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Show Ut &h Pr 46 7 es A aiociation Third South Et Salt Lake City, U1.84J11 Vol. 4 No. 1 20 Thursday. September 2. 19K2 cents single copy Zoning ordinances bind CUWCD, attorney says servancy District conforms to county zoning ordinances, according to a letter Noall T. Wootton sent to Mayor Malcolm H. Beck this week. Attorney Wxlton told the Kree Press he wrote the letter in response to a request by Beck for a clarification on the county's position with regards to the district. Beck wanted to know if the CUWCD fell under the county's authority as far as zoning regulations. In the letter, Wootton says the district does. "The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is a political subdivision of the State of Utah," Wootton says. "As such it must conform to the zoning ordinances of Utah County." ft AUTOMOBILE LIES IMBEDDED in La Casa Club in Lehi after Jerry S. Harris losts control and smashed into the wall. Harris was killed in the accident. Smashes through La Casa Club wall Mai dies in accident An American Fork man lost his life accident that Monday in a one-ca- demolished the west side of the LaCasa Club in Lehi. Jerry S. Harris, 46, 833 East 530 Harris was taken to the American Fork Hospital by a Lehi Ambulance North, American Fork, was traveling crew where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Kerry Evans, Lehi Police Depart ment, reported that Shawn Carter, 19, when, according to witnesses, his car veered off the road, rammed through a chain link fence and careened into the LaCasa before coming to a stop. The LaCasa had closed for the evening and there was no one in the building when the accident happened. Carter, 16, and Greg Carter, 20, witnessed the accident. The 1978 Chrysler New Yorker was buried about one half way into the LaCasa, the officer reported. Damages to the club have not been assessed, according to Ralph and Hatch voices doubts over role in CUP Sen. Orrin Hatch met with seven of north Utah County last Wednesday, telling them he will look into issues they have raised on the Central Utah Project. Meeting with the mayors of Pleasant Grove, Lehi, American Fork, Lindon, Highland, Cedar Hills and Provo all members of the Timpanogos Planning and Water mayors - Management Agency - the Republican senator agreed the water issue is a "complex issue" but said he's still not sure he should be involved with the problems. Each of the cit es is against a plan proposed by the Central Utah Project that would run two aqueducts through the cities. The mayors want a single box culvert constructed in the Murdock Canal. Sen. Hatch called the meeting because he said he feels he is being abused by the press and by residents of the cities who claim he won't help them in this fight. He said he has been involved and concerned about the water problem since first contacted by then Pleasant Grove Mayor Cornell Haynie in 1979. to this "I am no problem," Senator Hatch said. "There isn't an easy solution." Don Christiansen, Alpine mayor and chairman of the Timpanogos Planning and Water Management Agency, told the Utah senator the proposed high pressure canals would be unsafe, would take valuable land off the tax rolls, and would cut through cities already divl led by the Murdock Canal. "Attempting to plan a city when it ti crossed by four water lines is something else," Mayor Christiansen Johnny-come-latel- y aid. Adding that the group is concerned about added costs caused by a delay of the project, Mayor Christiansen aid the gi.iup "would rather have the Rose Hoover who own the building. death Actual cause of Harris' wasn't known at press time. "We don't know if gas got into the car when it broke a main gas line, whether he was fatally injured by the steering vwheeLfihaft which broke off in, tbV The Lehi Free Press has a new editor. Marc Haddock, a old journalist now living in Spanish Fork, has replaced Randall Wright as editor of the Citizen as well as the Pleasant Grove Review and the Lehi Free 31-ye- ar in , water, line. precautions possible downed electrical against lines, but none occured. Lake City. He'also worked at BYU as a writer and editor in the university's Public Communications Department. Most HP . Commission concerning what, if any conditions they would attach to the installation of the system would be an important factor to consider." Wootton said county ordinances could be circumvented if the Bureau of Reclamation took over con struction of CLP projects in the county, since the federal organization is not required to meet local zoning local zoning ordinances. "While in my opinion the CUWCD is subject to county zoning ordinances, I get the impression that so far they are paying no attention to them," ordinances. "But I know that the conservancy district is subject to them," he said Wootton said. But in the letter he makes it clear that the water conservancy district Continued on page 2 Holiday moves up dea dimes recently he has been working as a freelance writer and teaching at Utah Technical College at Provo. In 1976, when he was a senior at BYU, Haddock received the Forace Green Award as the outstanding senior in journalism at the university. While editing the Emery County Progress, he received awards for best front page and editorial writing, as well as for news writing and use of part-tim- e Because newspaper Labor Day holiday, Monday, Sept. 6, news and advertising deadlines for next week will be moved up to Friday, Sept. 3 (tomorrow) at 5 p.m. The Lehi and Pleasant Grove offices will be open tomorrow and then as usual on " Tuesday, Sept. 7. Please help us through the holiday by submitting all planned-even- t news and any advertising by the end of the day tomorrow. illustrative material from the ..Utah Press Association. Haddock is a native of Montpelier, Idaho. He currently lives in Spanish Fork with his wife, Nancy, and their four children. He said he plans to move to American Fork in the near future. -- our offices will be closed for the - Aljpiime mayor lives Hatch week limit project delayed for five years and be a good project than have it built now and be a bad By RANDALL WRIGHT Mayor Don Christiansen says he'll give Senator Orrin Hatch two weeks to keep his promise to answer questions about Central Utah Project plans in north Utah County. And if he hasn't heard from Hatch by then, he says, he'll be on the phone himself to twist the senator's arm. Alpine 100-ye- project." Mayor James Ferguson of Provo said he is concerned that the Central Utah Water Conservancy District apparently doesn't have any secured water. "We are convinced in our minds that some of this water they are talking about is Provo City's water and that they have no secured water," he said. Mayor Ferguson said he understands that under federal law water has to be secured before any money is spent on such conveyences, and "there is no evidence this has been done as yet. They have made application (for the water rights), but have not secured them." In addition, he said the water they are talking about is already Provo City's water or belongs to other cities. "They (the Conservancy District directors) won't talk about it at all. They are just going to finish the project, then move in, take our water and sell it back to us," he said. Mayor Ferguson told Senator Hatch he was going to be placed in an situation because he has supported the CUP yet the CUP doesn'l have the water necessary for the project. "The CUP officials will wait until all the money is spent and then you will be put in the awkward position of having to defend them because you have supported the project," Ferguson said. Hatch noted several things were brought out at the meeting that he was unaware of and said he will study these. "I and my staff will have to go into these tilings," he said. Among the things he said he will research are the proposed closing of the Olmslead Power Plant at the " Free Press Now Has New Editor Press. Haddock is a graduate of Brigham Young University where he studied communications with an emphasis in journalism. He has edited a weekly jnJSmery JCounty,;U.tah, impact, or whether he had a heart; and was feature editor for the attack," Chief Bill Gi'ubs said, Contractor", a weekly Besides breaking a main gas line, construction journal published in Salt the auto also broke a Officers and firemen took should keep local ordinances in mind I expect that the poeple in charge are aware of the requirements of the county zoning laws and will keep them in mind in evaluating the fesibility of the alternative water conveyance "systems being con sidered," Wootton said "I would think that input from the Planning also wrote: "I, of course, intend to see that zoning ordinances are enforced." What that means, W(otton told the Kree Press, is that several areas where construction is now planned by the district will have to be rezoned before const ruct ion can begin In other areas, the district will be required to obtain conditional use that could include permits-perm- its conditions set down by the the County Planning Commission. Wootton said he is concerned about the district's apparent inattention to Wootton KvMAIU'HAIMMM'K Free Press Kdilwr The Utah County Attorney will see that the Central Utah Water Con- Christiansen, chairman of a group of Utah County cities fighting to get the Murdock Canal approved for CUP water, said Tuesday that the current controversy contains at least two federal issues in which Hatch's assistance is needed - water rights and project funding. Hatch has continually asserted that problems with the giant federally-funde-- d water project are strictly state issues 4 SENATOR OKKIN HATCH responds to questions at meeting with Timpanogos Planning and Water Management Agency in Provo. mouth of Provo Canyon, the cost of taking the property needed for the additional aqueducts off the lax rolls, the possibility of having to construct a further conveyence in the 1990's, whether the water rights are secured for the project, a possible conflict of interest on the CUWCD board and the "undefinable cost of the loss of a human life." "This is definitely a complex Issue," Senator Hatch said, adding he still feels it is a local issue and should be settled on a local level. "It seems to me what you need to do is get the Salt Lake Metropolitan Water District and the Provo River Water Users Association to make tome kind of stand on this. Find out whose side they are on and then go from there," Senator Hatch told the assembled group. ' members of All the mayors said they are in favor of the project, but they want to be sure it is built correctly and safely. Christiansen said the argue that the cities involved will need additional water from the lines for projected growth. "We are on water. We don'l need it - and won't need it," he stressed. The cities in the north end of the county have culinary water furnished through springs and pump wells, the mayor told Hatch, and extensive studies have shown there is Mayor CUWCD officials enough needs. water to serve anticipated Christiansen said the Conservancy District directors won't listen to the mayors. "If someone would have gotten serious with us a on page 2 in which a U.S. representative should not intervene, maintaining that position even after local officials gave him a written list three months ago of issues they believed to be federal. In a meeting with mayors and other representatives of local cities last week, the senator expressed concern about the and promised to "look into" problems local officials claim they've had with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. But he did not make any specific commitment as to when he would report his findings. Christiansen says two weeks is long enough. According to Christiansen, the two issues that are undeniably federal water-controvers- y are: whether the Bureau of Reclamation (the federal agency charged with design and construction of CUP water facilities) must, under law or by precedent, obtain confirmed water rights, not merely applications for water, before building the physical works of the project. whether Utah's delegation would be forced to go again to Congress for additional funds for a box culvert (a job Hatch claims would be difficult), or whether project financing is structured in such a way that Reclamation could temporarily shuffle funds now allocated to another, less urgent part of the project. "Those two issues are clearly federal," said Christiansen. Local officials told Hatch last week that they have tried to discover whether Reclamation had any water to put in the Jordan Aqueduct once the pipeline was constructed. Following the advice of a Hatch aide, Ron Madsen, officials contacted the U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City who declined to answer the question himself but referred them to Reclamation. Jess Green, representing American Fork, says Reclamation officials responded curtly, "If you don't think we have any water, sue us." At issue is winter water in the Provo River drainage - water that would be stored in the proposed Jordanelle Reservoir for use in the summer months. Reclamation has made extensive filings with the state engineer for the winter water but apparently has never been awarded any of the water at all. Provo City, a member of the a gency fighting for a single conveyance in the Murdock Canal, claims to ow n a large share of the winter water that would be necessary to fill and operate the Jordan Aqueduct. Provo's right to that water has been upheld twice by the Utah Supreme Court. Provo Mayor Jim Ferguson pointed out the water-righ- t question to Senator Hatch last week. Hatch said that was the first he had heard about it. Continued on page 2 |