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Show ITO ral for Utah's nonfarm wage and salaried job growth for March was estimated at 2.1 percent, ac-cordingto ac-cordingto numbers provided last week by the state Department of Workforce Services, which continues the recent downward trend in employment growth. DWS Chief Economist Mark Knold said the state's February employment growth remains un-revised un-revised at 2.3 percent. Approximately Approxi-mately 26,200 newjobs have been created in the Utah economy over the past year, raising total wage and salary employment in Utah to 1,264,800. The increase translates to around 2,200 new jobs created monthly over the past year. "The national employment picture remains weak and weakening, weak-ening, probably sitting in the middle of a recession," Knold said. "Utah's economy is being pulled down by this, and the first and most noted industry feeling its negative effects is construction." construc-tion." Knold added that the nation's credit crunch has so negatively influenced the Utah housing market that new housing approvals approv-als over the past six months are below half of what normally is approved. "A strongrebound isn't anticipated antici-pated in the immediate future, so Utah might easily shed 10,000 construction jobs over the next two years," he said. "But considering consid-ering the construction boom of the past four years, and that all booms have an end, this decline really isn't unexpected. I'mactu-ally I'mactu-ally encouraged by how well the remainder of the Utah economy is holding up and performing." Fire officials urge careful spring Federal, state and local fire officials urge all Uintah Basin residents who have homes and other structures along the urban interface and in forested areas to protect their property by following follow-ing home ignition zone guidelines found in the Utah Living With Fire Brochure. The three areas that need attention this year in the home ignition zone are the near, mid and far."" 1 li'-'irnio - Wildfire hazards ar6und homes can be reduced by simple spring cleanup projects around the yard and regular maintenance. main-tenance. Keep in mind that something as simple as branches touching your roof could be the avenue for a wildfire to ignite your home. In Utah, wildfires happen in both remote and urban areas where homeowners might least expect it. It is each homeowner's responsibility to make their home safe from wildfire and now is the time to take action. The combination of new homes being built in wildland areas and (heck Save Money by Uintah May Western Park M Energy mk n bolt lournamcnc a A Mm May For registration, booths or sponsorship information, contact Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce at 789-1352 or stop in at 134 West Main. Dflarch State economists said high-paying high-paying professional jobs are still growing and in demand and the healthcare sector is "its usual stellar performer." Knold said, not withstanding the recent La Z Boy closure announcement, manufacturing employment statewide is bucking the national trend by growing. "Slowing the Utah economy after three years of stellar growth may not be as much of a negative as first emotions might suggest," he said. "There are dangers to overheating an economy, as excesses ex-cesses can develop, resulting in more pain later when correcting those excesses." Utah's other primary indicator indica-tor of current labor market conditions, con-ditions, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, measured 3.3 percent in March, up from February's 3.0 percent measure. mea-sure. Approximately 46,200 Utahns were considered unemployed in March, compared against 33,000 in March 2006. Unemployment rolls have therefore risen by roughly 13,200 workers over the past year. The United States' unemployment rate moved up three-tenths of a percentage point this month to 5.1 percent, as employment declines nationally nation-ally are accelerating. Since March 2007, the U.S. economy has added 482,000 new jobs- a growth rate of 0.4 percent. The trend however, continues to point .downward. The approximately approxi-mately 26,200 newjobs in Utah represent about 5.4 percent of all the newjobs added in the United States over the past year - this from a state that comprises less than 1 percent of all U.S. jobs. vegetation overgrowing older subdivisions makes wildfires increasingly more difficult to fight. "As spring approaches, now is a great time to take action to prepare your property to survive the potential damage caused by wildfires" said Tracy Dunford, fire management officer for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire tadtatie" Lands; "The' best action homeowners can 'take is to create a space around their homes or cabins that may allow the property to survive a wildfire without firefighter assistance." Property owners can reduce home ignition potential by following fol-lowing these tips: Clean out gutters, sweep decks and clean off your roof. These places can catch wind-driven wind-driven embers that will ignite your home. Remove leaf clutter and branches overhanging the roof. Vegetation should not touch the home. Make sure that there are no it out! reading the... 54 North Vernal Avenue Vernal, Utah . 435-789-351 1 www.vernal.com Basin YMPOSIUM 22 - 23 300 E 200 S J V Sr.rnmfile I 23 Vernal Counties get By Lacey McMukct Uintah Basin News Services A critical need for affordable housing is developing in many communities throughout the Rocky Mountain West, including includ-ing the Uintah Basin, according to the 2008 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card released earlier this month. Duchesne County was given a D in the report for the amount of affordable housing available, while Uintah County finished slightly higher with a C. Working from data compiled by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Colorado College researchers defined affordability as the difference between the fair market rent for a two-bedroom housing unit and the rental rate that is affordable at the median household income of the county's renters. John MacKinnon, State of the Rockies project researcher, said every county in the Mountain West was categorized as either metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural - with Duchesne and Uintah Uin-tah counties both being classified as micropolitan. "When we graded the counties in the Uintah Basin, we did it by comparing them to peer counties of similar size," MacKinnon said. "So if those peers were determined deter-mined to be more affordable than yours, that would lower your county's grade." Duchesne County was one of seven counties in Utah to receive a grade in the 'D' range - the lowest grade given. Of those seven Utah counties receiving poor marks, all of them had been classified as either micropolitan or rural. MacKinnon said the fact that metropolitan areas generally gener-ally earned better grades than their rural counterparts wasn't surprising. "There's limited funding for flammable materials within a 3- to 5-foot space around buildings. build-ings. Dispose of plant debris according ac-cording to local regulations. Keep grass cut short and well watered within a 30-foot radius of structures. Store firewood away from the house. Organize a neighborhood cleanup day. By helping your entire community,, you'll be providing better protection to yourself. Contact the local fire department depart-ment or agency office for more V I'M L Take CHRISTUS St. Joseph Villa, one of Utah's largest senior care facilities, is dedicated to promoting independence and quality of life for its residents. With the nonprofit's four-building campus operating round-the-clock, it takes a lot of energy to keep everyone comfortable.To run its cooling system efficiently, CHRISTUS St. Joseph Villa took advantage of our FinAnswer Express program, to install variable frequency drives on two cooling tower fans. The organization received $3,250 in incentives and is benefiting from lower electricity costs every month. Cash incentives from Rocky Mountain Power Most Rocky Mountain Power business customers are eligible for cash incentives when installing high-efficiency cooling equipment. All you need to do is purchase and install qualifying cooling equipment and submit an application to receive your incentive. Incentives for other energy-efficient measures and equipment are also available. Get a head start on the heat For details, visit www.rockymountainpower.netutsave.You can also contact your cooling equipment dealer or call us toll free at I-800-222-433S. k Express low marks government-subsidized housing, and metropolitan places get a greater percentage of that because be-cause their need is more widely recognized than rural areas," he said. Among other findings in the State of the Rockies report card: Using statistics from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, researchers estimated that a two-bedroom apartment in both Uintah and Duchesne Counties went for an average of $555 monthly-a21 to 40 percent increase from the year 2000. In order to afford this price of rent and utilities - without paying more than 30 percent of income on housing, which government agencies have determined de-termined meets the definition of unaffordable - researchers said a minimum wage earner in the Basin must work 73 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, a household must include 1.8 minimum wage earners working 40 hours per week year-round in order to make the two-bedroom average rent affordable. Family income growth has not kept up with housingprices in the Rockies. Although family median incomes increased steadily from 2004 to 2007 by an average of 1 percent per year, the median house jumped 7 percent in price from 2006 to 2007. HUD's budget authority for housing assistance has dropped by $28.1 billion from 1975 to 2004. When discussing the grade researchers gave Basin counties, local officials interviewed by the Uintah Basin Standard said the minimal scope of the study's findings leaves no room to give any credit for the efforts by area organizations and government entities to find solutions to the affordable housing dilemma. "We definitely have affordable cleaning specific information. "Research has shown that homes with clean home ignition igni-tion zones, meaning areas that are free of flammable fuels, will often survive a wildfire," added Dunford. There are many other things homeowners can do if they are landscaping or remodeling that may add to the safety of the home and the likelihood firefighters will be able to defend' it; ' For more information and tips about landscaping and home design go to www.firewise.org, or www. utahfireinfo.gov. r Jf4 f it i care of your cooling costs with help from Rocky Mountain Power Wednesday, for affordable housing housing issues," said Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee. "There's a lot of competition competi-tion for homes and apartments. But from the aspect of what type of an effort is being made, the community is responding to challenges in a strong way and working very hard to remedy problems. If you were to rate our county's efforts in terms of what we've been doing, we would get a very good grade." An influx of workers moving mov-ing to the Basin to work in the energy industry has created an enormous amount of competition for apartments and other rental units, McKee said. Meanwhile, a major share of the new homes recently constructed in the region re-gion have been higher-end homes that aren't typically affordable to families with lower incomes. Matt Cazier, planning director direc-tor for Uintah County, said he would estimate that only 20 percent of new homes built in unincorporated Uintah County during the past year have cost less than $200,000. Figures for Duchesne County were not immediately available. avail-able. These higher costs for homes and apartments have translated into the fact that more people need government-subsidized housing assistance to make ends meet. Heather Hoyt, chairwoman of the Uintah Basin Assistance Council, said that right now the organization has a waiting list of 40 to 60 people in Uintah and Duchesne counties who are all waiting to be granted government-subsidized housing. That waiting list estimate does not include Roosevelt, which has its own, separate housing authority. One good thing that has come about because of the energy boom-induced housing crisis, said Yankton Johnson, regional planner for the Uintah Basin Association of Governments, is that it has promoted a great deal of cooperation among community com-munity and county leaders and local residents. "There is a lot of community involvement going on right now to address the need that we have," he said. "We've come together as different entities to figure out how to solve these problems." In the past year or two, officials offi-cials said, big strides have been made toward increasing the availability of affordable housing hous-ing in our area. Some of those .improvements include: UBAOG's housing replacement replace-ment plan Johnson said UBAOG, in cooperation co-operation with the Uintah Basin & f i f V-7 T IVJJ Equipment Evaporative cooling - a highly effective, economical and environmentally friendly way to cod your business th.it can reduce costs by as much as 75 percent High-efficiency packaged air conditioning units and heat pumps - use as much as 20 peaent less energy than an older unit while providing the same level of cooling. Models with high SEER or EER ratings and the ENERGY STAR label offer higher potential for savings. Variable Frequency Drives - can $45 per help your HVAC fans or pumps operate horvpowtr more efficiently" , ' Incentives for qualifying HVAC fans and pump S I OOhp POWER April 23, 2008 A5 Applied Technology College and the local sheriffs offices, offers a replacement program to eligible homeowners who meet the income in-come guidelines. "If a person tells us they have problems with their house and we determine that it's going to cost more to repair it than to condemn it and replace it, we will build a new house for them," he said. Johnson said jail inmates provide most of the manpower for the project and UBATC instructor's provide the know-how. know-how. It usually takes about a year to completely demolish the old house and build a new one. A focus on constructing more affordable housing In the past couple years, constructing more affordable housing units has become a major priority for local officials. In Uintah County, the 22-unit Unity Place apartments were completed last year. Officials in Duchesne County are also in the process of remodeling a two-bedroom two-bedroom duplex that will serve as a homeless shelter for families and women. Vernal's Turning Point Shelter Shel-ter - which opened its doors last year - also helps fill a void in the housing affordability gap. "This is not a typical homeless shelter," McKee said. "We saw a need and the difficulty people had gettinginto housing, and this facility is meant to be a transition shelter to help them get back on their feet." Since July 2007, the facility has provided 4,230 sheltered bed nights, McKee said. As part of their focus to help people find affordable housing, McKee said Uintah County officials offi-cials have also hired a consultant who is working to identify the housing needs and deficits in the community and help residents resi-dents find available assistance resources. "One of the things that has been amazing is that when people are trying to get into a house or apartment, they don't know where to go for help," the commissioner said. "This position posi-tion brings all of the resources together. It's been extremely valuable." ...are worth the time in the... 64 North VmI Avnu Vernal, Utah -435-788-3511 www.vernal.com 1 Our FinAnswer Express program gave CHRISTUS St Joseph Villa $3,250 in incentives for installing variable frequency drives on its cooling system. Carvel Izatt director of facilities management, is pictured here. Incentive $0.01'CFM $50ton 1 ROCKY MOUNTAIN |