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Show r yryryto,rrTTynrinff jr yn,y irrr"" r-- ry VP1 SERVING MOAB AND SOUTHEASTERN UTAH SINCE 1896 pi p V Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 Number 10 Volume 95 Thursday, March 10,1988 35 Utah has grown, but most rural counties down since 80 - Valley dropped from 239 to an estimated 210, and the Grand County portion of Green River dropped from 92 to 70. Across the line. Green River dropped from 956 to 850. Unincorporated Grand County dropped from 2,577 to 2,410 in the census estimate. Moab, Grand Junction civil leaders plan two-da- y meeting A two-da- y meeting between Grand Junction and Moab civic organizations has been scheduled this Friday and Saturday, March 1 1 and 12, at the Holiday Inn in Grand Junction, according to a memo circulated late last week by Joe Kingsley, one of the organizers representing the Moab Chamber of Commerce. Invited to attend from Moab are board members of the Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Travel Council, Film Commission, and Community Development Agency. Scheduled to be discussed at the two-da- y meeting will be joint educational programs for employers and employees of tourist-relate- d suffered drastic drops. Utahs population estimate at the end of For Sundwall Center . 1986 was 1,665,000 up from the official 1980 census of 1,4661,037. The 12 percent of Utah cities that lost population from 1980 to 1986 were highly concentrated in the southern and nonmetropolitan portions of the state. Seventeen of the state's 27 cities with declining populations are in the Southeast, . . On Feb. 29th Alpha Rho Chapter of ESA presented a check in the amount of $225 to the Sundwall Educational Center of Moab as part of their philanthropic work;. Those making the presentation were Bobbie Long, Rhea Gramlich and Rosemary Yama. This donation is made annually and was accepted this year on behalf of the Center by Roseanne Martin and Sandra Foy. The Sundwall Center is a school for handicapped children, some of whom are eventually mainstreamed into the Middle School and Grand County High School. Besides donating the above mentioned money, Alpha Rho gives a Halloween party plus an "end of school" party for the students and is proud to be of some help o these young people. Left to right, Roseanne Martin, Bobbie Long, Rosemary Yama, Rhea Gramlich and Sandy Foy. y and central Districts. The Southeast Southwest, San Juan opposes Owens new "Proj ect Bold proposal San Juan County Commissioners have taken issue with a recent piece of legislation in the federal congress, introduced by Rep. Wayne Owens which would alterjsQme- - ,, What, but revivean, .earlier plan of lands, blocking up state-owne- d known as Project BOLD, proposed by former Utah Governor Scott Matheson. Involved in the consolidation would be some 2.S million acres of d land, much of which is "checker-boardethroughout all counties of the state. The premise of the Owens proposal is that larger blocks of land are more manageable and therefore more valuable than the present scattered state sections, generally sections 2, 16, 32 and 36 in each Township, which were granted to Utah at statehood in 1896, for the support of the public school system (D-Uta- Utah-owne- d" More Valuable as They Are "Unless each proposed exchange can be specifically shown to be economically beneficial to the State of Utah, such as Gov. Norman Bangerter's proposal to exchange WEATHER High tOw Free. Mtrthl 69 33 32 March 3 69 -- 33 'il26 62 . - 68' March? MarchS SI 28 36 fr. tr-- scattered state sections in some parks and the Navajo Reservation, for land at five locations on Lake Powell, the scattered or checkerboard lands are probably more valuable held as. they the Commission said. , yh They listed a number of reasons supporting their position: , "1. About 95 of all revenue from state lands comes from oil, gas and mineral production. The Owens proposal would give half of what we are now getting to the feds. "2. On most scattered sections of state land, the state owns the surface, the leasable and the estate. The proposed exchange would give the feds all surface ownership, 50 interest in the leasable minerals ownership and 100 of the locatable minerals ownership unless the federal government took action to withdraw such lands from location under the 1872 mining law. If they did so, then the state would retain 50 of the locatable minerals also. The feds sub-surfa- ce sub-surfa- then have the full responsibility of managing and leasing or not leasing these lands. If would they chose to leave for development and production as vigorously as the state, then the state would not lose. However, many of the 2.5 million acres of state, lands are located in wilderness study areas or other areas where the feds are either constrained from leasing by law or are doing so by administrative action. If the feds ultimately decide, for whatever rea-son, not to lease, then the state gets nothing from the feds from "shared revenues" while having to give them 50 from any lands acquired by the state. , l Feds JXftvJd,R.ive Title v "3. On land acquired by the 8 stfte from Ihe feds. the State would receive title to the surface and the leasable estate. If mining claims exist on such acquired lands, the state would get no interest in such lands to the locatable estate so would get nothing for the state as to share with the feds from such estate. Additionally, the owner of the mining claims has the right to ultimately patent the surface estate which would supercede the state's right of ownership. In addition, if the land is not leased for leasable minerals the mining claim owner could also include leasable minerals. This right to patent is by time. Therefore, the state would lose all locatable mineral value on any land selected which has mining claims and risk losing surface and leasable ownership as well. sub-surfa- ce sub-surfa- sub-surfa- Federal Grazing Leases "4. Another problem is with respect to grazing. In many areas the scattered state sections are used as "base lands which are required in order to qualify far and hold a federal (Continued to A-3- ) Snowpack on LaSals up holding Unlike most areas of Utah in , Multi-Count- District stands out as the most depressed region in the state. All of the incorporated cities in Grand, San Juan and five of the seven in Carbon County lost population from 1980 to 1986. Most of the cities enjoying population growth were those referred to as "bedroom" cities on the Wasatch front, with the exception of St. George, the only city outside a metropolitan area making the topJO growth list. The Bureau of the Cen- sus now estimates St. George's population at 19,800, compared to 13,146 in 1980.. Blanding dropped from 3,118 to 3,070 and Monticello from 1,929 to an estimated 1,830. Unincorporated areas of San Juan dropped from 7,206 to 6,400. Utah's per capita income was estimated at $8,535 in 1985, up 35.4 from 1979. It was also up in Moab, and in Grand County, but only by 16.7. The increase here was from $6,495 to $7,577 for 1985. Specifically, Moab's population was estimated at 4,410, down from the 1980 count of 5,333. Casde The Bureau of the Census recently released 1986 city population and 1985 per capita income estimates for Utah. Data users in both the public and private sectors regard the Bureau of the Census numbers as the best statewide series of city population and per capita income estimates available. The population estimates are widely used in federal funding formulas and per capita income estimates are the only federal or state source of personal income data on a city level since the 1980 census. The Bureau of the Census produces these estimates approximately once every two years. And while the population of Utah grew some 14 percent during the six years, communities heavily depenindustries dent on the energy-relate- d businesses, joint placement " beginning at 9 a.m. According to Mr. Kingsley, room and board is being provided courtesy of the Holiday Inn County may close roads at Cisco Grand County Commissioners have called a public hearing for Monday, April 11, beginning at 7:00 p.m. for vacating a number of roads in Cisco Townsite. Owner of the land on both sides of the roads in question, Dean Norris of CoWest Incineration, has petitioned the county to vacate the roads, for the purpose of consolidating lands he previously purchased from the County, and on which he is pursuing efforts which would lead to the construction of a hazardous waste incinerator there. The lengthy list of roads and alleys to be vacated, should Commis- sioners concur, is published ril the , Public Notices section of this issue1 ' of The The hearing will be held in the Council Chambers of the Courthouse. of brochures, development of a Grand JunctionMoab City map with points of interest, a Small Business Administration sister-cit- y national seminar, and joint marketing ideas , for visitor and convention bureaus. Meetings will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday; March 1 1 and continue until '; 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 12th, the Moab Chamber of Commerce has planned a board of directors retreat . . : Times-Independe- Wildlife concerns expressed over underground gas leak The underground gasoline leak at Moab which has contaminated groundwater, is of great concern for local wildlife according to Larry of an incubating adult. Gasoline contamination may impact wetland vegetation, resulting in loss of such plants as willow and cottonwood trees, cattails, sedges and bulrush. A loss in habitat results in loss of associated wildlife. Dalton, Resource Analyst, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The wetlands associated with Mill Creek, Pack Creek and the Moab Marsh provide critical wildlife habitat, and are being impacted by the surfacing of polluted groundwater. A variety of wildlife, particularly shorebirds, waterfowl, pheasants, quail and songbirds inhabit the wetland. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons, both endangered birds, utilize Colorado River and neighboring marshes for their abundant food sup- The excavation of a collection trench and drilling of water wells to be overseen by Utah Department of Health should result in correction of the contaminated ground water. The more quickly the marsh is flushed out and flow of the contaminant stopped, the sooner the danger to wildlife will be relieved. Testing by State officials will occur following restoration in order to assure that safe environmental conditions are met. . on ply. During high spring runoff, the marsh and Mill Creek serve as a backwater shelter area for fish. Cat- - fish, which are a game species, and Colorado squawfish, which are an endangered species, have been found in Mill Creek and near its confluence with the Colorado River during spring periods. These fish forage on other fish and aquatic organisms. A small resident herd of mule deer, coyote, fox, beaver, river otter and numerous small mammals, as well as amphibians and reptiles, live along Mill Creek, the Colorado River and within the marsh. This array of animals feed on vegetation andor prey sources within the wetland ecosystem. The gasoline leak may impact fish and wildlife by destroying their food source and contaminating drinking water. Petroleum products can cause mortality in bird eggs if contact is direct or transferred from the feathers gen- eral, the LaSal Mountain snowpack is currently just above normal on one snowcourse and just below on the other, according to measurements made on the last of February by Soil Conservation officials. The LaSal lower snowcourse measured a 25 inch snow depth with 7.2 inches of water content. This is 92 percent of normal, and compared to 114 percent at the same time last ft 1 V-- vW : xt ili. n year. "Home" to visit . . . This Iowa Jeep win be visiting its other "home" in Moab in a tew weeks. Kenneth and Debbie friend and their children, Bradley, 7, and Heidi, have taken the Jeep from Cedar Falls, Iowa, all over the country, including Alaska. Their favorite place is obvious from a glance at their lclub and inicense plate. They have joined the Red Rock Safari. tend to be here for the Easter Jeep 3-1- 2, The upper LaSal course measured a 45.4 inch snow depth with 13.6 inches of water content. This is 1 10 percent of normal, compared with 146 percent last February. On the Blue Mountains in San Juan County, depths are good, but not as good as last year, and not quite up to normal. Camp Jackson measured a 30.1 inch snow depth with 10.2 inches of water content. This is 89 percent of normal compared to 113 percent a year ago. Buckboard Flat measured a 29.7 inch snow depth with 9.4 inches of water content. This is 84 percent of normal compared to 116 percent a year ago. w v - ' , ' " V ' V ' ; , ! , . i, ', , , . ' . .fr Work has begun on trenching by crews from Sargent Sales and Service Co. of Bountiful, to capture the underground movement of gasoline near 2nd South Street just wet of Main. Four homes in the area have been roped off with warning signs posted. Crews will dig a deep trench between the spreading underground spill and Pack Creek. The gasoline is expected to pool in the trench and then will be pumped out. The contract is only the first in what state officials say will be a long-tercleanup. m |