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Show ! Despite the cold they danced the night away tb Dance c.old l RnrJcrtn'Tin ThfeXtrS braYed !be in southeastern Utah. Amerarj esfn IM right) are: Hal1 rfJears fllme recently lTl.ov'f Stroughten, with and Irish drum, Larry Nagel, playing fiddle, and Jerry Smith, on the. mandolin; all local talent. The night shot, with temperatures dropping to the low twenties, generated plenty of spirit as dancers moved faster and faster to keep warm. The location south of Moab seated fnr thk scene was an excellent duplicate of the real Dance Hail Rock in Garfield . , County, the Mormon pioneer history epic at Hote in the Rock ' I Year in Review . . . Rep. Orton unveils wilderness bill for As 1994 comes to a close we take a look back One of our best-rea- d features of the year is the traditional review of the past years news, retold in our New Years edition. This year is no exception. How quickly events slip from our memories. How many things were accomplished; yet how many things left undone. 1994 was a busy year in Moab and southeast Utah, and was another year of transition and growth. The face of the community continued to change, and continues changing even as we enter 1995. Local officials devoted hundreds of hours attempting to cope with change, and many initiatives were set in motion dealing with this important chapter in Moabs development. Allen Memorial Hospitals woes began the year, as authorities narrowed the list of potential hospital operators to take over management of the important, but money-losin- g health operation. As the year progressed, hospital news continued to fill our pages, including the pages of our last issue, where it was announced that Rural Health Management Corporation would be operating the facility pending a formal lease on the properties. All in all, it was a positive year at Allen Memorial. An overwhelming deficit was dealt with through cooperation of Grand County, Moab City, and most importantly, local taxpayers. Yet, progress was made. A new physician brought maternity services back home. Finances, though still a big question, seem to be better managed than in years. And authorities are optimistically hoping that the coming year will be one which finds the hospital standing on its own financially. As 1995 promises to be pretty much a continuation of what g to review with you has come before, we find it the chronology of 1994: thought-provokin- Jan. 4, 1994 Three for-prof- it it and corporations responded to a Grand County Hospital District renon-prof- quest for proposals to lease and manage Allen Memorial Hospital. The Board reported a $151,000 deficit for the year-enand announced it would look for revenue sources to replace the $250,000 subsidy from Grand County. Moab City Council hired Donna Metzler of California as city manager, over objections of Mayor Tom Stocks. The vote was unanimous. Jan. 11, 1994 Arches National Park recorded year-en- d visitation of 773,678 a 10 increase over the previous year and a new record high. Grand County Council announced it was ready to hire a professional to write a new county master plan by midsummer. The new planner was to use material gathered by Utah State University concerning what Grand County residents wanted to see happen during the coming years. Jan. 20, 1994 Local, state d, federal agencies in Southeast Utah announced the of a new formation partnership, a coalition dedicated to achieving proper management of Canyon Country through consensus building. The Allen Memorial Hospital Board announced it had pared the list of interested and management companies down to St. Marys Hospital in Grand Junction, and HealthTrust Corp, which operates numerous hospitals throughout Utah. A decision was promised by Jan. 26. Jan. 27 Grand County Council members and the Grand County Travel Council announced they were coming up with a plan to use transient room tax to pay for local infrastructure, at the same time leaving enough funding for future tourist promotion. Citizens Utilities announced they had purchased several GTE telephone properties across the nation, including the on which provided service to Moab. Feb. 3, 1994 Utah public lands Rep. Bill Orton, formally unveiled his draft h, Utah wilderness Thursday, beginning a Keeping warm around campfires, awaiting the next call for action, cowboys, wranglers and outriders (some of whom were descendants of folks with the Hole in the Rock wagon train) chatted about their rugged ancestors. The historical trip was made during the winter, and those working on the film got a taste of what it would have been like, exposed to the icy weather. Epic Hole in the Rock trek chronicled here in big screen movie Vineyard Productions, a Salt Lake City based company, completed work in Moab last week on its IMAX picture, The Great American West. The te historical recreation begins in 1803, with Napoleons Louisiana sale of the Territory to President Thomas Jefferson; and ends near the Canadian border with the 1877 surrender of Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce. When released, the adventures and hardships of early explorers, immigrants, mountain men and pioneers will unfold with magnificent force upon a gigantic screen six stories high and eighty feet long, scanning country from the Mississippi River to the West Coast. Audiences are sure to feel wrapped in a time (Cont. on Page B-l) bill pro- cess he hopes will resolve the contentious issue. Today, I am putting before Utah a concrete proposal; not an inflexible prescription, but a realistic starting point on the g road to resolution of this Orton said. debate, Orton is sending copies of his proposed bill, officially known as the Utah Public Land Use Management Act, to elected officials, business groups and environmentalists across the state, seeking their reactions to his proposal. The solution to Utahs wilderness debate must come from Utah, Orton said. I want input from every interested Utahn before I introduce this bill in the new Congress. While much of the wilderness debate has focused on a simple number how many acres of state to designate as wilderness Ortons approach utilizes a mix of wilderness and other designations to hopefully accommodate competing interests in Utahs public long-runnin- lands. My proposal would set aside New Years Baby to be gifted here The Times - Independents annual New Years Baby Contest is underway again, and everyone is eagerly awaiting news of who little Mr. or Miss Grand County of 1995 will be. The baby and his or her parents will receive a bounty of gifts chants, including everything Drug. More gifts are: baby mo- 38-be- ccasins from Canyonlands Trading Post, a cut and styling for mom from Pete & Co., a $10 savings account from First (Continued on Pg. ) A-3- fully operational in Grand WEATHER County. Coaches, administrators, parents and school board ) 3) from savings for the future to film processing to share the moment. Gifts will include: a new style hair cut from Magic Mirror, a $25 gift certificate from City Market, a baby book of the parents choice from B. Osborne Books, a $15 gift certificate from Arches Trading Post, a digital thermometer from Family Drug, a $25 savings bond from First Western National Bank and a $10 gift certificate from Walker Weeks of meet- l) aside about another 1.6 million acres of national parks and 1.8 million acres of National Conservation Areas of NCAs. NCAs are special designations created by Congress to protect and conserve nationally significant natural and cultural resources while allowing compatible uses to continue. Ortons draft bill would create three NCAs in Utah: 860.000 acres in the Canyons of the Escalante, 625,000 acres in the San Rafael Swell and 400.000 acres for Cedar Mesa in San Juan County. Orton says the concept behind NCAs when they were first created by Congress was to recognize that there are lands that are unique and that have specific environmental (Cont. on Page A-- from participating local mer- ings with health care groups in Utah and Colorado finally ended. The Grand County Hospital Board voted to negotiate exclusively with HealthTrust, Inc. to run the d Allen Memorial Hospital. Grand County Sheriff Jim Nyland announced that the new enhanced 911 emergency telephone service had become members met to attempt to revitalise high school sports in the local schools. Feb. 10, 1994The Moab City Council was looking at ways (Cont. on Page B-- about 1.2 million acres of wilderness on the Bureau of Land Management land, Orton said. It would also set Daily call out was usually at 4:00 a.m., so everyone could be costumed, made up and ready for cameras to roll by first light. One of the coldest days of the filming was at Pucker Pass; the Hole in the Rock scene where wagons were lowered over the rim. In this scene, Lizzy Decker and her husband lose most of their belongings as their wagon crashes to the bottom of the canyon. |