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Show O 6A Emery County Progress, Castle Dale, Utah - Tuesday, December 8, 1998 Wilderness issues require more consideration I have been told the Emery County d in the Progress has become wilderness issue and perhaps I need to learn more about wilderness and what it is all about. I agree, I do need to understand the wilderness issue more, and yes, my lack of wilderness education does make the articles I am trying to create a newspaper that serves its readers, and the majority of the readers do not favor wilderness. I know there are some among my readers who do favor wilderness and as I learn I hope to bring things more in one-side- one-side- line. I took the time last week to prepare an article regarding wilderness what it is and how much the state appears to have. Everything I included in the article I found on the Internet on the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Utah Wilderness Coalition websites. It is my opinion that the most unfortunate thing about the whole wilderness debate is the large amount of money it is costing. It is costing taxpayer money, and it is costing individuals their mQney also money they give as donations to try to secure wilderness or defeat it. When the wilderness issue started in Utah in 1990, the BLM found 1.9 million acres of the land qualified for wilderness designation. Maybe that could have been enough wilderness for Utah, and maybe the whole debate could have ended there saving a lot of money, but environmentalists and others remain convinced more wilderness could be saved. These organizations asked for more support from individuals to help them fight for more wilderness and they got it. More citizens joined in the fight for wilderness, and their money, along with taxpayers money continued to be spent on the wilderness debate. Other groups were formed, such as The Bureau of Land Management Emery Countys Public Lands Counto for to look manage public (BLM) has spent more than $10 milways cil, lands that would benefit all concerned. lion, an amount that does not include the money spent by the state, local Land preservation decisions must consider the relationship between the land government, business and the general and the local economy. Many rural public. In Oct. of this year Governor Leavitt jobs are tied to public lands in mining, before the Utah Cabinet contourism. and appeared agriculture Counwilderness debate. the Members of the Public Lands cerning He said, ...This debate is becoming cil have asked SUWA and the Utah Wilderness Coalition representatives increasingly complicated and deeply.1 and emotional. It is dividing our people.. to come table to the times many in discuss public lands Emery County. have concluded that we must redirect our course. Years of dealing with these To date, they have never came. Inwildera 1996 launched in problems have led me to a key conclustead, they sion: Utahns share a common love of ness lands wild the land. There is a disagreement on Volunteers inventoried how to protect sensitive lands but a where human impacts had previously been overestimated in their opinion, common desire to preserve them. For decades our efforts have revolved or where erosion and vegetation around our conflicts. It is time to build unused had obscured faint, growth 1996 on what unites us. vehicle tracks. As a result of the for asked Emery County officials offered some designate they wilderwilderness designation in their Naof 5.7 million acres in Utah as tional Heritage and Conservation Area ness. Maybe this would have been enough bill. They were, and still are, willing wilderness designation for Utah. The talk about wilderness designation, but wilderness activists had came up with wilderness groups as of yet have been this amount, but in 1996 President unwilling to meet with them and try to find a balanced solution for all conClinton established the Grand National Monument cerned. After all these years and all the and fueled the fire for even more wimoney that has been spent isnt it lderness designation. And still, more money has been about time to quit arguing and take some beginning steps? spent. Activists have continued to purof wiadvocates need to admit that sued an aggressive lderness on lands managed by the some wilderness is needed and wilderBLM. As a result, theyve identified ness advocates need to admit that to nearly three million additional acres wilderness is not the only solution a start be will of land. It a of wild places. The groups believe protection total of 8.5 million acres or 38 percent and can be built on from there, step by of the 22 million acres of land in Utah step. Maybe everyone could begin to to find a managed by the BLM - are worthy of trust each other and try ulconcerned Will all solution. parties wilderness protection. Each time they inventory wilderness timately agree on everything? Perthe amount of land qualifying for des- haps not. But time and weaving a us a long ignation goes up and the amount of pattern of trust will take well. way. money being spent goes up as te Anti-wilderne- Crime Prevention: Its No laughing Matter A ARP 1995. A Public Service Presenlation requires further analysis income in 1997 and 1996 were service charges on deposit Dear Editor: This letter is regarding a letter written to you De-by Delynn Fielding, dated cember 1, 1998. As a point of clarification, it appears that not all of the data referred to by Fielding came from the mternet. The accounts, other service charges, commission and fees... 3. information regarding the credit unions did come from the internet and represents the 1997 Year End Call Re- port that all credit unions must file with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) . The Zions Bancorporation data comes from their 1997 Annual Report. Regarding Fees. The information obtained from the NCUA website is accurately portrayed in the letter. The name of the account is Fee Instraight forward come. Getting this information from the Zions annual report is not quite so simple. The data in the letter referred me to pages 54 & 55. There un- der the heading of Income is a sub Non-Intere- st ac- count entitled Service charges on deposit accounts. Using this figure, along with the year end con- solidated deposit figures, Fielding accurately calculated the fee to deposit ratio. At this point, Fielding has a great argument Zions fee ratio is less than credit unions. How do I counter such facts? While reading on page 31 of the annual report, I came across the following sentences which made me want to look a bit closer at the financial statements: Primary contributors to the increase in non-intere- Deposit service charges ..in 1997 and increased 24. 21.8 in 1996 reflecting continued expansion of the Companys deposit base as well as price adjustments. Other service charges, commissions and fees were..., an increase of 33.4... After reading these sentences, is it fair to use only one of those categories in making a fee to deposit calculation? I would suggest that we might add the other service charges, commissions and fees to the mix. Now, we can change Zions .638 ratio to 1.20. Finally, on page 55 of the annual report, the very first income line is entitled interest and fees on loans. A scenario a bank and a credit union book a mortgage loan. st Each of them charges a doing the loan, etc. Zions appears to book the interest and fee into the above account. The credit union would book the fee into their fee income account. When I view the credit union data, all fees are in one place. When I view the bank data, a vigilant search must be conducted to see where all of the fees are actually accounted for. Again, on page 30, footnote 2 refers to fees as it relates to interest income. Now, we can change Zions 1.20 to ???? $1,000 fee for Regarding Salaries and Benefits. When it comes to employees, banks and credit unions should be paying about the ( Continued on page 8 A) Ditto on further analysis Dear Editor: The letter written by Mr. Delynn Fielding concerning bank vs credit union issues in response to the article written by Cole Clarke I believe needs some clarification. Having' been a former banker I can speak to both sides of the issue and can tell you that there are distinct differences The letter also disputed Mr. Clarkes assertion that the salaries of bank official were higher than credit unions indicating that Zions Bank salaries and benefits structure was lower than credit union salaries and benefits structure. However, noticeably absent from Mr. Fieldings assertion was the between banks and credit fact that Zions Bank gross unions. Fielding challenges the fee structure of credit unions in relation to his bank, Zions Bank, indicating that credit Mr. unions charge higher fees than banks. What was missing from this assertion is that two additional lines of fees e schemes. Though legitimate cottage industries do exist, be certain your efforts and costs are Beware of in your home and what permits or licenses comparable to the benefits. Ascertain if you can legally operate a business are required from the appropriate local government agency with issuing authority. work-at-hom- I V Youre Dog-Gon- e Wright Doug Wright, Progress Columnist and charges on the Zions annual statement were omitted from the calculation. If those figures were included the ratio calculated on of fees to deposits would be almost double the .638 indicated in his letter. In addition, if large commercial account deposits who are not service charged are removed from the ratio, was all fun and games until the door got locked It was tradition, when I was in high school to set a day aside in the Spring for what was known as Spring Cleanup Day. During that day, all classes were suspended and the day was spent sprucing up the school and the grounds. That evening, there would be a dance held, possibly to celebrate the fact that the unpleasant task, of cleaning up the school, was over and done for another year. The same tradition still held the in high school. year I was a Junior one exception to However, there was were three There usual routine. the young men who decided the cleanup part of the cleanup day was not for them. The three were Merrill Scow, V Calvin Cox, and. ..you might know ber. Once the group was found, it was easy to appear busy for a while. The it. ..Doug Wright. working members of the group were Yeah, yeah. I know. Some of you are too was if now there any that busy to really pay any attention saying right us. to a mischievous was of it of that part There wasnt any really satisfying nature, I was sure to be included in on it. Actually, I stayed pretty clean relaxation on our part, however, bemember could during those school years. But... oh cause we knew a faculty well. You probably wouldnt believe it, show up at any moment. We had to if I elaborated on that subject, so, be prepared to casually move away from that group, to our next haven well forget that. without us decided of being snagged by those in the three Anyway, there would not be any work for us authority, and put on a work detail. Part of the morning was gone, and that particular day. For a time, we werp able to slip from one work group we had successfully moved to and to another without being noticed. We from several groups. Our movement would try to pick the groups that had taken us around the school and (Continued on page 7A) were unsupervised by a faculty mem competitors gross revenue the ratio of salaries and benefits will also be lower. Zions as well as the other larger banks in this state have centralized operations that provide economies of scale, i.e. bookkeeping, VISA, loan centers, and data processing to name a few. These centralized groups within the bank provides services for all of the branches in their rethe ratio would be even spective system of banks. (Continued on page 8A) higher. VOICE OF EMERY COUNTY SINCE Kevin Ashby Publisher Linda Thayn . Office Manager Darla Lee Circulation Advertising Jenni Fasselin Dana Behling Cole Clarke 1 900 Editorial Administration It revenue is huge in relation to any credit union in the state. In fact, Zions Bank has been identified as being in the top 5 or 6 banks in the country for return on assets. If the gross revenue is higher than the Display Classified Legal Doris Quinn Editor Cole Clarke Assistant Editor . Betty Bailey ... Correspondent Staff writer Kattie Quinn Office Dana Behling Receptionist Subscription Rates: 50 cents per copy; $21 per year delivered by currier in Carbon and Emery counties; $25 in Utah; $29 out of Utah per year by mail. Office Hours: Monday 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.; closed Tuesday; Wednesday Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 190 East Main, Castle Dale, Utah. Classifieds Deadline: Monday at 10:00 a.m. for Tuesdays publication. Fax (435) newsf" ecprogress.com issued once a week at Castle Dale, (USPS 0747-2129- ) Utah. Periodical postage paid at Castle Dale, Utah. Postmaster: Send change of address to EO. Box 589, Castle Dale, UT 84513. Telephone: (435) Publication No: All right reserved by the Emery County Progress. All is property of Emery County Progress. No part herein may be reproduced without .prior written consent. |