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Show Oil TOWNS SECTION i mm. SATURDAY, JULY 26, METRO EDITOR Amie Rose 344-253- 0 2008 aroseheraldextra.com Salem officials frustrated in stoplight effort Dept. of Transportation has denied request for light near new Salem Hills High School 7 Janice Peterson DAILY V - ti ft CRAIG DILGERDaily Herald The intersection of State Road 1 98 and 400 North in Salem on Friday. School officials want a stoplight put in at the intersection to provide a safer route for students attending the new Salem Hills High School near S.R. 198. state road, we don't anticipate HERALD Salem Hills High School will soon be opening its doors to students, and efforts to protect these students with a stoplight on a busy road have left officials frustrated. The high school is slated to open this fall, and city and school district officials would like to have a stoplight at a nearby crosswalk on 400 North and State Road 198 to prepare for the rapid influx of cars on the road. Several requests have been made; however, Utah Department of Transportation studies have shown there is little to warrant a stoplight at the location. "None of those times have our studies come back letting us know that we need one," said UDOT spokesman Adan Carrillo. hav- "I'm just convinced that ing that many people," he said. The guidelines for a signal come from a national manual used in they will not respond state. The manual does not until they see the traffic is every allow the department to guess how much traffic may be added in the already there." future by incoming development, Chris Sorensen Nebo School District superintendent, talking about UDOT The high school sits just west of State Road 198 on 150 North. Carrillo said traffic on the state road as well as its side streets was studied, and a need for a stoplight could not be found. "Since the high school is not on it's not adjacent to the the state Carrillo said. "They are going to go back and study it again once the high school opens this fall," he said. The inability to foresee and plan for future traffic problems has some school officials frustrated and concerned for students' safety. Nebo School District Chris Sorensen said the district has no control over the state road, which he says will warrant a traffic signal once school See STOPLIGHT, B2 Utah Gas Prices Prosecutions on the rise, but why? """ Jeremy Duda DAILY HERALD It's no secret that crime rates have increased over the years in Utah County, and with that in mind, few Happy Valley residents would be surprised to learn that felony prosecutions are on the rise as well. But since the turn of the century, the Utah County Attorney's Office has been busier than most people would probably guess, and the numbers have left a lot of people scratching their heads. Utah County's population has risen steadily since 2000, and crime rates have risen along with it. But the number of felony cases filed by the county attorney's office has left other statistics in the dust, rising at twice the rate of the county's rapidly growing population. Felonies include serious crimes such as burglary, robbery, murder and rape. Between 2001 and 2006, Utah County's population grew by an average of 5.5 percent each year, according to statistics compiled by the Utah County Public Defender Association. In contrast, the number of felony cases filed by the county attorney's office has increased by an annual average of 11 percent. Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman and Tom Means, the director of the public defender's office, have pondered the effect, but the cause remains elusive. So what's the cause of the growth in the crime rate? Is it drugs? Gang activity? Economics? "I don't really know the answer," Buhman said. "Why would it grow faster?' A natural assumption would be that prosecutions have increased because there is more crime. Certain types of crime have certainly increased since See ASHLEY 6 CRIME RATE, B2 Josh Lytle of Cedar Hills while filling up his Lincoln Aviator on Friday in Orem. costs me about $400 a month to fill it up." Gas prices are hitting Utahns' wallets hard at $4,209 on The average per gallon of regular. Utah ranks in the top ten states with the most expensive gas prices. average is $4,064. Find current gas prices around the state at www.heraldextra.com. G is a killer," said Matheson to skip national Democratic convention THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Utah's SALT LAKE CITY Democrat will skip the upcoming Democratic National Convention next month. Rep. Jim Matheson said the " event will mostly be pageantry because Barack Obama has effectively secured the party's nomination for president. Instead, Matheson said he plans to spend the week campaigning. "I have a very full schedule already set up in Utah," Matheson told The Salt Lake Tribune in a story published Friday. He also wants to be around when a son starts a new year of grade school. Some in both parties have sug- top-ranki- Matheson, a superdelegate whose vote can't be counted in absentia, should reconsider, said Josie Valdez, a Democrat running for lieutenant governor and one of Utah's 29 delegates to the national convention. "We have worked so hard to show solidarity for Obama," Val dez said. It is disappointing that anyone would decide that they are not going to at- tend." ;i State Sen. Ross Romero said the Denver convention is a milestone gested Matheson wants to steer Rep. Jim clear of liberal activist elements at that Matheson Matheson shouldn't miss. the Democratic convention. be would "I in is clear "Everyone very a little disapterms of my party affiliation," pointed if he did not attend as our said Matheson. "My opponents state's highest elected official," made sure of that over the years. Romero said. It is what it is. I'm a Democrat." As a member of Congress, Matheson faces Republican Bill Dew in the November election and Matheson is a Democratic who is "not replaceable" is expected to win. at the convention, said state DemStill, he said he's taking ocratic Party Executive Director nothing for granted. And he Todd Taylor. questioned whether he should Matheson also missed the spend campaign funds going to conventions in 2000 Democratic 8 the Denver for Aug. and 2004. convention. super-delega- 25-2- FRANSCELLDaily Herald INTERIOR DEPARTMENT AUDIT Abandoned mines on federal land pose hazards Erica Werner THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The government WASHINGTON has endangered the public's health and safety by failing to clean up abandoned mines on federal land in the West, according to a scathing audit released Friday. The Interior Department's inspector general found dangerous levels of arsenic, lead and mercury, along with hard-roc- k gaping cavities, at dilapidated to accessible sites easily mining visitors and residents. Bureau of Land Management supervisors told staff to ignore the problems, and employees who tried to report contaminated sites were threatened with retaliation, the audit said. At least 12 people were killed in accidents at abandoned mine sites between 2004 and 2007, and "the potential for more deaths and injuries are ominous," it said. The mines are mostly in California, Nevada and Arizona, the California Department of Conservation estimates there are about 47,000 abandoned mines in California. Other surveys have estimated about 500,000 such sites nationwide, where gold, silver, copper, lead and other minerals were mined, often decades ago. Environmentalists have estimated cleanup costs as high as $72 billion. But the inspector general's "BLM's abandoned mines program has long been undermined, neglected and marginalized by poor management practices and insufficient staffing and resources." Interior Department's inspector general in a published audit report abandoned mine land hazards on its lands," said spokesman Matt Spangler. "The agency worked closely with the IG audit team over the last year in examining the abandoned mine site challenges that it faces. The BLM accepts the IG's recommendations and will work diligently to implement them." BLM is part of the Interior Department and administers 258 million acres of public land primarily in 12 Western states. The majority of abandoned mine sites within Interior Department jurisdiction are on BLM land. Rikki Howard Last year, died and her younger sister was injured after they accidentally drove their vehicle into an open mine shaft near BLM's Windy Point Recreation Area in Kingman, Ariz. The mine shaft is on a small piece of private property surrounded by BLM land. Only after the accident, BLM provided a fence and warning signs for the site. Yet when auditors visited the area, they found two other deep mine shafts nearby, one unfenced and one only partially fenced, and with no 125-fo- audit noted that simple precautions could be taken, such as fences and warning signs. So far, the audit indicates, the Bureau of Land Management has hardly been up to the job. "BLM's abandoned mines program has long been undermined, neglected and marginalized by poor management practices and insufficient staffing and resources," said the report. In response, BLM issued a statement defending its abandoned mines program as "highly effective." The statement did not address specific circumstances raised in the audit. "The BLM has an active program in place to identify and address warning signs. One BLM official told auditors that fencing a site could lead to BLM liability, because it was an acknowledgment that BLM knew about the site. An employee was told not to identify abandoned mine sites because it got in the way of other duties. S3 |