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Show Ewerif CounPif October 22, 1 996 Tuesday 96th Year - No. 41 Reflection on the Cottonwood Creek Emery County joins lawsuit vs. Babbitt Scott Niendorf Progress editor By Pools of water are visible in the wide stretches of river bot- tom on the Cottonwood Creek. The creek was washed out This comprehensive camOct. day. paign for public awareness beAward Oct. 23- gan when federal agent Enrique ceremony. Camarena was murdered by Oct. 23- - Wear red or purple drug traffickers. day. The role of Oct. Emery County agencies working together is the key to suc- Emery County Drug and Al- cohol Prevention Council chair Roma Powell and Four Corners prevention specialist Emery Ribbon Jones will will Week activities. ir out-rall- y PSA-Cam- model all cess. Activities scheduled include, but are not limited to: Oct. ribbon cutting ceremonies. Oct. Oct. day. Oct. 24- - Pledge day. 25- - Ribbon recognition 25- - tivity day. Oct. 26-Ma- Utah Jazz Bear ac- a difference day. Voters to see new Niendorf Progress editor Emery County voters will see something nev this year at the polling booths. After years of voters marking archaic paper ballots that have to be counted by hand, the county is finally going to transform its balloting to a new techMany counties around the state have computer punch cards for ballots but Emery County is going to an optical scanning ballot that is even high-spee- d Progress editor As Utah's centennial year winds down, Emery county has the unique honor to provide the National Holiday Tree that will be on display in Washington, D.C. in December County officials and residents are getting excited as the treecutting date draws nearer and local festivities will be realized in conjunction with the tree leaving the county. The blue spruce chosen to be the National Holiday Tree will be cut from its spot in Huntington Canyon in a 9 a.m. ceremony on Nov. 15. The spruce was selected by Matthew Evans, the landscape architect for the national Capitol, in early September when he visited several forests in Utah to choose the Holiday Tree. "This is very exciting for us." said Emery County Commissioner Randy Johnson, "to have the National Holiday Tree picked right here in Hunting-toCanyon." He said intense security is beingplanned to guard thetree from before the tree is cut to when it crosses the Carbon County line to the north as it leaves Emery County. A televised cer n nology. more advanced. Thanks largely to a grant from Utah Lt. Gov. Olene Walker in the amount of $15,000, the county was able to purchase the optical scannerto more efficiently read ballots. Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk said the county made up the difference in the $37,000 system but will more than pay itself off by reducing 33 election judges for each election. Funk said absentee voters using the new system have reported no problems with the new system. He said voters will see blank ovals next to candidates' names on the ballot Nov. 5. Pencils are used to darken ovals as your vote. The votes are turned in after polling and the returns are fed scanthrough the ner at election headquarters at By Scott Niendorf 70-fo- ballots By Scott tree-cuttin- g emony will show a champion logger, representing Poulan Weed Whacker, cuttingthe blue spruce and then the tree will be laid on a special trailer by a crane and then transported to Castle Dale. State Highway 31 going up through Huntington Canyon will be closed to traffic before Johnson said. Buses to the tree-cuttin- g site will be available for the public and will leave from the Hun- tington Power Plant parking lot no later than 8 a m . he said. (Continued on Page 2AJ Lake City on Nov. 18. The tree will be presented to Gov. Leavitt in a ceremony at the Gallivan Center Nov. 19. Emery County officials will also be speaking at the event before the trucks leave on their journey. Stops are tentatively being planned, along with ceremonies, in Cheyenne, Wyo., Spearfish, S.D., Rapid City, S.D., Pierre, S.D., Sioux Falls, S.D., LaCrosse, Wis., South Bend, Ind., Pittsburgh, Penn., Allentown, Penn., and Cenarrive at the National ter in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4-- H 1. parade planned at 9.30 a.m. in Castle Dale and a ceremony will follow in the Castle Dale Citv Park south of City Hall. Another truck, with 29 trees A is representing Utah's 29 The lighting ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Dec. 10 and the actual lighting will be at 5:30 p.m. and performed by the Speaker of the House. coun- ties, will also be on display. After the Castle Dale ceremony, the tree will travel to Price and Helper for ceremonies in those towns on Saturday as well. The Holiday Tree will stay in Pleasant Grove over the weekend and then will be shown at ceremonies in Orem and Salt Utah's state Holiday Tree lighting ceremony will also be Dec. 10 and tree lighting at 3:30 p.m. MST will coincide with the national ceremony. Johnson said he and local Forest Service representative Billy Dye have been speaking to school children about the importance of the national tree being chosen from Emery County. German couple, motorhome taken in bizarre crime spree By LAYNE MILLER Staff writer Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk shows new ballots. the county courthouse. missioners should be recog"The advantage to this sys- nized for their foresight in actem is the machine counts faster quiring the system. and more accurately," Funk "We've taken a giant step forsaid. "We could count all of the ward in election-databulaballots in the county within 30 tion," he said. minutes if we received them all Green River voters will have at the same timeT (Continued on Page 3AJ Funk said the county com y A German couple reportedly had a rented motorhome stolen at gun point last Wednesday by two Texas teenagers while they were parked at a reststop on Interstate 70 fixing dinner. Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Josh Adams indicated the couple, described as being s to early 30s, in their two suspects the that reported mid-20- entered their camper van, wielding a handgun and a shotgun or rifle about 5:30 p.m.. The two men entered the motorhome and forced them to drive into a desert area off State Road 191. They took a dirt road that heads to Floy Wash, said Adams. The teens purportedly forced the tourists to exit the vehicle, but allowed the couple to keep their passports, credit cards and other valuables. They drove down the dirt road about two miles, then dumped them out and kept the camper van. They walked back to Crescent Junction and reported the incident, explained the Green River based trooper. The tourists were identified as Andreas Eder, 27, r i redefine wilderness. "We're focusing on the new guidelines they have established, without process, for the new inventory," Johnson said. "They have basically redefined roads and wilderness qualities in such a way that they can find wilderness anywhere they look for it," he said. The commissioner went on to say the reinventory parameters suggest a predefined agenda. "It smacks of trying to fill a quota," he said. The elected officials of Utah, including Gov. Leavitt, have not joined as plaintiffs in the suit, Johnson said, because the case would then be tried in a federal court and would likely be thrown out for political reasons and not based on the merit of the complaint. He said although they have not joined the lawsuit, they are Nat'l Holiday Tree festivities It is Ribbon Week once again and Emery County children and residents will be participating in drug-fre- e campaign activities all week. Ribbon Week runs from positive bitt and the BLM are using to The Wilderness reinventory being conducted in Utah by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is so "flawed" that Babbitt is being sued to stop by a coalition of Utah groups, including Emery County. In a press conference Oct. 14 in Salt Lake City, The state of Utah, the Association of Counties, the School Trust Lands Board and subsequently the Utah Farm Bureau, joined to denounce Babbit's reinventory process and lack of public input into that process. Emery County Commissioner Kent Petersen read a statement at the conference, also attended by commissioner Randy Johnson and Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Hansen. Johnson said the press conference spoke to the purpose of the law suit and process Bab after recent floods and now allows photographers an op- portunity to capture these autumn colors in full reflection. Ribbon Week activities slated 19-2- 500 Castle Dale, Utah Norderstedt, Germany, and his companion, Julia Heilmann, 23, Quickborn, Germany. The travelers reported that the suspects talked about needing to obtain a less conspicuous vehicle and looking for a place to stay. An attempt to locate was issued throughout the state at approximately 6:40 p.m. Later on, at about 10:30 p.m., an off-dut- y Kane County sheriffs deputy reported he was driving behind a van matching the description of the one from the Crescent Junction incident. (Continued on Page 2AJ |