OCR Text |
Show B-8 The Park Record WedThursFri, April 28-30, 2004 pice up your Hef event- wlfU c TASTE. oF THE CARIBBEAN Island Spices & Catering 435-615-1944 ? Pool PvHes - . : " Covpovnf e Evenfs - -. " Rege, Cdypso, & fceourlv Music Bolster Entertainment (435)647-9868 Independent operators not cashing in SALT LAKE CITY (AP) As gas prices rise, independent service serv-ice station owners profit at least, that's what consumers believe. But Cameron Egan. owner of the Corner 22 station and convenience conven-ience store in Bountiful, says he and the other independents in Utah are as unhappy about the cost of gasoline these days as the hordes of disgruntled motorists who object to the high prices. When it comes to gasoline, filling fill-ing station owners say they are getting far more complaints than profits from the rising prices. "The reality is there is very lit tle money to be made selling gas at the retail level." Egan said. Service station owners, whether they operate large numbers num-bers of locations or single stores, feel lucky if they can make three or four cents a gallon. Their profit prof-it usually doesnt change even if the price goes from $1 to $2 a gallon. gal-lon. Competition makes it difficult for locally owned gas stations and convenience stores to pass price increases on to consumers, said John Hill, director of the Utah Petroleum Marketers & Retailers Association. "Unlike most products, the price is posted right out there for everyone to see, and for a lot of people it is nothing for them to drive five miles out of their way to try and save a cent or two on a gallon of gas," he said. If station owners want to maintain main-tain any kind of volume at all, they must try to hold the line on prices an increasingly difficult proposition with the emergence of new competitors such as grocery gro-cery stores and membership warehouses that willingly use gasoline as a loss leader to attract new business and help keep their customer base. "Right now, we've got a com petitor right around the corner who is selling gas for cheaper than we can buy it," said Lynn Child, who along with his father Urbane operates Child's Automotive in Salt Lake City. Child actually considers himself him-self lucky. He and his father operate oper-ate four service bays at their filling fill-ing station and rely more on making mak-ing money from automobile repairs than the sale of gasoline. Egan, however, counts on gasoline sales he sells 2,000 to 3,000 gallons per day to generate gener-ate about 80 percent of his daily profits. The rest comes from the sale of convenience store items. Drought killing sagebrush, ecology threatened OGDEN, Utah (AP) More vegetation's struggle means the than 600.000 acres of sagebrush entire ecology of the desert lands are dead or dying in the state, and is changing for the worse, officials worry the sturdy western Sage is supposed to have a MAKE THIS A SUMMER YOUR KIDS WILL NEVER FORGET! June 7th-August. 20th, Monday-f riday, 8-9am dropoff, 4-5 pnt pickup later pickup available Bluebirds: 4-6 yeare Cardinals: 7-12 years Camp Counselors in training: 13-15 year old teens will learn valuable skills to assist our campers, including first Aid CPR. " s ine oicibnotiaex LScirnrner Camp J r Call now to register rfra ates quickly! 5? - n &re $180week ($160 for Silver Mountain Sports flub members) $45day Special Rates for 10 week registration & Camp Counselors! T71 Horseback riding every two weeks Swimming with certified instruction : v&V T .. f7 Conveniently located inside Silver Mountain Sports Ciub & Spa 435-940-1607 2080 Gold Dust Lane Park City CW PEW Everyday ; mr SINCE p SERVING PARK CITY FOR OVER 30 YEARS A Family Freindly restaurant HEARTY,' cLASSIjMmCANUISINE affordable Main Street Pricing 317 main st.', parkcity 649-8284 BREAKFAST FROM 8aM LUNCH FROM HAM DINNER FROM 5PM B1 lifespan of up to 100 years, and is natural to the desert. But the drought, now in its fifth year, is contributing to the die-out. Rory Reynolds, Division of Wildlife Resources wildlife coordinator coor-dinator who is running the multi-agency multi-agency effort to fight the problem, prob-lem, said the drought is now on a par with the worst Utah has ever seen, a 1.000-year event. An article in the August edition edi-tion of Utah DWR magazine, "Wildlife Review," said the problem prob-lem came to light last spring. By the end of June, state and federal officials had documented more than 400,000 acres of dead or dying sagebrush, mostly in the south and southwest parts of Utah, but also in large areas in the Uintah Basin. Reynolds said that figure, now more than 600,000 acres, would probably be higher if land managers man-agers had time to get out and measure it all. State and federal agencies have formed a team to evaluate the sage decline. Agencies include the National Resource Conservation Service, Utah State University, Department of Natural Resources, Utah Fish and Wildlife, and others. Reynolds is the team leader. Reynolds said the battle is as much to prevent ecological change as it is to preserve sage. Brian Ferebee, plant ecology specialist in the U.S. Forest Service Intermountain Regional Forest office, said dwindling rangeland used for grazing imperils imper-ils not just cattle, but species as varied as the mule deer and the sagebrush lizard. Encroachment of cheat grass and other invasive plants is fostering fos-tering more and hotter wildfires in Utah. Loss of sage and its attendant native grasses endangers endan-gers not just the rare sage grouse but dozens of different animals, officials say. Sage and other native grasses are mofe hardy and burn less readily. Wildfires were less numerous and covered fewer acres when those plants were dominant. When the sage dies and burns, however, it leaves the way open for non-native species such as cheat grass. Cheat grass blooms early in the spring and sucks up a lot of moisture that sage and native grasses need. Then it goes to seed, turning dry and brown, ready to burn. "So in the ranges we're seeing worse fires every 10 years or less, and rather than burn a few hundred hun-dred acres, we're burning thousands thou-sands of acres," Ferebee said. And that makes way for even more invasive grasses, continuing the cycle. www. pa r krecord . com (JOG 01 5 -5 sJL j Si I . j. f f i lii l A '-f'l (1 ?! ii I . MM 2 mi r (T) (lj APPROACH WITH A DETERMINED BUT I finally flmated FRIENDLY STRIDE. y':,f if i ,: . that report, Mom. s, , " RAISE ARM WITH PALM AT A 45 ANGLE. ( ELEVATE ARM (WITH HAND) TO PREPARE FOR -'CONTACT. EXECUTE "HIGH FIVE" MANEUVER. RESPOND VERBALLY, jj 1 Pr0UCl 0l aCl iELi jnaMizT0Di;t3E mi mum |