OCR Text |
Show i I I'M M s mi, ii 1SS 01) y.- -i iSM 'i in )( s m I At ON 20 years. See Page See page A12 B1 Single Copy 50 t WERtJML G! Care Center marks Dad reading night is big hit. Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Vernal, Utah 84078 111th Year No. 47 20 Pages SUPPORT OUR TROOPS Express online: vww.vernal.com lew coumfty mnniaseyinn) ir e c m mm e By Steven R. Wallis mi dl dl Express Editor Western A new Museum Heritage should tell the story of the area suggest museum planners hired by Uintah County. You have done a remarkable job with few resources with the present Western Heritage said Ann Museum, Butterfield, independent museum contractor during the noon Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce meeting. What we have found is there are some fabuwhich stories lous havent been fully told for residents and visitors, Butterfield said. and Butterfield tells of the Andrew Merriell began Storyteller Larry Cesspooch Ute PeP'e at Creator- - the and the of the study the community presentation of expansion Hpritnop Wpstpm for the Westem Herita9e MuSeum Museum last April at the Plans , request of the Uintah meeting about the museum. Since County Commissioners. The project with a then, the pair have conducted over conceptual public began Cyte Allen resigns irom Uintah School Board Dr. James F. Allen has resigned his position on the Uintah School District Board of Education as of Nov. 13. Allen recently moved outside the district that he was elected to represent. Elected to the school board in November of 2000, Allen was sworn in at the meeting on Jan. 9, 2001. Allen represents District 5, which is comprised of the Voting Precincts South No. 5, Southwest No. 26, and Vernal City No. 9, No. 10, and No. 13. Tod Tesar, current president of Uintah School District said, The Board of Education will miss Dr. Allen. He is truly an advocate for the students and employees of the Uintah School District. His main concern in every decision that faced the board was what is best for the kids. We wish him good luck in the future and thank him for his service to the students and employees of the district and the community. It is necessary that the Board of Education appoint a resident of District 5 to represent that area until a person can be elected in the fall of 2004. The appointee will serve on the board until the firs! meeting in January when elected board members will be sWom into office. Anyone residing in District 5 who is interested in serving on the Dr. James Allen Uintah School District Board of Education may submit a letter by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3. The letter should include qualifications and the reasons the applicant wants to serve as a school board member. Anyone with questions on the boundaries of District 5 may contact the district office at 78 At the Dec. 9 board meeting, all candidates will be invited to give a five minute presentation on their qualifications and goals for Uintah School District. The board will then select and appoint a replacement for Allen at that meeting. Independent museum contractors Anne Butterfield and Andy Merriell have presented their combined relocation of the Westem Heritage Museum. a lot concerning whether more money should be invested in the Westem Heritage Museum which is currently located in Westem Park. From out research we recommuseum which mend a story-base- d would attract families, Merriell said. Chapter one of the museum would be about the early people of the area. Other museum chapters would be exploration and discovery, turf and trade, heart of the Wild West and the settlement of the area. Guides for the trip through the museum could be an early Native American, John Wesley Powell, Butch Cassidy or other characters in the history of the Uintah Basin. Participants could belly up to the bar and talk with animated Wild West figures or take a simulated ride down the Green River with John Wesley Powell. The museums size would be about 23,000 square feet. The two the Uintah locations County Commissioners favor for the project, is a new building on the property where the new Utah Fieldhouse of Natural History is being built at about 400 East 100 South. The old location is the remodel of the present museum on Main Street once the state moves to its new museum location. We the are recommending remodel of the old museum, said Merriell. Cost of the project is projected at $9.8 million to $11.5 million with an annual operating cost of $400,000 and $470,000. Merriell 25 interviews and have done of research PeOay ir2gimesftedl By Steven R. Wallis lf Express Editor Before Mike Leavitt left the line-of-sig- gov- ernors office, he wrote a letter to the Bureau of Land Management asking them to delay action on 15 wells located south of the White River near the Colorado border in Uintah County. The governors concern about the proposed well sites is that they are inside the White River recreational corridor. Another letter to the BLM from the Utah State Attorney Generals office respectfully disagrees with the governors assessment. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff strongly urged the agency to t Leavitts letter. COPY The corridor, which is land w ithin one-hamile of the White River or is to new oil and gas leases. The proposed gas wells leases are two to four miles south of the White River. One of the proposed wells is on State Land. The BLM has received a couple of different letters from the State of Utah offering dueling perspectives on the Resource Development Groups natural gas development project in the Uintah Basin, said Bill Stringer, acting Vernal Field Office Manager. This confusion provides further evidence of how complex public land issues can be when wilderness is involved, especially when misinformation or only half the story off-limi- ts study for the expansion and said there are federal grants available for the construction of the museum. The revenue from the museum will pay 45 to 50 percent of the cost to operate the museum. Parking at the old museum presents a problem, but Merriell said that the facility is projecting 40,000 to 60,000 visitors a year. With that number of visitors, it is recommended that there be 40 to 60 parking spaces. Currently there are 32 parking spaces available for the museum. Parking is a concern which has some of the county commissioners supporting the construction of a new building near the Dinosaur Museum, Merriell said. If everything goes as planned, the museum could be built in 2.5 years, Butterfield said. Commissioner Jim Abegglen said he believed the cost of the museum would be less by remodeling the existing building. "We could build it for $4 million to $6 million, he said. The museum would employ at the most, 10.8 full time equivalents or e at the least eight equivalents. The couple also recommended that the Westem Heritage Museum be merged with the Regional History Center at the Uintah full-tim- County Library. The two would go well together, Merriell said. odd dinflQDDDg makes it into print, Stringer said. Stringer said that if the state was really concerned about wilderness near the White River, it wouldnt continue to offer oil and gas leases on state land within the corridor. The 15 wells proposed in one of the our alternatives being considered for the project are not located along the White River corridor. The states comments on project came six weeks after the closure of the public comment period, but still will be considered in the final decision in February. If approved, these wells would be located two to five miles away and would not be visible from the river, Stringer said. More importantly, the BLM agrees with the former governor that the White th presents the proposed county budget. $29.5 million budget proposed for 2004 By Maureen Spencer Express Writer Uintah County Commissioners heard from County clerk-auditMichael W. Wilkins Tuesday that the proposed 2004 County budget proposal River corridor is a recreational jewel that warrants protection. Nearly 20 years ago, the BLM established a protective management regime on federal land along the White River. Stipulations stemfrom the BLMs 1984 ming resource management plan prohibit wells from being located within a from the half a mile or river. OHVs are also prohibited within the corridor. If the State of Utah is serious about protecting the outstanding opportunities for river recreation, hiking and the like along the White River, they should curb the type of development occurring near the confluence of Bitter Creek and consider adopting well placement and construction protocols similar to ht Michael Wilkins those in place on neighboring BLM lands, Stringer said. We welcome the opportunity to work with our State partners to come up with a comprehensive river corridor management plan, Stringer concluded. The proposed wells are among Denver-base423 wells the Resource Management Group proposed to drill in the 8(),(X)0-acr-e project area near the Colorado bord der. The project would require the construction of an additional 4.5 miles of new roads. Wilderness groups are opposing the wells because it might preclude the areas from being considered by Congress for permanent wilderness would come in at $29,568,940. Funding for next years budget comes from a variety of sources, including taxpayers, grants and repayment of existing expenditures. Proposed general fund requirements would total $10,693,200. General fund budgeting includes a $2,784,400 road department budget, a $1,580,300 jail complex budget and a $634,700 county attorneys budget. In the budget fund summary revHealth enues, TnCounty Department requested $2,657,000; municipal services funds came in at $2,319,400; the County Library, $830,100; Uintah Care Center would total expenditures and $1,377,000; preliminary Municipal Building Authority came in at $1,879,000. The full preliminary Uintah County 2(X)4 budget is available at the Uintah County office in the Uintah County Court House. Commissioners praised the many department heads who had worked on the new budget. Commissioner Dave Haslem commented that this budget process Clerk-Audito- rs See Budget on A4 . |