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Show SERVING MOAB AND SOUTHEASTERN UTAH SINCE Christmas festivities beginning this 1896 Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 weekend. Check em out! Volume 96 Thursday, November 23, 1989 50C Number 47 Downtown park , visitor center discussed Tuesday by Ken Davey At their meeting Tuesday evening, the Moab City Council began what promises to be a long, ongoing discussion of a proposal to build a new city park in the center of town. Council member Dave Sakrison reported that the city has started ten- tative negotiations to purchase a 22,500 square foot parcel of land on the southeast comer of Main and Center Streets, and convert the property into a city park and the centerpiece of future downtown development. The site is currently occupied by the Canyon Country Sinclair Station. The proposal for the new city park is tied to a decision by federal and state agencies involved in recreation activities to establish an interagency visitors center adjacent to the new park. The creation of the new city park and combined visitors center is part of an overall plan to develop an "oasis" of greenery in the center of town for both visitors to and residents of Moab and Grand County. Sakrison announced that the Canyonlands Natural History Association is planning to purchase the former Foodtown building on Center Street. The CNHA will then convert the building into a regional visitors center to house the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation, as well as the When he heard about Thanksgiving and its attendant traditions, Turkey Taylor, of the Taylor mini-farturned red and blue in the face, puffed himself all up, and started bragging about how he got through his first Thanksgiving just fine, and figured he would be able to do a Wilbur the pig number again this year. Such self confidence will likely be rewarded. Meanwhile, other birds are in refrigerators waiting for ovens. Soon and the to are stuffed arrive broccoli. so forth, and Tolls, salads, pies, dressing celery, yams, Photo by Tish Wellington along with hungry guests. Happy Thanksgiving from all the Taylor clan. Moab leads the state in loss of population since 1980 The U. S. Bureau of the Census has released its 1988 population estimates for all cities in Utah. And as expected, Moab has shown a dramatic drop of over 23 since the last official census in 1980. The estimate now shows that Moab has 4,090 residents, down from 5,333 in the official count in 1980. Total Grand County population is also down 21.13. It is now estimated at 6,500, down from the official count of 8,241 in 1980. An actual count of the cities will occur during the Census on April 1, 1990. These estimates are prepared as part of the Federal State Cooperative Program for Population Estimates, a cooperative effort existing between the U. S. Bureau of the Census and the Utah State Office of Planning and Budget. If individual cities disagree with their estimates, they have the option to participate in the Federal challenge process. According to the estimates. Salt Lake City has maintained its first place ranking in size, even though it experienced an estimated decline from 163,000 in 1980 to 152,700 in 1988. West Valley City, with an estimated population of just over 93.000 is now the second largest city in the state, edging out Provo from that position. Provo, Sandy and Ogden are four, five and six in since 1980. San Juan County showed a net down from 12,253 decline of to 11,600 during the eight year period. Unincorporated areas in that county showed the sharpest decline, although both B landing and Monti-cell- o also showed drops in popula- 5.3, tion. Carbon County population dropped 2.61, with most of that loss showing in East Carbon City, size. Sunny side and Hiawatha. Price For cities over 5,000 in population, West Jordan continues to be the fastest growing city, with an 85.5 increase in the past eight years. Farmington was the second fastest growing city, increasing over followed by St. George with an increase of over 74 since 1980. Population of St. George is now estimated at 22,970. Moab had the slowest growth in population in the state for cities over 5.000 with a net decline of over 23 ulation estimates dropped from 9,086 to 8,640. Emery County dropped 1.32 since the 1980 census, but some small communities in the county 81, pop- dropped dramatically. Estimated loss in Green River, for example, was 23.64, down from 956 to 730 since 1980. The report showed that Davis County has five of the ten fastest growing cities, while Salt Lake County has four. Archaeological survey work to begin on Book Cliffs route by Vicki Barker A Bountiful firm was awarded a contract Monday with road districts in Grand and Uintah counties to conduct a preliminary archaeological survey on one of the proposed Book Cliffs highway routes between Cisco and Ouray. In a split vote, the Grand Special Service Road District control board accepted the low bid of $26,881 from Archaeological Environmental Research Corp. for preliminary identification of archaeological sites along the preferred route through East Canyon. Uintah County approved the contract about two weeks ago. After nearly two hours of discussion in which a first motion died for lack of a second, board chairman Robert Shumway had to cast the required third vote to approve the contract after Suzanne Mayberry dissented and Kent Dalton, a member of the Moab Archaeological Society, abstained. Dalton said Tuesday he abstained from the vote because of conflict of interest. He said he had worked with one of the bidding firms before, but he would not identify which one. Before voting, the board first had to clear up confusion over a requirement of the Bureau of Land Management that survey work be done on all three possible routes, not just the preferred route. AERC's proposal covered only the preferred route. Two phone calls to Bruce Louthan, Moab District BLM archaeologist, confirmed that all three routes must be surveyed for the study to qualify for consideration as part of an Environmental Impact Statement On a motion by Ollie Knutson, the board decided to award additional contracts later for studies on the alternate routes, so that work could begin now on East Canyon. An in- ventory of all three routes was stipulated in a letter last month from Moab District BLM director Gene Nodine in which permission was granted for the districts to proceed with cultural resource surveying. Normally, environmental studies for road projects on federal land are applicatriggered by right-of-wa-y tion. The road districts filed for the BLM right-of-wOct. 10, then began working on a "memorandum of understanding" which says the BLM will select an EIS contractor that the road districts will pay for. As of last week, both road districts had approved the agreement with the BLM, and it had gone to the district offices for BLM signatures. A tentative date of Dec. 15 for hiring the EIS contractor is included in the schedule of the agreement. That agreement specifies that the EIS contractor or any subcontractor ay shall have no connection with Creamer & Noble, or any financial or economic interest in any phase of the project or its completion. That clause brought up the question of Creamer & Noble involve-- 1 ment in subcontracting for an archaeological inventory. Brian Brem-ner.Creamer & Noble, said his Green River will get new Post Office The Postal Service is accepting offers for sites or an existing building for a new Green River Post Office, said Postmaster Clark J. Riches. .According to Riches, the Postal Service wants a structure of approximately 2,665 net square feet on a lot that is 29,400 square feet. The preferred area is either on Broadway between Main Street and 200 South or on Main Street between Green River Boulevard and Pearl Street Interested parties should contact the U.S. Postal Service Real Estate Branch in Salt Lake City for additional information. Offers will be accepted until close of business on December 15, 1989, at the Real Es- tate Branch, USPS, P.O. Box 22027, Salt Lake City, UT 84122-002- 7. Postmaster Riches added that no tax dollars will go into this project. Since 1983, the Postal Service no longer receives tax dollars for operating expenses. Postal expenses are paid for with revenue received from selling stamps and other postal products, he said. Umetco will cut back on operations Umetco Minerals Corporation Sakrison told the meeting that working with both federal and state agencies will open up new avenues of financing and will make it easier to obtain outside funds for the project. No significant amount of city money is expected to be spent. Sakrison also reported an enthusiastic response to the plan from the University of Utah, and reported that University officials hope to get the school involved in the design and planning of the park. The Park Service, the BLM, and the Forest Service had previously agreed to establish an interagency visitors center in the Moab area. The Forest Service is currently working to develop the La Sal Mountains as a winter recreation area, while the BLM has recently become more active in promoting recreation activities on its land. According to Pete Perry, from the Canyonlands Natural History Association, the Board of Directors of the Grand County Travel Council has passed a resolution in favor of the proposed visitors centercity park. "Contingent upon money, I think this achieved," he said. According to E. W. Shortridge, director of operations for Umetco, the cutback will include a reduction in mining activities on the Colorado Plateau, as well as milling operations at the White Mesa Mill south of Blanding. firm is handling the arrangements as "just an extension of the board." He said it doesn't matter who does archaeological surveying for the EIS, as all the firms being dealt with are "Theoretically, all should come up with a similar mitigation plan." d. t the idea of a focal point for Moab is a great idea," said Council member David Bierschied. "We need to make the downtown area more comfortable for people." "I think it's going to create an atmosphere within the downtown area. It will create a gathering area, and some retail businesses should spring up," Dave Sakrison explained. Council members agreed that no decisions should be made without a full explanation of both the costs and benefits of the plan, and adequate time for public input and discussion. Perry reported that the involved federal agencies have set up a committee to study the proposal. Included on the committee are representatives of the Grand County Travel Council and the Moab Chamber of Commerce. The City Council assigned Dave Sakrison and David Bierschied to work with that committee, and a tentative meeting time for the committee was set for 10 a.m. Monday, November 27, in the conference room of City Hall. The meeting is open to the public. A central gathering area in town, a green "oasis," was an important part of the design plans drawn up for the city by Professor Richard Toth and graduate students at Utah State University. In their final designs presented to the City Council last month, the students envisioned Moab developing from the center out, with recreational areas such as the proposed Mill Creek Parkway dividing the town into zones for commercial property, homes and industrial development. The recreational 'spokes' would revolve around a commercial axis at Center and Main Streets. "Try to envision a park in the center of town," said Pete Perry, "this project can be a giant step toward developing the kind of downtown we want" In other action, the City Council tabled paying a $1,300 curb and gutter bill for work done in front of (continued on Pg. A3) WEATHER Christmas parade opens holiday season Saturday Sleigh bells and jingle bells will ring in the Holiday Season in Moab this Saturday, November 25th, as the annual Moab Christmas Parade marches down Main Street beginning at 10 a.m. Everyone is invited to participate in this annual Christmas Season week announced a cutback in its uranium and vanadium mining and milling activities in western Colorado and eastern Utah, resulting in the layoff of 59 employees. P. K. Willmott, president of Umetco, said the layoff is the result of a continued worsening in the uranium market coupled with a faster than expected downturn in the vanadium market "Given the overhang of considerable amounts of vanadium stocks in the hands of the consumers, it will be sometime in the first quarter 1990 before a more normal supplydemand balance is BLM-permitte- CNHA and the Canyonlands Field Institute. Sakrison also announced that the Grand County Travel Council has agreed to move its information services from the Moab Visitors Center on North Main Street into this new, centralized facility. The final result will be one single visitors center for the area, where tourists and vacationers can obtain information on all of the recreational activities available in the region. The new facility will be bordered to the west by the proposed city park, a natural gathering place for visitors and residents alike. The Canyonlands Natural History Association will take responsibility for the purchase of the Foodtown site and the arrangements of the new visitors center, while the city will purchase the adjoining property along Main Street. While there have been no formal negotiations between the city and RJM Investments, the owner of the gas station property, informal discussions have arrived at an estimated price tag for the site of about $175,000. City purchase of the land would also remove it from the property tax rolls, with between $2,000 and $3,000 of revenue lost to the county. While each member of the City Council expressed support for the concept of building a city park in conjunction with a visitors center, they raised concerns about the city's financing of the project. But Dave kick-o- ff event. The "Sounds of Christmas," this year's parade theme, will be produced by all those participating and enjoyed b y onlookers along the parade route to Millers Shopping Center. Families will enjoy Santa on his bright red fire engine and the many other entrants depicting the joyful sounds of Christmas. Children will have the opportunity to visit with Santa after the parade at the Civic Center while parents shop at the Annual Christmas Craft Fair sponsored by Omega Rho. Entry forms may be picked up at the Moab Chamber of Commerce, 64 South Main and should be received before 12 noon Friday, November 24th. Parade line up is at City Park, 9 a.m., late entrants may also line up at this time. The Moab Chamber of Commerce November luncheon and annual business meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the MiVida Restaurant beginning at 12 noon. The public is invited and membership is encouraged to attend as the 1990 Board of Directors will be announced at this annual meeting. Meeting set to consider county court, jail and other needs Grand County is sponsoring a series of public meetings to get a feel from the public on the need to build a new jail, remodel the courthouse and expand courtroom facilities. The first meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 27 in the Council Chambers. Grand County Commissioners want to take comments and questions on the issues. The Utah Department of Corrections has notified Grand County that its current jail facility no longer meets department standards, and needs to be replaced. Commissioner David Knutson said the courthouse itself has been moved up into the top four courthouses most badly needing work because of lack of handicapped access, age of structure, and failure to meet codes. It is estimated that the needed work will require about $3.5 million. One of the most important components of the meetings will be discussion on funding methods available. Comm. Knutson estimates that two or three additional public meetings will be needed before the commissioners decide what to do. |