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Show Utah Sunday, July 29, 1990 The Daily Herald, Provo, Utah Mayor disappointed by High Court decision - LOGAN (AP) Mayor Russ "Fjeldsted says he is disappointed in a Utah Supreme Court order requir-lin- g the city to pay Utah Power & flight Co. more than three times the amount set by a lower court for using the utility's electrical distribution facilities. On Thursday, the court unanimously overturned an award of $117,000 ordered by 1st District Judge VeNoy Christoffersen in 1988, land ordered the city to pay $434,987 for facilities the city had claimed to sell power to newly annexed areas. I The supreme court also rescinded the transfer of title to the city of distribution facilities in a portion of 5 Cache County annexed by the city. The high court remanded that issue back to district court. The utility supplies electricity in Cache County under an exclusive j franchise established by the county J and a certificate of convenience Commis-.siojfrom the Public Service Both the franchise and certifi-"cat- e are scheduled to run until 2016. n. j jhe suit involved customers 55 electrical power service' from UP&L while their homes 'were located in the unincorporated I who received portion of the county. In 1985, the areas were annexed to Logan and the city claimed authority to provide electrical service to customers ! within the city's expanded S J "State law states that a municipality cannot take over a utility as the provider of electricity until it reimburses the utility for the fair market value of those facilities dedicated to provide service to the annexed area," the decision said. School board wairts to keep food tax - The State CEDAR CITY (AP) Board of Education has joined the Board of Regents in opposing a November ballot initiative to eliminate the sales tax on food. Friday's vote approving a resolution opposing elimination of the sales tax on food was opposed by board member M. Richard Max-fielwho said the resolution would alienate citizens in favor of the proposal. In June, regents passed a similar resolution opposing the initiative, which opponents say could cut $44 million from the $1 billion Utahns spend on public education if approved. "Every time we oppose some d, tax-cutti- At the lower court trial, the dispute centered on which facilities have met that description. Attorneys for UP&L claimed the defini- tion also includes facilities outside the annexed area fully or partially dedicated to providing services to the annexed area. However, the lower court took the city's side and required payment only for facilities within the annexed area. Fjeldsted said the trial came shortly after heated litigation resulting in the city winning the right to take over electrical power service at Utah State University, a contract UP&L had held nearly 50 years. The mayor said he has been unable to discuss the new ruling with city attorney Scott Barrett, but "I hope we can negotiate with Utah Power and come up with some kind of settlement. "Things have changed now that the utility is part of PacifiCorp and I feel it's time we started recognizing each other as partners instead of adversaries," he said. .3 thing lots of people support, we alienate another group of citizens," Maxfield said. "We may do more harm than good by opposing this. "We need to make education our No. 1 issue," he not money said. "Let's just make a statement saying that education should be adequately funded." But other board members supported the resolution. John M.R. Covey said he backed the resolution and Ruth Hardy Funk said the board should oppose any reduction in funding until the state is at least at the national average in education funding. Utah now spends less per student than nearly every other state in the nation. The resolution said, "any reduction in the present tax base of a state already under-funde- d will have an impact on all services funded by taxes including public education." In addition to the regents and the state school board, the Utah Student Association, an organization made up of representatives from all the state's colleges and universities, has opposed the initiative. Utah Parent-TeachAssociation President Pat Hales said her organization opposed the initiative as well, although she added that it would not take a formal stand until its meeting in September. In another issue, Maxfield also went down to defeat when he suggested the board draft a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union asking it to defer suits over graduation prayer in Utah until cases pending in courts in other states are resolved. The ACLU announced plans to sue several Utah school districts because they allowed prayers at June high school graduation ceremonies. er "I don't think they'd value it," said Board Member Donald Chris-tense"It wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on." n. Feds probe pillage of dinosaur bones MOAB Vandals and (AP) thieves have found that dinosaur bones can claim higher prices than artifacts from Anasazi Indian ruins, and federal officials are worried that bulldozers and picks from the freelance entrepreneurs are ravaging fossil sites in southern Utah. "It's gotten out of hand," said Julie Howard, an archaeologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Moab. "We have a shop here in Moab that is selling a ton of dinosaur bone a month. And we know it's also going to New Mexico and California." Dinosaur bones sell for as much as $75 a pound, depending on the quality. Large dinosaur bones can weigh several hundred pounds. Howard said thieves have found that dealing with dinosaur bones is more profitable than pothunting. Investigators say that people pillaging dinosaur bones often are the same ones who pillage Anasazi Indian ruins. As with pothunting, they are using heavy equipment to remove dinosaur skeletons embedded in the rock, officials said. Howard added that people even have taken rock saws and cut dinosaur footprints from a slickrock road bed near Moab. BLM officials have said that sites in the Lisbon Valley in San Juan County and near the Moab airport in Grand County have been heavily damaged in quarrying activities. Sites in Colorado are also believed to be targeted, they said. Craig Harmon, the Utah BLM's head archaeologist, said a criminal investigation is under way. BLM rangers also have begun patrols and have erected signs warning that collection of vertebrate fossils is illegal under federal law. Harmon said laws directed at collection are not nearly as stringent as those for collecting Indian artifacts. Existing laws will be used io pursue those who pillage any irreplaceable public and scientific resource, he said. The code of federal regulations deals with theft and destruction of government property and specifies the amounts and types of things that can be collected, he said. "A ton a month is not a legitimate collection. Collection of vertebrate fossils like dinosaurs is not legitimate collection." fossil ! ii I Poll shows that majority of Utahns support school prayer - NearSALT LAKE CITY (AP) ly, 70 percent of Utahns favor allowing prayer in public schools and more than 70 percent believe that prayers should be allowed during high school graduation ceremonies, a poll shows. The poll released Saturday has found that 69 percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat favor allowing prayer in public schools. A majority, 52 percent, strongly favor prayer in schools. Only 26 percent oppose praying in public school and 6 percent do not know, said Jones, whose survey of 6Q5 Utahns has an error margin of 4 percent, plus or minus. The poll also has found that 72 percent of Utahns think prayers' should be allowed at high school graduation ceremonies; 19 percent think such prayers should not be allowed; 7 percent say it makes no difference either way; and 2 percent do not know. Support for school prayer in general and praying at graduation cer- emonies runs across the demo- graphic spectrum. Seventy-si- x percent of Republicans favor school prayer as do 58 percent of Democrats. Eighty-thre- e percent of those who say they are members of the Mormon Church support school prayer. Protestants and Catholics are split over the question. And 70 percent of those who say they have children in the public schools support prayer in schools. The survey was done as the prayer issue has reached a boiling point in Utah. " Norm said state money should be spent to help defend lawsuits filed against school districts concerning On Thursday, Gov. Ban-gert- er prayer. Bud Scruggs, Bangerter's chief of staff, said Friday that the funds would be available to fight any lawsuit over school prayer, including legal action designed to force schools to allow prayer. Also Friday, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City released a statement saying that it supports prayer at public school functions. "We do not consider this to be in conflict with the First Amendment, as long as representatives of all religious denominations are called the upon, including statement said. Earlier in the week, Families Alert, a conservative family value group, sent letters to the state's school districts warning that it may sue if they do not allow school prayer. Joy Beech, the group's executive director, believes that denying prayer violates free speech and freedom of religion guarantees of the Constitution. American Civil Liberties Union officials also say that they will announce Monday which of a half-dozschool districts it will sue to stop graduation prayers. The practice has, in general, been outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court under the Constitution's required separation of church and state. Scruggs said the governor's concern goes beyond the prayer issue to the question of who will create en agrees. "There is no more gray area in constitutional law than graduation prayers. Parish-Pixler- 's macho, bravado attitude is typical of a threatening attorney. The ACLU has thousands of attorneys across the nation and millions of dollars. They've targeted Utah for this school prayer issue. The governor believes districts should have the (financial) resources to respond to it." Parish-Pixlhas said the ACLU does not threaten people or file frivolous lawsuits. agree." "We file lawsuits based on our House Speaker Nolan Karras, constitutional principles," she said. agrees. "The Bill of Rights is not frivo"I think the Legislature would go lous." The poll was conducted for the along with that," he said. Deseret by Dan Jones & Associates. Scruggs, an attorney himself, dis public policy in Utah. ACLU Director Michele Parish-Pixle- r said it is foolish for the state or school districts to legally resist the ACLU's suits over school prayer. She said constitutional law is clear and that organized prayer in public schools should not be allowed. "Are we going to let public policy be set by the group, any group, who uses the threat of litigation to set that policy? The governor says 'no' and we think the Legislature will y, News-KSL-T- 'Atomic bombers to dedicate peace monument SALT LAKE CITY (AP) When the plane that dropped the George Marquardt looks back over on Nagasaki three days after the the span of 45 years, he rivets on a Hiroshima raid. Five days later, the vibration of the Japan capitulated, effectively endmillisecond steeply banking 9 and the fire- ing World War II. ball, always the fireball, rising Among those addressing the from the blackened smudge of Hiro- group will be Hideaki Kase, a shima. journalist, author and adviser to "It was such a terrific blast," two Japanese prime ministers. By recalled the pilot of a chase plane telephone from Tokyo, Kase said that accompanied the "Enola Gay" the idea of speaking to a group oi on its Aug. 6, 1945, mission. "It was; his country's former enemies is like the sun had come out of the; disconcerting. "It is very hard to come up with ground and just exploded." More than half a lifetime later, appropriate words," said Kase, who Marquardt and other members of nevertheless will discuss the memothe 509th Composite Group, whose! rial's significance to a country mission it was to drop the atomic which he believes bought world bomb, will gather on the salt desert peace with the lives of nearly 200,-00- 0 west of Salt Lake City to celebrate atomic victims. the peace they believe it brought. "What I know is this. Japan More than 200 of its 1,700 memthe war also had a program during bers are expected at the Wendover, to develop a nuclear bomb, and had Nev., visitors' center Aug. 25 for we succeeded I'm sure we would dedication of a peace memorial. have use it," he said. "We have no They will include Marquardt, reto complain." tired Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, ground The ceremonies will include dediwho flew the "Enola Gay," and obelisk honoring retired Maj. Gen. Charles "Chuck" cation of a Sweeney, who piloted "Bock's Car," the 509th, "all who contributed to B-2- bring this dreadful war to an end" and the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "for their sacrifice to mankind's struggle for a more peaceful world." Kase said he hopes to tell members of the 509th that the lesson found in the rubble of those cities was worth the price. "The fact that there was no third world war proves partly their point," he said. "It was this power that has prevented it. Peace through strength." The Sweeney agrees. "As a military man, I think ... maybe we stopped some world wars," he said from his home in Milton, Mass. The 509th, with Tibbets in com- mand, was formed in 1944 specifically to be drop the "gadget" being at Los Alamos, N.M. consisted of 15 modified officers and 1,500 enlisted September trained to developed The unit s, 220 er Why weight? V Our weight loss program can help you lose weight, keep it off and feel better about yourself. 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