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Show ' K' , San Juan Vecorb HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER FOR SAN JUAN COUNTY, UTAH "Volume 87 Number 13" - SINCE 1915 50 cents December 24, 2003 4. Effort to honor Hole in Rock pioneers - See page 2 Early Christmas at MES 2A - See page 6 sports realign- ment - See Caveman, pg. 12 Holiday cheer hits La Sal - See page 16 Mikah Atalaya girl Michelle & Zemff Martinez November 28 Wichiana Rose girl Grant-Wabash- a Terri Grant December 12 girl Mokee & Maycee Michael Conway December 18 girl Glenms Rose Stacey & Ramon Barajas December 20 Gabriel Trace St. John Billie Jo St. John December 20 boy These kindergarten students at Monticello Elementary School are excited for the arrival of Santa Claus. Staff photo Monticello Monticello has 2,000 Citizens of Year The Monticello City Council took a break from tradition when they named all the resi- dents of Monticello as the Monticello Citizen of the Year. The award was announced at the annual Monticello High School holiday music concert. This is an amazing year, in which the citizens of Monticello facing another year of terrible drought cut their water use in - - half, said Monticello Mayor Scott Pehrson. Because of this, we named all residents as Citizens of the Year. The Monticello City Council faced a troubling situation as the summer of 2003 approached. Despite the fact that the snowpack level was close to normal, the city faced a severe water deficit. In fact, in December 2002, Loyds Lake, the citys water storage backup, was functionally empty. Instead of having limited restrictions, as in 2002, the city implemented severe watering restrictions in order to build back up the water storage reserves. Pehrson and the City Council said that the results were impressive, with water use plum- meting and reservoir levels increasing. According to figures recently released by the City of Monticello, city residents used an estimated 130 million gallons of water in 2003, a significant drop from 160 million in 2002, and 247 million in 2001. The decrease is most dramatic Road rage incident results in arrest A road ported rage incident was on December 15 on re- US-19- 1 about 20 miles north of Law enforcement officials state that a truck driver called 911 on his cell phone at 8 p.m. to report that he had been shot at by a passing vehicle. Monticello. in the secondary water system. The incident began when a City residents used 108 million gallons of secondary water in Chevrolet Blazer passed the 2001, 55 million gallons in 2002, truck and cut back in front of and 24 million gallons in 2003. him too quickly. The truck then The result is that Loyds Lake flashed high lights at the Blazer. For the next ten miles, the two is in much better shape going into this winter than it was in vehicles took turns passing each 2001. The amount of water in other, cutting each other off, Loyds Lake has increased from tailgaiting, trying to force each less than 300 in December, 2002 other off the road, and trying to to 640 in December, 2003. keep the passing vehicle from In total, the city pumped 15 returning to the travel lane. million gallons of water from The result was dangerous conditions for oncoming traffic. Loyds Lake into the water system in 2003. This compares to Approximately 10 miles after 79 million gallons in 2002 and the incident started, the suspect in the Blazer brandished an 5 82 million gallons in 2001. In 2003, 210 million gallons of gun at the diesel truck driver. water flowed off the mountain As the Blazer slowed down, the A-1- through the water treatment plant. City residents used 130, which means the city brought in 80 million more gallons of water than it used. This is in stark contrast to 2002, in which city residents used 170 million gallons of water and less than 100 million gallons came off the mountain. Blanding truck again passed when the suspect reached out the drivers window and fired at the truck. The San Juan County Sheriffs Office responded to the 911 call from the truck driver. A few minutes later, a call was received from the suspect driving the Blazer who stated he would pull over near the airport north of Monticello. When Sheriffs Deputies arrived, the Blazer could not be found. It was surmised that the Blazer had taken a dirt road to avoid law enforcement. San Juan County Sheriffs Monticello had 2" of snow and Blanding had a trace Dec. 15. ms deputies, assisted by the Monticello Police Department and Utah Fish and Game, combed the back roads looking for the Blazer. A second call was received from the Blazer stating his location and again said he would pull over and wait for law enforcement. The suspect was located and first denied any gun News Roundup Letters to Editor Society 2 4 6 8 10 17 18 19 Sports Community News Legals Classified Real Estate being used. However, he recanted and stated he had taken the dirt road because he was scared and had thrown the 5 over a fence in the snow. The suspect, Nugget Shupe, age 25 of Moab, was arrested and booked into the San Juan County Jail on charges of aggravated assault. 3ms(x$&G A-1- ose The San Juan Record will be closed for the holidays until January 2, 2004. The December 31, 2003 issue of the newspaper will be delivered accord- ing to the regular schedule. Have a great holiday season. December 22 snow report of water in 1 4" of snow. is multi-yeaverage. 2.6" 4.7" 0.0" 8.5" ar in 1989 is in 1985 is multi-yea- r low. multi-yea- r high. Current snow is 55 Snow is 1 of normal 1 6o of normal at La Sal |