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Show Serving East Juab County Volume 94, No. 14 - A Nice Place To Live! Wednesday, April 3, 1996 10 pages Single Copy Price 50tf Commission begins process of aquiring 24 acres of land adjacent to fairgrounds by eminent domain By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent Juab County Commissioners began the process of exerting eminent domain on approximately 24 acres of agricultur- MISS NEPHI Jennifer Wallace, center, has been crowned Miss Nephi 1996. She is the daughter ofOlani and Lorraine Wallace. First Attendant is Nikkii Truscott, left, daughter of Tom and Judy Truscott. Second Attendant is Stephanie Archibald, daughter of Robert and Shauna Archibald. al property adjacent to the county fairgrounds. Negotiations failed with Mr. Cliff Jensen. We were unwilling to acquiesce to Mr. Jensens demands, said Gordon Young, commission chair. The commission had preferred to negotiate and had hoped for an amicable resolution to acquiring the property, he said. The figure Jensen remained firm on was much higher than the appraisal of the property, said Young. The county commission had an appraisal of the property made by an independent appraiser. However, Jensen did not want the amount of money the appraiser had listed as fair market value. Commissioners also tried to trade Jensen for other agricultural land. That proposal also failed. We have the papers ready to file, said David Leavitt, county attorney. Do you want them filed? All three commissioners agreed that they were at an impasse and the step would be necessary in order to obtain the property. Expansion of the county fairgrounds has become necessary, they agreed. We are not seeking to build there for any profit for the county, said Joseph Bernini, commissioner. The addition of property and the additions to the county fairgrounds are needed as a service for the people. Ike Lunt, commissioner, said commis sioners understood Jensen was pre- pared to fight the call for eminent domain. He informed us that he had saved money to fight the decision. Juab County Commissioners agreed they prefer to consider each parcel of property contiguous to each municipality on a piece by piece basis as it is requested by developers and home builders. There are some places, such as Martinsville (located between Nephi and Mona) where the acreage requirement might be waved, said Gordon Young, commission chair. But much of the prime agricultural land is next to existing communities. Young said the commission agreed they would protect and maintain the Continued on page 10 Commission hears concerns over ordinance By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent Mike McPhilomy, a decorative stone miner who has a business in Nephi, told the Juab County Commission he is angry with a decision made by the Juab County Precinct Justice Court. He said the Bureau of Land Management should not have sent his case to the local court in the first place. That is mining law and mining law is federal law, he said. McPhilomy told commissioners he could sue the county but wanted to work with the commission and the county. He said, once a surface mining claim is filed the right to mine is the right of the claimant. It is your real estate, he said. All he needed to do each year, said McPhilomy, was do $100 worth of maintenance on the property and the assess ment work. In fact, he said, there was a discovery period on a mining claim in which an interested person has the right to do work on the property to find out if the property has the needed 90-da- ys mineral. He said that since 1872 the federal government had made the laws to govern mining. At question, said McPhilomy, was an ordinance which the county commission had adopted. It was a blanket ordinance presented by BLM officials and was meant to handle visitors and tourists, not miners. Part of the ordinance says that no person should willfully disturb public lands. This is no longer public land, said McPhilomy. Once a mining claim is filed the land becomes the real estate of the person who files the claim, he said. The federal law governing mining requires that such cases be sent to feder Employee trouble at Juab County? No, just April Fools By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent The agenda item was listed as County Building Employees (Grievances). Pat Greenwood, county clerk auditor, said she had no idea what the employees wanted to discuss with the commission. I have been left out, she said. One by one county officials and employees who have offices in the county building filed into commission chambers on April 1 for the scheduled agenda item. All wore solemn expressions and appeared to be in an unmood. friendly and business-lik- e Greg Sperry, county recorder, told commissioners he had been selected as spokesperson for the group. This has been going on for some time, said Sperry. The grievances the group had, he said, could no longer be put off and must now be addressed. With that, Sperry plunked down a file folder full of papers in front of each commission-e- r. We want you to read this,said Sperry. The first comment came from Joseph Bernini, commissioner. It was one of surprise and disbelief. Commissioner Ike Lunt and Gordon Young, commission chair, came at almost the same time. You are all crazy, said Young. that Young held up the last page of the folder. "April Fools! it With read, in capital letters. With that the employees had a good laugh and filed out The relieved commissioners were left to catch a breath before continuing with other agenda items. Pat had all four of us worried, said Lunt. She is a darned good actress. I was the most worried of all, said David Leavitt, county attorney. I didnt know a thing about it. I have an office in the county building and I had no idea what the grievances were about. I thought, Maybe it is about me. I thought, now what have I done, said Bernini. Young said the commission had faced many important issues in the past few months. He was totally unsuspecting, he said, until he began to sift through the file Sperry had presented to find it filled with blank paper, except for the last sheet. Lunt said he, too, was unsuspecting and was somewhat worried, especially when the employees began to enter commission chambers. They are all a bunch of good actors and actresses, he said. The commission was unsuspecting, he said, because they have faced so many important issues in the past several weeks. After a while you get punch drunk, he said. Greenwood said she was relieved the commissioners found the joke humorous. I kept saying to my husband all during the weekend, What if they dont think it is funny? I could be in big trouble, she said. After all, she confessed, the idea for the elaborate joke had been hers. Relieved, commissioners took a collective deep breath and addressed the nest agenda item a hearing for a conditional use permit. al court, not a justice court in a county, he said. The BLM was just trying to get the county to do its dirty work and BLM officers knew the federal court judges would consider the matter, in this case, a waste of the courts .time. Gordon Young, commission chair, looked over the ordinance and agreed with McPhilomy that it seemed the ordinance the county had adopted at BLMs request, did not apply to mining. It doesnt look to me like its aimed at mining, he said. He said the phrase otherwise authorized uses seemed to exempt mining. It looks to me like this doesnt apply to you, he said. Commissioner Joseph Bernini asked why, if the mining in question was done on BLM public lands, the county should be involved. Commissioner Ike Lunt said the commission would consult with the county attorney and find out what the legal interpretation of the wording was. That would still take some time, said Lunt. However, McPhilomy said he did not think David Leavitt, the county attorney, would be as familiar with mining law. He is not a mining law attorney, said McPhilomy. Such attorneys were expert in dealing with mining law and knew the law well. I have a large order, said McPhilomy. He said he needed to know what the county stand was going to be within a short period of time. I am losing money while I am waiting, he said. Your ordinance was adopted for visitor activities, he said. had fined McPhilomy on the charges. I found the way I read the law, said Williams. The fine would stand. McPhilomy has the right to appeal. Juab County Commissioners asked for a ruling from the county attorney on whether or not they were liable for an indigent burial expense when the indigent person had relatives in the area. You are not liable for the indigent burial, said David Leavitt, county attorney. The county would have accepted the cost of cremation of the person, said Gordon Young, county commission chair. Usually indigent in our county are cremated, he said. The cost of a cremation is approximately $200. Relatives requested the burial which came to a total of $1,255.84, said Leav itt. The indigent person died at a local motel, allegedly of suicide. Since the family is here, and made the request for the burial, the county should not be liable, said Leavitt. Juab County Commissioners ap- pointed Dr. Michael Peterson, Nephi, to sit on the Central Utah Health Board. Lloyd Olpin, local pharmacist, recently resigned from the Central Utah Health Board. Olpin was chairman of that board, said Gordon Young, commission chair. He resigned because of other recent conflicting positions. Peterson, he said, had been highly recommended to replace Olpin. The medical community, said Young, backed the appointment and Peterson was willing to accept the position. Nevertheless, Juab County Judge Sharia Williams, said she interpreted the law the way she had ruled and she Board member wants substitue pay increased By Myrna Trauntvein Times-New- s Correspondent Julie Smalley, Juab School District Board member, said she thinks the board should raise the pay of substitute teachers to make it worth while for subs to work in the classrooms of the dis- tricts schools. We do not always have enough substitute teachers available, said Smalley. In addition, she said, substitutes need to be trained and need to be responsible, caring people who are prepared to do a good job. Substitutes are not always backed up by administrators, she said. Do we have the lowest paid substitutes in the area? she asked. I am not sure there is an elastic relationship between price and quality Continued on page 10 BACK IN THE CREEK After many years the water wheel from the old grist mill on 1st South in Nephi was replaced in Salt Creek. Phil Baker, Nephi City Superintendent over Parks and Cemeteries, guides the wheel into the new race at Old Mill Park on Nephis Main Street. The wheel was lowered after power lines and phone lines were raised to clear the large backhoe belonging to Joe White. The lowering of the wheel drew quite a crowd that included kids aged 3 to 85 years of age. ) |