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Show iThe Page A7 (Thnfg-3iftfpgnftf- Thursday, March 8, 2001 nt to Cleartalk receives build six cell towers on north 191 go-ahe- Church staff writer by Lisa Cleartalk Telecommunications received a green light to locate six telecommunications towers along stretches of north U.S. 191 and Interstate 70 in the county. Cleartalk representative Craig Hoff said the tow ers, which will have a maximum height of 150 feet, are necessary to bring digital cellular telephone service te Moab and Grand County. Hoff said the towers are meaning they can hold transmitters for up to four communications companies, reducing the need for additional digital service towers to be erected in the county. There are lot of companies that will want to utilize these towers," he said. It will benefit everybody greatly." The Grand County Council approved the Grand Junction-base- d companys request for a conditional use permit on Monday night with a 1 vote. Council Chair Kimberly Schappert voted against the pro 4-- ad posal. Council members Bart Leavitt and Susanne Mayberry were not at the meeting. In voting against the measure, Schappert said she was concerned about the number of communications towers already located in the county, and about the increase in requests to locate more towers here. Schappert said that while the new digital towers will bring a new level of telecommunications to the area, she worries about the impact they will have on the county's viewshed. We have towers that are sprouting up everywhere," she said. Its a tradeoff. And its trading unobstructed views." Cleartalks plan calls for towers to be located on public and priat exit 202, near vate land along Thompson Springs, at Crescent Junction, and near Solitude Wash west of Crescent Junction. The company will also place a tower near the railroad tracks across from the entrance to Arches National Park on U.S. 191. Hoff said Cleartalk still needs to locate another site along U.S. 191 between Aiches National Pari and Crescent Junction, and he said a site in town has yet to be identified. He explained that digital communications transmitters have less range than the analog transmitters now servicing the county. For that reason, a higher number of communications towers are needed to provide uninterrupted service to the area. The company will use unlighted iaitice-typ- e towers, painted dull gray so they will blend in to the land in the background, at all the sites except the tower at Crescent Junction. There, because the tower will be located on a hill closer to the road and with the sky as a bai kground, a monopole tower will be used to mitigate visual impact, Hoff said. He said Cleartalk hopes to utilize an existing tower inside city limits, or to find a rooftop or building, such as Grand County High School, where visibility of the tower would be minimal. Olympics may cause film activity to boom, state official says Members of a goup supporting tourism and business development in southeastern Utah have been told to prepare for a deluge of requests from companies and individuals to film on public lands as the 2002 Winter Olympics draw near. That was the message of Leigh von der Esch, executive director of the Utah Film Commission, to the Canyon Country Partnership during a meeting in Green River on Thursday, according to a report in the Salt Lake Tribune. The partnership is a consortium of federal and state agencies, and officials from Emery, Grand, Carbon and San Juan counties. Many of the requests will be for location permits for Olympics-relate- d advertising and features using Utahs redrock parks and public lands as backdrops. They could be from foreign countries who dont know the rules for making commercial films on public lands, said Von der Esch. Im just afraid we will find them out filming in the backcountry and they dont even know they need a permit. She has the same concerns with the 10,000 journalists who will descend on Utah next February with the mandate to cover the Games. She advised the partnership to put together a package of story suggestions and filming information for distribution to journalists. It is up to the pertinent agency, be it the state, U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, on how much is charged to film in par ticular locations. Currently, after an application fee of around $250, nt there is a daily location fee that can range from $600 to $1,200, which is how much the BLM charged Cadillac, an Olympic sponsor, to film a television commercial on west- ern Utahs Bonneville Salt Flats. We are targeting the advertising agencies for the major Olympic sponsors and we are meeting with the Olympics organizations from various countries, said Von der Esch. The Film Commission will be updating its Web site at www.film.utah.org as new material becomes available. Currently, the office responds to filming requests with a package containing 300 pictures of outdoor locations and buildings. Von der Esch also said there is a need to streamline the process to accommodate film crews that now have to w ait about 30 days for a permit. During the Olympics, some film crews may not even be in the state for three weeks, she said. Before it adjourned last week, the Legislature passed a resolution urging that incentives be made to film companies, such as abolishing location fees on state lands. Dick Manus, the Bureau of Land Management field office manager in Price and member of the partnership, said the agencies feel a lot of pressure to speed the process along. Von der Esch said the commission has tried to hurry the process but never to compromise established requirements for a location. Some of those requirements can include environmental studies, depending on the projects location and size. This week, Von der Esch plans to meet with similar groups in St. George. County accepts resignation of CJC director Continued from Page A1 last few months. The Center was created two Sheriff Jim Nyland told her she could have her pay for March and to not years ago to provide comprehensive care to victims of child sexual abuse and serious physical abuse in a bother finishing out the month. The resignation has left board members concerned about the future of the CJC. In her resignation letter, Giles wrote that she stepped down because some recent decisions seem to contradict not only what I was initially hired to do, but also what I believe is required of the Grand County Childrens Justice Center by our contract with the Utah Attorney Generals Office. Later she told The Im resigning because I feel that the mission of the CJC has significantly changed in the t, setting. Grand County Administrator Judy Bane explained that the resignation was in response to disagreements between Giles and the State Attorney Generals Office, which oversees all Children Justice Centers in the state. The main subject of contention concerned what role the Grand County CJC staff should play in the ongoing investigations into alleged crimes against children. The Attorney Generals Office felt that, after the initial interview period, the CJCs job was mainly to track information. But Giles wanted the CJC to play a bigger role. She was wanting investigative information, Bane said. She just felt that she wasnt the person to do the job the AGs office was talking about." Ild '' ldrt;t " ii definitely on thi mind.-- ; tic plan- at that tmn Uons on working ranches nototkirgei Attorneys : Christie should not vote destination resorts CarnmliaeUaid ah- - - renu mheis pustfd tw o essay s on the internet w eb page of the Moab Citizens Alliance, a local orgamzatu n leading the opposition to the propo&a! for a lodge, condominiums and homesites on the almost 2,000-acr- e parcel a few miles southeast of the Moab Golf Course iuisftitic IftttSCftj The company notes Christie wrote in the pot tings that Johnsons Mesa was r.ot included m p Sana county calculations of a build out The study written in the implication of this is that w ater and -- mid-1990- gardens s sewer connections for the resort complex were unexpected w hen the count y established its impact fee structure, and the connections might possibly overload the Spambh Valley system at some point in the future But Planning CommisMon Chair Judy Carmichael says the build out study did in fact include the mesa, and a look at a map accompanying the study shows the mesa w as within the study boundaries. Caimichae) also disputed another contention by Christie, that when the county planning commission proposed y allowing wilderness lodges in areas, they were thinking primarily of small tourist accommoda- -- MCS2E5 193 ZZ$HZ5 itcolfeatai tuny Eomjit 275Williams ) Ope hack-countr- tmmfflRKStm DAY. ed by Michael Shurgot, Fh.D. author of Stages uPuv Computer East of Moab it now... Mac Ext al! Moab Repertory Theatre to rsyiitsr. Cost with local discount is $35; Others: $50. Includes scripts. Your Local Mac Specialists 259-398- 3 Providing Apple Macintosh (Mac) support ssrvicts for the Moab area since 1993 Plus... Full Sonnet Wtb Pago Design & Development Thursday, March 29 Meet 10 am - 4 pm MARC 111 E. 100 N. rmtJT & Friday, March 30 Beginners & advanced actors PUBLIC MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT The Bureau of Land Management ((BLM)) and the United States Forest Service (USFS) will be hosting public meetings on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Questar, Williams and Kern River (QWK) Pipeline Proposals. The proposed Williams project will transport a variety of petroleum products from Northern New Mexico, through Western Colorado and Utah to North Salt Lake. The proposed project between Bloomfield, NM and Moab, UT will utilize existing pipelines. A new pipeline will be constructed from Moab, UT to North Salt Lake. The proposed Questar and Kern River proposals will carry natural gas from near Price, Utah to existing natural gas lines near Elberta and Nephi, Utah. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement Is available for Public Review and comment until April 16, 2001 and will be discussed In a series of Public Meetings. PUBLIC MEETING DATES, TIME AND PLACE: Bane said another bone of contention involved the Moab CJCs efforts to build and staff an medical center. She was moving too fast," Bane added. Theres CJCs in the state that have been going for years and they dont have what this CJC has. I feel like Giles told The , what I needed to do here, I did. I was hired to start it. Im not sure Im the right person to take it on cruise control and maintenance. It was good. I had a great time working here. I'm going to miss it. T-I- Cloudrock takes center stage at hearing Continued from Page A1 That same afternoon, New York developer Michael Liss, head of Moab Mesa Land Company which wants to build Cloudrock, arrived in town in preparation for Wednesdays hearing. I think therell be a lot of tough questions, he said. The preliminary plat is the most important step. He added that he expected there would be a large crowd at the hear- ing. The mere fact that theyve booked Star Hall means they think a lot of people will come. Rex Tanner, a leader of the Pro Moab citizens group, which has supported the Cloudrock proposal, said Tuesday that in addition to encouraging members to turn out to meetings such as Wednesdays hearing, his group is beginning to focus on next Novembers election of city council members. Tanner, who on Monday was appointed to the Grand County Board of Adjustments, said, Were interested in finding some candidates that we can support and get behind. Tanner says he and Pro Moab favor growth as long as it is the right kind of growth and in the right places. But hes not just in favor of high-en- d developments like Cloudrock. I have just as much passion to see a university coming here as I do Cloudrock. He says the reason growth issues, such as the Cloudrock development, have become so contentious is because politicians and other groups have made it an issue. Mathew Gross of the Moab Citizens Alliance on Tuesday said either way the Planning Commission and the Grand County Council vote on Cloudrock, he sees an appeal or a lawsuit on the horizon. I think it is likely that the Cloudrock application will be ultimately decided in court. I think the views about what the Land Use Code says and intends are too disparate in this community. And the code is very gray in certain areas. Its open to interpretation. At their strategy session Tuesday night, MCA members discussed a wide variety of problems with the Cloudrock application. Members hope to convince the Commission that the road accessing the mesa top is a pubic road and should not be allowed to have a gate across it. It has been listed as a county road since 1972 and has traditionally been used for public access, Gross constitutional takings lawsuit. He calculates that the agency is required to prove it has surplus culinary water and sewer capacity before it can issue permits for Cloudrock and he doesnt think they can. Gross also used Tuesdays meeting to coach citizens regarding the proper way of addressing questions to the commission during the hearing. Hopefully we got across to people that their points ought to be specific to the Land Use Code and the Cloudrock plat. is important that private citizens, representatives of industry, property owners, and municipalcountystate governments participate in the comment period for the Draft EIS. Comments are vital to the preparation of the final Environmental Impact Statement. Further Contact and Additional Information For more information, contact La Verne Steah, BLM Utah State Office, PO Box 451 55, Salt Lake City, UT 841 45. It said. MCA members also plan to challenge the development on the availability of water and sewer services. MCA member Kirk Defond says he believes Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency and its subsidiary agencies may be vulnerable to a 801-539-41- $ , V 14. - Information is also available on the website: www.qwk-eisior- g 1 |