sheds some light on Foley's reasons for seeking to back out of a deal with prosecutors that saw 23 other felony charges related to his alleged misconduct as an insurance agent dismissed. Foley, 57, has asked 7th District Court , ii: ij ir-;.. u 'j '... A - n 'L-S Weather by 6139 56-13 "XNfe 131- Rr.AtTY.INC. M. mJ kL tHhMi QaQ A7 www.vernal.com Wednesday April 23, ZG03 i 1 Byron recommends wages stay in the private sector while making an affordable living enough. He explained, "People desire to do different things than the oil field," and the county's role should be to offer to a stable platform for them to do that. Raymond raised the issue of defending the county's interest in hiring a lobbyist to protect SEE DELEGATES on A2 canceled its policy and helped create fraudulent bonds worth more than $1.5 million for two construction companies, court records show. As part of his agreement with prosecutors, Timothy agreed to pay full restitution to his victims. He has put money into a state-administered state-administered trust fund for one year to cover any claims made by clients. Timothy also agreed to pay the state's investigative costs, must surrender his insurance license and can no longer work in the insurance field in Utah. An audit of Service Insurance accounts will also take place as part of the plea bargain. A sentencing hearing before 3rd District Court Judge Judith S. Atherton is set for June 27. Timothy faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the 1 1 second-degree second-degree felonies he pleaded guilty to and up to 5 years in prison for each of the four third-degree felonies. Judge Douglas B. Thomas to seal his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, citing the inclusion of personal information in the filing. Thomas, assigned to the case after both 8th District Court judges recused themselves, has not signed an order sealing Foley's motion, but the records remain closed to the public until the judge makes his decision. However from reading the motion filed last Tuesday by Assistant As-sistant Utah Attorney General SEE FOLEY FILING on A2 Great surtf r home or Irw itme nt prorwty, Nitely rmod(lf d J bod. 1 bath home conveniently loc died in town, near churdiei and shopping. New low mainlennre meial roof. Call Cody todjy tor more Information 4t5 1 0781 or ?4 Horn inlnimatinn line 1MI0 9M 6706 t ",0R4 |